French chef · Queenstown & the Southern Lakes

Private chef in Queenstown.
Some occasions deserve more than a restaurant.

Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and family gatherings —

in the villa or home you’ve chosen for your stay.

25+ years as a chef · 10+ years as a private chef · 16 years in Queenstown · ★★★★★ 5.0 guest rating

Private dining & celebrations · Queenstown

The best table in Queenstown might already be yours.

Birthdays, anniversaries, a milestone worth marking, or a Saturday when friends are finally all in the same place — the evening usually starts with trying to find somewhere that will take you. I’d rather bring it to you.

As a private chef, I cook in homes and villas across Queenstown, Arrowtown, Wanaka and the Southern Lakes. For people here on holiday, and just as often for people who live here.

French roots · Queenstown home

From Bordeaux to your Queenstown table

I grew up in Bordeaux and trained in France, in kitchens where technique was not negotiable. By twenty-three I was running a brigade of fifteen and up to four hundred covers a night. Then ships around the Mediterranean, the Pacific, and eventually a one-way flight to New Zealand.

Queenstown was meant to be a season. Sixteen years later I am still here — Executive Chef at Crowne Plaza, then Head Chef at The Millhouse at Millbrook, and for the last decade cooking privately in homes and villas across the Southern Lakes.

Private dining in Queenstown

What a restaurant cannot give you

The food is the easy part. Everything below is what changes the evening.

The best room is the one you’re already in

A villa above the lake, the light going down over the Remarkables. No restaurant in town can give you that view — or that table for as long as you want it.

In townWhatever room they can seat twelve of you in.

The evening works around the children

They can join dinner, eat earlier, head upstairs when they’re ready, or come back down for dessert. No babysitter to organise, and no need to make the whole evening fit around a restaurant booking.

In townBedtime and dinner rarely run to the same schedule.

The room stays yours alone

No neighbouring table, no one glancing over. For some guests that’s a preference. For others it’s the reason they call.

In townThe next table close enough to hear every word.

There is no last seating

Restaurants run on turning tables. Here the evening ends when the conversation does — sometimes four hours after it started.

In townThe table is needed back by nine thirty.

Your cellar, your wine, no corkage

The bottles you carried back from the cellar door, opened at your own table — and a menu written around them rather than against a wine list.

In townTheir list, and a corkage fee if you bring your own.

Nobody has to drive home

No one on water all night. No taxi at midnight. No car left in town to collect the next morning.

In townSomeone has to get everyone home.

Cooking with the season — Central Otago produce · New Zealand seafood

Menus guided by what’s best now

How the evening takes shape

From the first message to the last plate, three steps and very little for you to do.

The conversation

Tell me the date, how many are coming, and what the evening is for.

Your menu, written

Nothing off a set list. Built around the season, the room, and anyone who cannot eat something.

The evening itself

I arrive with everything, cook in your kitchen, and leave it as I found it.

Not sure where to start?

Tell me what the evening is for.

Every booking is different. Pick the one that sounds most like yours, and I’ll take it from there.

Just one evening?

A dinner at the house you’ve booked. I cook, serve, and leave the kitchen spotless.

Private Dining

Here for the week?

Breakfasts, dinners and the days in between, planned around your stay.

Private Chef

Getting married?

Elopements and intimate weddings — the part of the day where you finally sit down.

Weddings

Marking a milestone?

Anniversaries and birthdays, planned quietly by you, remembered for years.

Anniversaries

Want to learn?

Cook alongside me in your own kitchen. Technique you keep, not just a recipe.

Cooking Classes

Still not sure? Tell me about your evening and I’ll suggest the right fit.

Based in Queenstown, I cook in villas and homes across Queenstown, Arrowtown, Lake Hayes, Jack’s Point and selected Southern Lakes locations by arrangement.

What People Say

A year of evenings, in seventy seconds

Filmed across Queenstown and the Southern Lakes — the landscape, the kitchens, and the tables in between.

1:15 · Sound on

Book your experience

Start with the date. I reply the same day with a menu and a price, and the date is held while you decide.

Worked With

Serving Queenstown, Wanaka and the wider Southern Lakes. Whether you are staying in a private villa, holiday home or luxury lodge, I bring a refined dining experience to your door.

Private chef in Queenstown.
Some occasions deserve more than a restaurant.

The best table in Queenstown might already be yours.

From Bordeaux to your Queenstown table

What a restaurant cannot give you