Dinner, cooked on your own stove.
A private chef in your kitchen for two to twelve, and shared tables of up to eighty in homes and halls. Halal-friendly and alcohol-free, across Adelaide from Brighton.
Tell us what your kitchen has, and we'll plan the evening round it.
resting, lid onSauce
warm, lid onFlatbreads, two pans
under a tea towel
At 7:30: everything to the table.
3:55, we knock. Twelve at 7:30, with four burners and one oven. The lamb braises on a back burner, because your oven's needed for the cake and then the pumpkin. The flatbreads go in two pans at the end, so they come to the table warm.
The menu in this plan is illustrative. Yours is worked out on the phone the week before.
The plan, in words
| Dish | Where | From | Until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamb shoulder, braised with garlic and rosemary | Back burner | 4:25 | 7:30 |
| Apple and almond cake | Oven, 180° | 5:50 | 6:30 |
| Roast pumpkin and carrots | Oven, 220° | 6:35 | 7:30 |
| Rice, in two pots | Two pots, two burners | 6:40 | 7:10 |
| Tomato and capsicum sauce | Back burner | 7:00 | 7:30 |
| Flatbreads | Two pans, two burners | 7:10 | 7:30 |
Worked out from 1,090 ways of fitting it in.
In your kitchen from the afternoon.
We arrive in the afternoon with the shopping, our knives and two steel pans, and ask where you keep the big pot. By five you'll smell the braise before you hear us. The rice goes on as the first guests are parking, and the flatbreads come off the pan one at a time, straight under a tea towel so they stay soft.
Two burners and an oven with a temper are fine: we plan round whatever your kitchen has. You stay with your guests. We bring the dishes to the table, pass the second helpings round, and tell you when there's more bread.
The week before.
Every dinner starts with a phone call, and most of it is questions. Three of them decide the rest.
What would you like to eat?
Family dishes are welcome: we cook them with you, or leave room on the table for yours.
Who's coming?
No meat, no heat, no nuts or dairy; older guests and fussy eaters, all at the one table.
What does your kitchen have?
Working burners, one oven or two, gas or induction, a pot big enough for rice for twelve, and some bench space.
From the answers we write the menu, and a plan for your stove, so nothing waits and everything comes to the table hot.
Stretched
to fit
your
table.
Flatbreads come with every dinner: stretched on the bench until the light comes through, cooked one at a time in a hot dry pan, then straight under a tea towel so they stay soft.
Pull the dough. It stays where you leave it.
Cleaner than we found it.
- Pans washed and back where they live.
- Cooktop wiped and the rings lifted.
- Leftovers boxed and labelled with the day.
- Bins out, if you'd like.
We bring our own knives, boards, two steel pans, our tea towels and containers for the leftovers. Of yours we use the stove, the oven, the sink and a shelf of the fridge, and we ask before we open a cupboard.
Up to eighty, at one long table.
Ten trestles end to end, four places a side on each. We set them from the kitchen end, and the dishes go down the middle.
Shared, not plated
Big dishes go down the middle of the trestles and get passed hand to hand, so people serve each other and nobody waits for a plate.
Homes and halls
We look at the hall's kitchen first and bring what it lacks: portable burners, insulated carriers, serving dishes and enough big spoons.
Help on the day
A second cook in the kitchen, and people to serve and clear, so you can sit down with everyone else.
Lead time
The earlier you ask, the more we make fresh on the day, and the more of it comes out of the pan hot.
What goes in the pot.
Halal-friendly from the butcher to the plate.
- We buy our meat and chicken halal, and can show you where it's from.
- Desserts set with cornflour or agar.
- Sauces and glazes built on stock, citrus and vinegar; vanilla from the pod.
- Keep a halal kitchen? We'll bring our own pans and utensils.
Allergies: we plan round them and keep that dish apart, but we can't promise a kitchen free of every trace.
Questions people ask.
My kitchen is small. Will that work?
Usually. We need a burner or two, a little bench and somewhere to put a hot pot down, and we plan the menu round the rest.
My oven runs hot.
Most do. Tell us on the call and we'll cook to it, or give the oven the jobs that don't mind.
We cook on induction.
That's fine: we bring pans that work on it.
Who does the shopping?
We do, the day before and on the morning, and it comes with us in the afternoon.
How far do you travel?
Across Adelaide, and out to the near Hills and along the coast, from Brighton. If you're further out, ask anyway.
Can our guests help?
Of course. Someone always ends up stretching flatbreads with us.
Do you only cook dinners?
No: breakfasts, iftar dinners and long lunches too.
Can you bring help for a big table?
Yes. For bigger gatherings we bring a second cook, and people to serve and clear.
What does it cost?
It depends on the menu and how many are coming. We'll give you a price after the call.
How far ahead should we ask?
A few weeks for a dinner at home, and longer for a hall. If it's sooner, ask: we'll see what we can do.
A table for
Eight at a table with rounded ends, the way we'd lay it in most dining rooms.