Private dining Essex
Professional Private Dining in Essex A restaurant evening, at home.
Professional private dining in Essex, in your own kitchen — bespoke courses cooked fresh, served to your table, and the kitchen left spotless.
Essex is home ground. We are based in Bishops Stortford, minutes from the county line, and a large share of our private dining evenings are cooked in Essex homes — Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow, Thaxted, Stansted, Chelmsford, Braintree, Colchester and the villages in between. Most of these are a short drive rather than a journey, which means longer on the food and a calmer arrival.
We also cook publicly in the county. Our pop-up evenings at Goose in Saffron Walden and tapas nights at The Black Lion in High Roding are cooked by the same two people who would arrive at your front door, so you can taste the food before you book us privately.
Professional private dining in Essex tends to fall into two shapes: relaxed countryside entertaining in period homes and barn conversions, where sharing-style tapas and live fire suit the space, and polished seated dinners in newer village and commuter-belt houses around Chelmsford and Brentwood. Both work — we plan the format around your kitchen, your table and how you like to host.
Because nothing is packaged, your menu is written for your evening: three courses, five courses, a tasting menu, or sharing-style tapas drawn from James's specialist training in Spain. Dietary requirements are planned in from the start rather than worked around on the night.
Ideal for
Where this service works best
Countryside & barn homes
Milestone birthdays
Anniversary dinners
Tapas & sharing evenings
The details
What to expect
Menus, planned with you
Every menu is designed around your occasion, your venue and your guests, and agreed with you before the date is confirmed. Our sample menus are a starting point rather than a set list.
Allergies & dietary needs
Dietary requirements are taken seriously — Amy personally lives with a nut allergy. Please share full details early so we can plan what can safely and practically be accommodated.
Tableware & equipment
We can provide a limited amount of crockery and cutlery depending on the size of your event, and work with a trusted hire company for larger bookings or specific tableware.
Numbers & pricing
Minimum six guests, comfortably up to around 100 depending on the format and kitchen available. Pricing is by quotation only, and transparent before you commit.
Why book us in Essex
Essex questions, answered
Which parts of Essex do you cover?
All of it. We cook most often in north and mid Essex — Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow, Thaxted, Stansted, Chelmsford, Braintree and Colchester — and travel to south Essex, the coast and the Essex/Suffolk border for events of any size.
Is there a travel charge in Essex?
For most of Essex, no. We are based in Bishops Stortford, right on the border, so travel is rarely a factor. Anything unusually distant or late-finishing is discussed and agreed in your quotation before you commit.
Can we try your food before booking privately in Essex?
Yes. We run ticketed pop-up evenings in the county, including at Goose in Saffron Walden and The Black Lion in High Roding. Upcoming dates are listed on our pop-up events page.
Will our Essex kitchen be big enough?
Almost always. We have cooked full menus out of small cottage kitchens and barn conversions with no oven at all. We check the space, power and worktop available when we plan the menu, and bring our own equipment where needed.
Serving Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, The Cotswolds and further afield for larger events. More practical detail is on our FAQs, or see the full range of private catering services.
Over the border in our home county, we also cook professional private dining in Hertfordshire.
Planning ahead? Read Read our guide: what to expect when you book private dining.