A private chef dinner in Chianti, at the villa you rented

Roberto drives up from Siena to the villa or country house you rented in Chianti, whether it stands above Castellina, Radda or Gaiole or farther north toward Panzano and Greve. He cooks a dinner of three or four courses in its kitchen, from the menu you picked, and brings it to your table. The whole district lies within the 1.5 hours of driving from Siena that the price includes, and the travel is worked out from your exact address.

from€100 per person

Minimum €500

Book

Yellow and green ravioli with cherry tomatoes, a basil sauce and a single basil leaf, on a dark blue plate.

Where Roberto first ran a kitchen on his own, and how long the drive takes

In November 1998, at twenty-two, Roberto was the sole cook at a restaurant in Radda in Chianti, responsible for every pasta and every main course: his first job with nobody above him to ask. Since then he has cooked dozens of private dinners in the villas of these hills. From Siena, Castellina and Gaiole are about half an hour by car, Radda about forty minutes, Panzano and Greve a little under an hour. Those are daylight figures. After nightfall the same lanes twist between vineyards and woods, and the return trip is slower, so Roberto allows for it when he plans his day. He reaches the house by mid-afternoon with the ingredients, and the exact address you give when you reserve keeps that timing honest.

Special requests

Private chef in Siena Private chef near Florence, Italy Private chef in Val d'Orcia

What a rented kitchen in these hills tends to lack

The stove is rarely the trouble. What a vacation kitchen around here most often lacks are the things a dinner for a group needs all at once: a stockpot, a couple of sturdy skillets, mixing bowls and serving platters. Before confirming, Roberto asks about the hob, the oven, the fridge and the work space, which allows him to plan the work in that kitchen and decide what equipment to bring.

Two things make that conversation quick. A photograph of the kitchen taken with the cupboard doors open shows at a glance what is there and what is missing. And if the company you rented through emailed you an inventory of the property, forward it: Roberto then knows days in advance what equipment to bring. The eating side deserves the same attention. A big outdoor table under a vine-covered arbor is a lovely spot for dinner, but count chairs, place settings and wineglasses against the number of guests beforehand, not while the antipasto sits waiting.

Medallions of beef fillet over sautéed button mushrooms, a sprig of parsley on each, waiting in a row on a terracotta mosaic.

Pale violet risotto with two shards of cheese and one long chive, in an embossed porcelain dish resting on marble.

Small cups of a cocoa-dusted dessert on a blue tray, in a room with an old wooden window open onto green trees.

Where the name Chianti turns up on the menu

There is no special Chianti menu: the dishes are the same wherever Roberto cooks, and you choose them. One of them, though, carries the name of these hills because the wine goes into the pan. In a risotto al Chianti the rice is cooked with red wine, which gives it its color and a faint sharpness under the cheese. For a second course from that list, tagliata di vitellone is young beef, sliced and served with seasonal produce. Roberto does the shopping for you: the groceries are paid separately on the day of the dinner, at cost (usually from about €50 in total). He chooses, on the day, whatever looks finest and freshest.

Addresses, not suppliers: Roberto neither sells nor brings wine. On a bottle from these hills, a black rooster printed on the neck marks a Chianti Classico, the wine of the historic district between Florence and Siena. If you would like to see where the modern recipe began, the Ricasoli family has been linked to Castello di Brolio, near Gaiole, since 1141, and its wine shop below the castle lets you sample the estate's labels. It was a Ricasoli, Baron Bettino, who in the 1800s wrote down the blend that made Chianti a Sangiovese wine. Whatever you carry back from that visit can go straight onto the dinner table.

Slices of almond cantucci cooling on a lined baking tray.

What guests wrote afterward

These come from the Google listing. It does not record which house a review was written in, so we do not sort them by area and we do not claim they were left here.

★★★★★Natalie Hobbs · July 2025 · on Google
Chef roberto cooked us an amazing meal and was very accommodating to last minute changes for dietary restrictions and number of people. I will using him again.
★★★★★Jacob Ringer · April 2025 · on Google
Roberto, was friendly, professional,and prepared a gourmet meal in our basic kitchen. They dealt with five children and four adults with ease and delivered an amazing meal. It truly made our guest of honors milestone birthday special.
★★★★★Rebecca Tefera · September 2026 · on Google
The most delicious meal I’ve ever had, best meal in Italy.

Read all the reviews on Google

What people ask before a dinner in Chianti

The house belongs to someone else. Who clears a private chef with the landlord?

You do, as the person reserving, and the Terms spell it out: by reserving you confirm that Roberto may legally enter the property, that whoever owns it has agreed wherever agreement is required, and that the kitchen and the other spaces used for the dinner are available to him. In practice it takes one email to the landlord or to the management company. Mention the date, that a chef will cook and serve a meal in the kitchen, and that he stays from mid-afternoon until the last pan is dry and back in the cupboard. Read the Terms

What is the story behind the Palio, and behind the black rooster on the wine?

Siena's Palio, run around the Campo, is documented from 1633; a second running was added in 1701, and the districts' boundaries were fixed in 1729. Chianti's own history grew out of the same rivalry between Siena and Florence. Around 1250, Castellina, Gaiole and Radda formed the Lega del Chianti, and its emblem was a black rooster. A well-known legend says the border between the two republics was settled by two horsemen who set off at the first cockcrow: the Florentines kept their rooster hungry in the dark, it crowed early, and their man met the Sienese one at Fonterutoli, only about 12 kilometers (some 7 miles) from Siena. It is a tale rather than a record, but it is the one people tell when that wine is poured.

Our villa is near Greve. Is that Chianti, or Florence?

Both, in a way. Chianti spans the border between the provinces of Siena and Florence: Castellina, Radda, Gaiole and Castelnuovo Berardenga are on the Sienese side, while Greve and Panzano belong to the Chianti Fiorentino, which the Florence dinner page covers as well. For the dinner the label makes no difference. Travel is included up to 1.5 hours of driving from Siena, every one of these places lies within it, and the calculation starts from the exact address rather than the name of the district.

Where are the open-air food stalls for the days we cook for ourselves?

Two small street markets are easy to fit in before noon: Castellina in Chianti every Saturday, on Via IV Novembre, and Panzano on Sundays. Both wind down by midday, so arrive early. For everything else there are the grocery stores in the bigger villages, and Roberto's method works anywhere: find what arrived most recently, then decide what to cook.

What happens if it rains on the night of an outdoor dinner?

The table moves indoors, to the spot you agreed with Roberto while arranging the evening: a living room, a covered loggia, the big kitchen table. Every course is cooked in the kitchen in any case, so the menu stays the same; only the trip from stove to table gets quicker. Choose that indoor spot in advance rather than at 7 p.m., when the clouds are already rolling over the ridge.

What a dinner costs in Chianti

Travel is included within 1.5 hours of Siena and calculated from the exact address under the published travel rule. Prices are per person with the total alongside: choosing the menu with you, the cooking, the service and the kitchen left clean. Roberto does the shopping for you: the groceries are paid separately on the day of the dinner, at cost (usually from about €50 in total).

La Tavola Toscana The Tuscan dinner, three courses	from€100 per person
La Cena di Roberto The Tuscan dinner, four courses	from€115 per person
Toscana d'Autore The signature dinner, four courses	from€130 per person

Book a dinner in Chianti

Book Private Chef

Prefer a class? Cooking classes in Chianti