Previously, the idea of hiring a personal chef seemed to be a luxury that would just never be in our tight budget! I mean, does anything get more glamorous and fancy than hiring your own chef to cook you dinner!? Then I heard about Kitchit. Kitchit is a San Francisco-based company (currently with services only offered in San Francisco) that brings personal chefs into your home to do the cooking, often for less than you would spend at a restaurant! We decided to host our first dinner party in our new apartment.
I love hosting dinner parties. Heck, hosting pretty much anything in general! I really don’t need an excuse, whether it be having friends over for a fancy cheese and wine night or to enjoy the bounty of our backyard lemon tree. 
I really enjoy cooking (obviously!), but with my crazy schedule I sometimes don’t have the whole day to shop, prep and cook that a dinner party requires. The idea of a personal chef coming in and doing all of that for us sounded so appealing!
When I looked at the cost of Kitchit, which starts at $39 per person (and $50 off your first meal with this link, it’s around what we usually spend on a date out for a three course meal. In fact, because we got to provide our own wine (Cultivar, of course), we probably saved money! It was just as easy as booking a date for Kitchit Tonight on their website – even for the same day!
All day leading up to our dinner party, I kept having that feeling of pre-event panic. You know, that “Oh crap, what did I forget?” feeling? Then I realized that I really didn’t have anything to worry about! I wrote some blog posts, cleaned out my closet and paid some bills. At 5:15 sharp, our chef Shannon rang the bell and set up shop in our kitchen. 
In no time at all, she had prepared a gorgeous four course meal for us! I had selected the mushroom-themed meal and it was absolutely spectacular. 
We ate a local mushroom salad with crispy parmesan dressing and watercress, mushroom fondue with asparagus and apples, and chicken roulade with crimini and hedgehog mushrooms. And dessert! Perfectly crunch meringues shaped like mushrooms placed in chocolate gelato ‘dirt’. Absolute heaven. 
Best of all though, was the quality time I got to spend with our guests. Instead of rushing frantically back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room, I could actually participate in conversations! Instead of clearing dishes and worrying about tidying the kitchen I got wrapped up in stories and laughter. SO much laughter.
At the end of the night, the kitchen was absolutely spotless. Not a crumb to be found and every dish neatly stacked. Well done Kitchit, well done.
I would love to tell you that because I didn’t have to do the cooking, I spent hours on the tablescape and place cards. That would be a lie. In reality, I begged Lauren to come over an hour before to help out. I folded small pieces of cardstock in half and used a sponge brush to paint liquid gold leaf along the bottom. Lauren then used a gold paint pen to write everyone’s names in her pretty handwriting. 
We cut some ivy and flowering branches from our backyard and Lauren artfully arranged them on top of a linen table runner. We plopped a couple of mason jar candles in the center, placed matching napkins on the plate and put an ivy leaf and a place card on top. It was so simple but so pretty!
Thanks so much for reading A Side of Sweet! For more Sweet in your life,you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, Bloglovin’, Facebook, or Twitter, or subscribe to receive a weekly email with new posts (see sidebar). Thanks to Kitchit for letting me review this awesome in-home personal chef service! 
P.S. – We had absolute my fave, Cultivar wine, for dinner! If you want to try Cultivar wines for yourself, Cultivar is offering 10% off for A Side of Sweet readers! Just use the code ‘CultivarWineASideofSweet‘ when you place your order.
Wow this looks so cool. I’ve never heard of this before, but would love to try it out.
You should!
Such lovely place settings! When I have people over, it’s usually a potluck and the table is just wrapped in plastic. 😛 I have much to learn, lol. Great seeing you yesterday! I’ll have to DM you my # so our encounters are less random. 😉
Hahaha, I love a good potluck! It’s definitely more about the company than it is the table settings right? Great to see you too! Please do send along your number!
Divine decadence without the huge price tag! Love it. Hopefully they’ll be expanding their market soon. Great post.
Exactly! I hope so too Tara!
Love this! Slash particularly love Pat in that photo polishing off his wine! Thanks so much for including us 🙂
xx Katie
lovely letters
Hahahaha, busted, right!? And Pierre checking his phone! I’m so glad you could make it!
Wow! This is so awesome. Since I’m lucky enough to live in San Francisco, I will definitely need to try this out!
Awesome! It’s a great idea for a special date without a lot of planning or fuss!
Awesome! It’s a great idea for a special date without a lot of planning or fuss!
I love this! I would’ve never thought it would be affordable for a freaking CHEF to come to your house and make the food, while the host enjoys themselves. I love how even though you didn’t try too hard with the tablescape, yet it looks spectacular man.
Thanks so much Nancy! You’re too sweet!
Oh my goodness. This is my dream! I will have to see if there is something similar in my area.
Hopefully they will expand so you can try them!
Very fun, I absolutely love learning about things like this! Thank you for introducing me lady 🙂
Thanks so much Tiffany!
A great post!! All of your pictures are fantastic <3 PS: I just found myself going through your blog for the past 30 minutes!
Awww, thanks Cynthia! I did the same with your blog! 🙂
This looks SO awesome (and the decor is not too shabby either)! I’d love to use a service like this to have a few friends over, it would be such a nice way to not stress about food and be able to enjoy the evening.
It was! It’s definitely a great thing to keep in mind for your next party!
Yum! What a LOVELY dinner! (I totally love how hands off it was too. KILLER for those busy chunks of life, right? :))
Exactly!!!!! For once I wasn’t in charge of everything from start to finish – which I love doing, but this way isn’t bad either! 🙂