Restaurant-quality dinners cooked in your villa, cottage or beach house — from £75pp.
A holiday-let chef costs £75 to £100 per person, all-inclusive. One night of your stay turns into a full restaurant evening — multi-course menu, table service, locally sourced Dorset ingredients, kitchen left spotless. No hidden charges, no transport surcharge within 90 minutes of Bournemouth.
The Sandbanks peninsula, the Purbeck coast, and the New Forest are some of the most-rented self-catering postcodes in the country. The villa kitchens are good. The views are remarkable. What's missing on most holidays is the one evening you don't want to organise yourself.
We cook in your holiday let kitchen — bringing the knives, the plating equipment, the luxury crockery, and the cutlery. You and your guests stay in the dining room, by the pool, or on the terrace; we arrive a few hours before service, prep, plate, serve every course, and clean the kitchen better than we found it.
Based in Bournemouth, we're a 10-minute drive from Sandbanks villas, 30 minutes from Studland and most of the Purbeck coast, and an hour from the heart of the New Forest. Looking for a private chef in Sandbanks specifically? That's our most-cooked postcode. Planning a longer stay with multiple services? Tell us about it.
Menus designed around your party — favourite flavours, dietary requirements, the produce that's best on the day. Sample menus on the website are starting points; your final menu is uniquely yours.
Day-boat fish from Parkstone Fisheries, organic vegetables from Four Acre Farm and Sopley Salads, meat from a Fordingbridge butcher. The chain is named — and short.
Luxury crockery, cutlery, table linen, personalised printed menus, knives and plating tools. Portable induction and hot-hold cabinets when villa kitchens need a hand.
Every course served at the table at the right moment. Pacing matched to your evening — no rushing, no flagging.
Surfaces wiped, washing-up done, hob clean, equipment packed away. You wake up to a kitchen better than you found it.
Every guest's requirements designed into the menu — gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, halal, low-FODMAP. Separate prep zones in the kitchen as standard.
Beach-front villas and harbour-view homes on the BH13 peninsula. Fresh seafood from Parkstone Fisheries — half a mile away — features on most menus. Terrace dinners overlooking Studland in summer; formal dining-room evenings year-round. Our most-cooked postcode outside Bournemouth.
Self-catering cottages in Studland village, Swanage, Worth Matravers and Kimmeridge — the unspoilt end of the Dorset coast. Wood-fired pizza ovens at several lets; we adapt menus to make use of them. Day-boat fish from Bridport and Lyme when Poole is wind-bound.
Brockenhurst, Lymington, Beaulieu, Burley and the surrounding villages. Forest-edge cottages and country-house holiday lets. Hampshire game in season, New Forest mushrooms, and Lyburn Farms cheeses are usually somewhere on the menu.
Holiday cottages along the Jurassic Coast — Lulworth Cove, Charmouth, Lyme Regis. Longer drive from base, but absolutely worth it for the produce: Bridport fishery, West Bay crab, Lyme Bay scallops, Dorset cheeses.
We work with a small number of holiday-let owners, villa managers and concierge services across Sandbanks, the New Forest and the Purbeck coast who offer a private chef as a guest upsell — often pitched as a 'chef on arrival', 'final-evening dinner' or 'multi-day chef package'. The economics are straightforward, the brand fit is excellent, and your guests pay us directly.
We agree a quote framework for your property (typical guest counts, common menu shapes, fixed pricing range). When a guest books with you, you mention us; they contact us directly to plan their evening. There's no commission, no booking-platform middleware, and we liaise with you only on the practical side (kitchen access, parking, key collection).
It increases booking conversion (especially for premium villas in Sandbanks and the New Forest where guests already expect concierge-level service), it's a clean differentiator versus comparable lets without a chef option, and it costs nothing to offer — guests pay directly. Many owners now feature 'private chef on request' on their listing.
If you manage a holiday let in Dorset or the New Forest and want to discuss adding us as a chef option, drop us a line. We can talk through the practical side and agree a quote framework in 20 minutes.
5 out of 5 stars"From start to finish it felt truly special and completely effortless. The beef Wellington was absolutely outstanding, perfectly cooked and incredibly succulent."
— Jen Troman
5 out of 5 stars"Mark was absolutely amazing — very accommodating to dietary requirements, good communication and the most delicious dinner. He also recommended so many lovely things to do in the local area. Highly recommend!"
— Amelia Bell, Dorset
5 out of 5 stars"We had a spectacular evening with chef Mark. He was very communicative and helped us plan a lovely and memorable dinner for a large family gathering. I definitely recommend chef Mark!"
— Kristi Lush
Holiday-let dining with The Dorset Chef costs £75 to £100 per person, all-inclusive. That covers menu planning, locally sourced ingredients, cooking on-site, full table service with luxury crockery and personalised printed menus, and a spotless kitchen at the end of the night. There are no hidden charges — no transport surcharge within roughly 90 minutes of Bournemouth, no tasting fee, no service charge.
Almost always, yes. Most self-catering kitchens (Sandbanks villas, New Forest cottages, Studland holiday lets, Lyme Regis houses) have everything a chef needs — a hob, an oven, fridge space, prep counter. We bring our own knives, plating equipment, luxury crockery, cutlery and napkins. For sites with limited equipment we bring portable induction and a hot-hold cabinet. We're happy to do a recce ahead of your stay if you want certainty.
A typical booking is a four-course dinner for 6–10 guests on one evening of your stay. The chef arrives a few hours before service with all ingredients, prepares each course fresh in your villa kitchen, and serves at the table while you and your guests stay seated. The kitchen is left immaculate at the end of the night — better than you found it, usually. You wake up to a clean kitchen the next morning.
Yes — we work with a number of holiday-let owners and management companies in Sandbanks, the New Forest, and the Purbeck coast who offer 'chef on arrival' or 'chef on the final evening' as an upsell to guests. We agree a quote framework with the owner, then liaise directly with the booked guests on date, guest count, dietary requirements, and menu preferences. There's no commission and no platform middleware.
We cook frequently in Sandbanks (BH13), Studland and the Purbeck coast, the New Forest national park (Brockenhurst, Lymington, Beaulieu), Lyme Regis and the Jurassic Coast, Lulworth Cove, the Bridport area, and inland to Wimborne and Dorchester. Anywhere within roughly 90 minutes of Bournemouth is straightforward; further afield we agree mileage in advance.
For peak summer dates in Sandbanks and the New Forest, four to eight weeks ahead is ideal. Off-peak (October to April) often books two to three weeks out. We hold a small number of weekend slots per month for first-time enquiries — if your holiday date is fixed, ask early.
Yes — multi-day bookings are common for longer holiday stays. A typical pattern is a multi-course dinner on arrival night, breakfast or brunch the morning after, and a final dinner mid-stay. Each service is quoted independently. We can also arrange in-fridge ready-to-eat dishes for evenings between services if you'd rather self-cater between visits.
Yes — every booking includes proper dietary mapping at the menu-planning stage. Children's plates are smaller portions of the main menu or simpler alternatives. Allergens (gluten, dairy, nuts, shellfish, egg, soy) get separate prep zones in the kitchen. Vegan, vegetarian, halal, low-FODMAP and keto are all designed from scratch — never the meat course with the protein removed.
Holiday let dining from £75pp all-inclusive. Sandbanks villas, Studland cottages, New Forest hideaways. Tell us where you're staying and what you fancy — we'll come back within 24 hours.
