Private Chef Hire in the New Forest

Private Chef for Your New Forest Holiday Cottage or Dinner Party

We are the New Forest’s most highly rated private chef service, cooking in holiday cottages, country houses, and venues across the Forest every week. With a perfect 5.0 Google rating from 365 reviews, we bring restaurant-quality private dining to your door — wherever you’re staying in the New Forest.

Whether you’re hiring a private chef for a holiday cottage stay, hosting a dinner party at home, celebrating a milestone, or planning a New Forest wedding, we create bespoke menus using locally sourced ingredients, cook everything fresh in your kitchen, and leave it spotless at the end of the evening. Private dining starts from £75 per person.

Where We Cook in the New Forest

We cook across the entire New Forest national park every week — from the heart of the ancient woodland to the coastal villages on its southern edge. These are the areas we serve most frequently:

• Lyndhurst — The capital of the New Forest. Private dinner parties in the village’s period homes, boutique hotels, and the grand properties along the Romsey Road. We cook here almost every week
• Brockenhurst — Our most popular area for holiday cottage bookings. Beautiful thatched cottages and forest lodges tucked away in the woods, with easy access to walking trails and the village high street
• Burley — The go-to for weekend group gatherings. Large country houses, farmhouse rentals, and converted barns that seat 12–20 guests comfortably. Perfect for milestone birthdays and reunion weekends
• Beaulieu — Riverside cottages, properties on the Beaulieu Estate, and some of the New Forest’s most elegant private homes. A popular spot for anniversary dinners and intimate celebrations
• Fordingbridge — On the western edge of the Forest, close to our meat supplier in Downton. The ingredients literally couldn’t be fresher. Large rural properties popular for family celebrations
• Lymington — Where the New Forest meets the Solent coast. Seafood suppers with views across to the Isle of Wight, sailing entertaining, and harbour-side dinner parties
• Sway & Hordle — Quiet villages between Brockenhurst and Lymington with stunning detached properties, perfect for intimate gatherings of 6–10 guests
• Ringwood — Gateway to the New Forest and home to one of our organic vegetable suppliers, Four Acre Farm. Popular for family celebrations in the larger homes on the Forest’s northern fringe

Holiday Cottage Dining in the New Forest

Holiday cottage dining is the single most popular booking we take in the New Forest. The pattern is always the same: a family or group of friends books a beautiful cottage for a long weekend. They walk, they explore, they enjoy the pubs — and on one evening, usually the Saturday, they want something truly special.

That’s where we come in. We arrive at your cottage a couple of hours before dinner. We bring everything: all the ingredients, cooking equipment, luxury crockery, cutlery, napkins, and personalised printed menus for each guest. We cook a bespoke multi-course meal, serve each course at the table, and leave the kitchen cleaner than we found it. You don’t lift a finger.

We’ve cooked in cottages in Brockenhurst, farmhouses near Burley, converted barns in Lyndhurst, forest lodges near Beaulieu, and grand country houses tucked away down Forest lanes. As long as there’s a working kitchen, we can create something extraordinary.

What you get:

• A bespoke multi-course menu designed around your group
• All ingredients sourced locally (much of it from within the Forest itself)
• Luxury crockery, cutlery, napkins, napkin rings, and personalised printed menus
• Full table service — each course served and paced for conversation
• Complete kitchen clean-up — we leave it spotless

Private dining starts from £75 per person. Read more about how it works in our New Forest cottage dining guide.

Dinner Parties at Home in the New Forest

Not all our New Forest bookings are holiday makers. Many of our regular clients live in the Forest — in Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Sway, and the surrounding villages — and book us for dinner parties at home throughout the year.

The appeal is simple: restaurant-quality food in the comfort of your own home, without the cooking, the shopping, or the washing up. Whether it’s a Saturday night with friends, a birthday dinner, a retirement celebration, or simply an evening when you want to be a guest at your own table — we make it happen.

Once you’ve experienced a private chef dinner party at home, restaurant dining never quite feels the same.

The Forest’s Food Heritage

The New Forest has a rich food heritage that we draw on for every menu. Venison from Hampshire estates. Wild mushrooms foraged in autumn. Honey from local beekeepers. Combined with our trusted Dorset and Hampshire suppliers — day-boat fish from Poole, organic vegetables from Four Acre Farm in Ringwood, fully traceable meat from Downton, artisan dairy from BV Dairy — the result is a menu genuinely rooted in this landscape.

The proximity to the coast is a real advantage too. Lymington is just minutes from the heart of the Forest, which means fresh seafood — Dorset crab, lobster, day-boat fish — is always on the table when you want it.

Wedding Catering in the New Forest

The New Forest is one of the south coast’s most sought-after wedding destinations. From grand country house hotels like Lime Wood and Rhinefield House to intimate marquee settings in private gardens, the Forest provides a stunning backdrop for any celebration.

We specialise in boutique wedding catering for up to 60 guests. Every menu is completely bespoke — designed around the couple’s taste, the venue, and the season. From canapés on the lawn to a multi-course wedding breakfast and evening food, every detail is considered. We include a complimentary tasting session so you can try the dishes before the big day, and we coordinate with your wedding planner to ensure seamless logistics on the day itself.

Wedding catering starts from £85 per person.

Weekend Gatherings and Group Bookings

One of the New Forest’s great pleasures is the long weekend away with friends. A group takes a large house — there are plenty in Burley, Brockenhurst, and around Beaulieu — and on Saturday night, we cook. It’s relaxed, social, and memorable. Everyone gathers around the table while we handle the food, the service, and the clean-up.

These evenings are some of the most rewarding we cook for. Groups of 8–20, a beautiful Forest setting, locally sourced food, and the kind of evening you’ll talk about for years.