Luxury Private Dining and Catering in Chicago | Michelin-Trained Chefs for In-Home Events
Welcome to The Vendador Table
by Chef Francis Pascal
the highest rated catering and private chef services for Chicago, Illinois and beyond
Welcome To Your Table
Vendador is the highest rated private chef company in Chicago, Illinois.
An exclusive culinary experience that transcends traditional catering, Vendador offers tailor-made tasting menus and canapé service for dining that redefines special events catering; it’s a moveable feast, an intimate gourmet journey that can materialize anywhere.
Imagine a traveling fine dining brigade that brings the chef's table to you. Whether in the comfort of your home, a serene canopied garden, or toasting across a candlelit table in a vast urban loft, Vendador gives you the flexibility to celebrate outside the confines of your favorite restaurant, without compromising the quality of a skillfully plated meal.
Since our inception, Vendador has become the epitome of personalized culinary experiences. Our team of Michelin-trained chefs, with decades of experience in revered kitchens, curates menus that reflect your tastes and the season’s best offerings.
“Great food can be found in a lot of places. Great technique can be found in a lot of places. Great preparation can be found in a lot of places. Great service and attention to detail can be found in a lot of places….BUT to find a team who does all of these in elite fashion at a large scale, is a rarity beyond real comparison.” - David B.
“I've hosted about 10 events with Chef Francis and team over the last two years and they keep getting better and better. From small 4 person dinners to 100+ people events, this team is the best!” - Mike G.
“If you're seeking a culinary experience that transcends the ordinary, Vendador is a private chef service that truly delivers. With a reputation for Michelin-star quality, they have redefined the concept of fine dining in the comfort of your home and this was an night my family and I will cherish for years to come.” - Chris C.
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A complete private chef company means more than someone cooking in your kitchen. It means a Michelin-trained chef who designs your menu, sommeliers and bartenders who curate the beverage program, servers trained in fine dining service, and a producer who manages every detail before, during, and after your event. We bring all of it. So whether you are hosting four guests at home or eighty for a corporate gathering, the standard does not shift.
A chef-driven journey through 5 to 12 seasonally inspired courses, plated with precision, and presented with passion and elite hospitality. Every detail is provided — curated plateware, Riedel glassware, silverware, and linen napkins — so you never need to worry about having the right amount of anything. Each menu is custom-designed for you and yours, never repeated.
From cellar curation to night-of pairings, our certified sommeliers and licensed craft bartenders bring the full beverage experience to your event. Choose from our rotating seasonal cocktail menu, a premium open bar, or three tiers of wine pairings. Every pour is intentional, every cocktail crafted by experts.
Elegant, high level bites designed for entertaining. From the dock, to the beach, to the garden, our canapé service sets the tone from the first moment guests arrive and keeps the energy alive all evening long.
Abundant, beautifully composed, and anything but ordinary. Our buffet presentations bring the same Michelin-caliber ingredients and philosophy to a format that flows naturally for open houses, cocktail receptions, and events where conversation moves as freely as the food.
Not sure which format fits your event? Tell us what you're planning. We'll build something just for you.
Our intentional approach to private chef experiences ensures that every detail of your personalized menu - from the first sip of a perfectly paired wine to the last bite of a mignardise - is designed only for you.
Guided by our commitment to excellence, Chef Francis collaborate with you to craft your catering menu with ease. We bring thoughtful ingredients, high level techniques, and unparalleled hospitality to your doorstep.
We emphasize flexibility and exclusivity, offering you a range of customizable options to suit your event's unique needs. Our trusted team covers a vast canvas of hospitality expertise, including sommeliers, artisanal mixologists, pastry chefs, menu designers, and professional servers. As dedicated purveyors of private dining, intimate fêtes and secretive soirees, we provide you with the mastery necessary to elevate your event into the upper echelon of memorable occasions.
What Sets Vendador Apart
Most catering operates on volume. The same menus, similar setups, the same service for every event.
Vendador was built on the opposite principle. Every detail of your experience, from the menu to the team to the service flow, is shaped around your table specifically.
Here is what makes that possible:
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Chef Francis trained at Japonais by Morimoto, was on the opening team Momotaro, and was Sous Chef at Roister of the Alinea Group. That training shows up across every course and every team member. We never use staffing agencies.
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Every staff member who walks into your home has signed an NDA before the booking is confirmed. We protect the privacy of you and your guests, and will even bring a tray of food down to the Secret Service team. Our core team is small and consistent, so repeat clients work with people who already know their home.
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Your home holds character that no commercial kitchen can replicate. Whether your space is a fully outfitted chef's kitchen with a wine room or a galley with a single oven, our team is trained to operate cleanly within whatever we are given. We bring our own tools, protect your surfaces, and leave the space exactly as we found it.
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No two menus are the same. Each one is thoughtfully composed around the people at your table, the dietary realities of the group, the season we are cooking in, and the spirit of the gathering. A summer cocktail dinner in the garden carries nothing in common with an October family reunion, and the menu honors that difference every time. We do not use sample menus or catering packages.
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You can choose from one of our three wine pairing tiers, build a beverage program around your existing cellar, or hand the night to our sommelier and let us source it for you. Cocktail programs, full bar service, and licensed bartenders are all part of what we bring with us.
Read more about our fully licensed beverage program.
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Since 2021, Vendador has grown to more than 400 clients and 265+ five-star Google reviews entirely through word-of-mouth. The hosts who hire us almost always come to us through a neighbor whose home we already know.
Our Philosophy
Hospitality, at its highest form,
is not a service. It is an act of devotion.
Chef Francis was born and raised in Albania, where taking care of people is not a chore, it’s a way of being. The pleasure of bending over backwards for someone, of making sure a loved one leaves your home feeling completely cared for, is its own reward.
That instinct sits at the center of everything we do. Will Guidara wrote in Unreasonable Hospitality that the greatest gift you can give someone is the feeling of being truly, completely taken care of. Not efficiently taken care of. Not adequately. Completely. We have built Vendador around that idea.
The meals in your life deserve to be treated this way. Weekly family supper. Birthdays. Anniversaries. The dinner where you tell your family the news. The night you welcome someone new into your home, or build relationships with lifelong clients from scratch.
These are not occasions to be catered. They are occasions to be honored.