Private Chef - A Sophisticated Dinner

Lorin

11 Feb 2022

Wonderful meal, John is a great chef and warm person.

Terry

16 Dec 2021

Chef John cooked a delicious 4-course meal in our home for our wedding night. It was great not needing to think about how to feed our guests as it was all taken care of by the chef. Thank you so much!

Beverly

19 Feb 2021

Chef John was amazing! My son-in-law and I had a great time. The Chef was very patient and easy to follow.

Maya

17 Feb 2021

Simple to follow. Tasty Mexican food. John was helpful and witty. I learned a lot about how to cut properly etc. Recommended

Dee

14 Feb 2021

Great class! Chef John was friendly, patient, engaging. We had reviewed the recipes and had alot of the prep work done so we could enjoy a glass of wine during! Never had jackfruit and would definitely make this meal again , so fresh!

Claire

13 Feb 2021

We had a great time. Loved the little tips on chopping & his little history lesson on the avocado. Great to find a class using whole vegan ingredients & his personal faves on certain vegan brands. Loved the interactivity; as a concept this whole thing was great. And we will be looking for more classes by chef John.

Kara

09 Feb 2021

The chef was very friendly and engaging, but a few issues throughout. 1. Recipes that we were given were not followed at all. We went out and purchased specific ingredients, and the chef was unaware what recipes we were all using throughout, and would continuously just 'wing' it which made it very difficult to follow. 2. Few technical difficulties as some people couldn't access the recipes at all and the chef was not able to send it through to them. 3. The flow was extremely fast, and so hard to follow. Instead of starting off each course with: we are now starting with 'blank' recipe. Does everyone have everything? -- half the time, it was so hard to follow along as he went so fast and many people, including myself, had no idea at what step he was at since he was not following the recipe cards, and would not pause to give us a second to gather our ingredients for the next step. The food tasted delicious, but my advice to the chef would be: - ensure the recipes that are on your page are 100% aligned to the recipes you're actually using - slow down your pace - engage more with people more, and title each step off so people know where they are at in the recipe and that they have the ingredients they need. I would also allow for 2 minutes at the end of each course for questions, and for people to take a bite and try what they made. Thanks!

Erin Nicole

05 Feb 2021

What an amazing experience!! Chef John was polite, friendly, and an outstanding chef!! The food was unbelievable, and every single detail was thought of, and mastered!! Thank you for the best personal chef experience yet!! Chef John, you are a ROCKSTAR!!!! :)

Nathaniel

04 Jan 2021

Great class!

Valerie

03 Jan 2021

Friendly, engaging, knowledgeable. All-around awesome!! Thanks, Chef John! Would recommend.

Tommy

03 Jan 2021

Chef John is the man! He did a great job explaining the recipe and answering any questions that we had. Thanks Chef John!

Susie

31 Dec 2020

Zoom is not perfect, but we felt that John was not very responsive to our questions and comments. He moved way too fast through the prep as well. If he had told us to have our ingredients all ready, we could have kept up, but we couldn't cut as fast as he talked through the steps. I appreciate how Cozymeal is adapting for the pandemic, but John was not a great on-line teacher.

Amanda

27 Dec 2020

Great experience! Helpful tips and tricks for everyday cooking like cutting pineapple. How to use knife etc! Introduced us to delicious way to make jackfruit. Did his best to engage audience throughout.

Patty

17 Dec 2020

Great class, fun and engaging.

Adam

29 Nov 2020

John has a good sense of humor, was enjoyable to cook with, and had interesting knowledge regarding the food preparation we experienced with him. John ventured to tell us about how foods taste based on their origin, the importance of salt (not the salt flavor its self, but the ability to pull food flavors out, which I never knew as I don't cook often), and even down to heating temperatures and frequencies to cook the food to it's optimal state. I enjoyed being part of John's group and would recommend him in the future.

Andrew

19 Oct 2020

Chef John was great to work with, a very open and inviting personality. He was diligent and good with time management in between dishes despite the fact we were fast eaters haha. Everything was absolutely delicious!

Fern

02 Feb 2020

Extremely personable, Chef John was a great teacher and a wonderful chef!

Arishma

05 Jan 2020

Chef John was wonderful!! I throughly enjoyed my experience cooking paella with him. He is very informative and personable! I would highly recommend his cooking class to anyone looking for a interactive and fun experience.

Nickalaus

26 Dec 2019

Great experience, very fun conversation and a delicious meal! Would definitely recommend, especially for couples.

Liz

17 Sep 2019

John was very welcoming and made us feel right at home in his lovely kitchen in San Rafael. We had a beautiful dinner of paella and other Spanish favorites - the food was delicious and we learned a lot! We enjoyed John's company and appreciated his hospitality and wonderful lessons. Great evening all around.

Azhar

12 Sep 2019

It was a wonderful experience! ? I did a birthday surprise for my boyfriend. He loves cooking. Thought that it would be a group lesson, but then was surprised that kitchen is at chefs home and a class is private ? The process of cooking was fun and nice. John explained everything very clear. So we cooked paella and a dessert (which name I forgot). Really loved paella cooking and tasting. But the dessert wasn’t my style.

Ernest

26 Aug 2019

We had a great time celebrating my girlfriend’s birthday with John! His place was very cozy and clean- he was very welcoming and shared tons of funny stories with us. We took the paella class, John was an amazing teacher, and allowed us to be as hands on as we wanted. He showed us his garden which was bountiful with beautiful flowers, herbs and fresh fruits. We loved the experience so much, it was our first cooking class ever and it was definitely one of the best dates (and most unique) we had! Kudos to John and thank you John again for your hospitality!! Highly highly 100% recommend!

Katherine

10 Jul 2019

We loved Chef John's class, and the whole experience was great. Thank you!

Eileen

23 Jun 2019

We had a wonderful evening with great hors d'oeuvres during a paella, salad and flan class all of which turned out to be delicious. John's instructions were clear and easy to follow; since it was a very hot night, we appreciated breaks in the cottage garden. One small improvement would be to ensure everyone has a comfy dining chair.

Toby

13 Jun 2019

We had a very enjoyable evening and delicious paella dinner. Chef John was a very good teacher and kept 6 people busy for the entire prep time. The flan dessert was terrific. The salad and homemade dressing was superb. The paella was excellent, prepared with various spices, chicken stock and stock made from the shrimp and mussels shells. The paella also had andouille sausage. The shrimp were very large and sweet, the mussels also very fresh and tasty. Perhaps the only small surprise was that in Spain the paella would have more seafood variety, such as clams, squid and octopus.

Cheryl

27 Jan 2019

A delicious and delightful evening! John is knowledgeable and a great teacher and host!

Megan

03 Nov 2018

Chef John was fantastic! Very knowledgeable and a good teacher. He was very organized and arrived on time with all the necessary supplies and ingredients. The french meal was delicious and fun to make. We enjoyed our experience and would definitely recommend John's Cozymeal experience!

Gary

19 Mar 2018

We thoroughly enjoyed our cooking experience with Chef John and another couple. He started us out with a beautiful tray of appetizers. I got to make the flan which is something I have always wanted to make but a little afraid of trying to make it. It came out wonderful. We then started on the ingredients going into our paella and we all had assigned tasks. We sat down together and had the paella which was one of the best paellas we've ever eaten. We also had a great salad that the other couple worked on. We had a nice conversation and thoroughly enjoyed our evening. I would highly recommend Chef John.

Nathan

18 Feb 2018

Chef John was amazing! He was so welcoming and made us feel comfortable in his home. We were able to learn step-by-step instructions and techniques for making a beautiful salad, seafood paella, and a traditional flan. We’re excited to use the tips we learned from the class to make it all ourselves at home. Thanks again Chef John and Cozy Meal!

James

20 Jan 2018

We had a excellent experience with Chef John. He was knowledgeable friendly and had a great kitchen to work from. My wife has not stopped thanking me for this class. We will be doing the Cozymeal experience again! Thanks again Chef John for the lesson and the great hospitality!

A.J.

17 Jan 2018

I thoroughly enjoyed Chef John’s “Native Foods of The Americas” class. John has a wide breadth of knowledge about ingredients from both North and South America. He went in depth on how they were used in the past as well as how we were going to apply them to the recipes he invented. My girlfriend and I cooked the dish again last night and it turned out great. Definitely walked away from this class with a better understanding of how to tackle this style of cooking.

Tracy

04 Jan 2018

Chef John is a wonderful host. He has a very unique style of cooking - foraging, cooking with ingredients in season and being as sustainable as possible. Many of his dishes were creative and unconventional. They had a mixture of ingredients we've never seen placed together but definitely were special and delicious. Highly recommend learning from Chef John!

Marilyn

02 Jan 2018

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Chef John! It was fun learning about new ingredients and local food in the comfort of his home. His recipes were simple yet elegant and utilized ingredients I had never heard of, and combined flavors I would have never thought to mix. We also enjoyed the door greeting from his friendly dog. The Cozymeal experience is truly unique and I would recommend it to anyone!

Kiyomi

30 Dec 2017

John was absolutely incredible! So knowledgeable about food and cooking and such a nice guy. Would 100% recommend this experience to a friend!

Cheryle

08 Nov 2017

John came to my home to conduct his chef magic for a small paella party. We all had a great time! The food selections were tasty and perfect for our group. I cook a lot and learned some new tricks from Chef John. Book him for your next cooking class dinner party!

Jeremy

08 Nov 2017

Very nice and personable! He was passionate about the ingredients and he happily shared that passion with us. We enjoyed the experience and definitely took some tips away that we will use at future dinner parties and everyday cooking.

Cate

30 Oct 2017

Great time..great teacher..great stories! Only down side, I signed up for vegetarian.

Juan

24 Aug 2017

Chef John was extremely welcoming and knowledgeable. Throughout the entire evening he was very attentive and did a great job of pointing out details to make the cooking process easier or more mindful. Chef John balanced a lot of historical and culinary knowledge (which was fascinating!) with a comfortable style of cooking and instructing that made it a very approachable experience. I would definitely recommend his cooking classes!

Alana

21 Aug 2017

This was my first cooking class, and after a meal with John it won't be my last! The class was exciting, tasty, and incredibly educational--despite my almost complete lack of cooking skills, with John's help I was able to make flan, salad dressing, and a seafood and veggie paella! I left John's home (our beautiful venue for the evening) proud and very full. I look forward to taking another class with John and further improving my cooking skills.

Anna

14 Jun 2017

Chef John has an amazing personality. He knows so much about Native American cuisine it’s incredible. I would highly recommend his class!