Private Chef - Rowena Piana & Guests: Bounty of Italian Seafood

Let me start by saying I have zero issues with Chef Lorenzo as a person. He was polite to our guests. My issue is with the food and service. We have hired over a dozen private chefs for dinner parties for friends and for business dinners. NEVER have I experienced the level of unprofessionalism and downright awful food. We had a party booked for 12 people at a cost of about $130 per person, so all in more than $1,500. He did not wash his hands (or wear gloves) before starting food service of raw fish, which made me question the handling of all of our food. The first course tasted like Ritz crackers under tuna tartar from Whole Foods. For the second course, he used our microwave to heat up the seafood pasta. It was heated un-evenly, the clams were over-cooked and chewy, and the whole dish was frankly not very good. We (and our guests) cleared our own plates because he did not bring anyone to help. That also meant there was no wine service. The main course was too fishy, as if the fish was old and going bad. The sauce/soup was bland and flavorless. People barely touched their meal. Dessert wasn’t any better. The beignets were flat and soggy because they’d been made ahead of time and brought to our house. They are the one thing I almost wished had gone in the microwave. Maybe they would have been edible. At the end of the night we were appalled at how Chef Lorenzo left our kitchen. He did not do any of the dishes (dinner plates, pasta plates, dessert plates) which were all stacked by the sink for us to do, and the stove was covered in sauce and fish grease. I’ve NEVER hired a private chef where I’ve had to spend 2 hours in the kitchen cleaning up after them. He also took one of our colanders home with him, even though he said he would bring all of his own equipment. If I wanted a catered dinner, which is what this was, I could have ordered it from a restaurant for WAY less than $130 per person. To say we were disappointed with our meal is a MASSIVE understatement. Chef Lorenzo was a complete waste of money. Ordering DoorDashed Olive Garden would have been better than our experience with him. I would give him zero stars if that was an option, but it isn’t. I wish upload pictures of our kitchen to explain the disaster it was, but I can’t. UPDATE: Chef Lorenzo has offered to provide a $250 credit for a future meal for our bad experience. Instead we will be disputing the entire transaction with our credit card company since nothing met our expectations.

Chef Lorenzo was great and extremely accommodating! We did a class with him for 30 people and food was great!

Chef Lorenzo was incredibly patient with our group and went above and beyond with helping us with our wine delivery. He was kind and awesome to cook with and we look forward to our next event.