Every food business, from a chic, stylish Michelin-mentioned restaurant down to a taco truck, the menu is the central creative part. It exemplifies the chef and the business.

Building a menu for a public class, building a dinner party menu for a client, and building a dinner party menu at home are three very different things.

For a public cooking class, you have to choose cuisines and dishes that are popular and palatable to many people and dietary restrictions. So those tend to be simpler and easier to prepare since people of all culinary experience are together in one room.

When preparing a menu for a client, those menus are completely custom.

Menu design is the chef’s creative piece

For businesses like ours who create custom menus for each celebration, the creativity is a huge part of the planning process for the chef and it takes a long time. It takes a lot of creativity.

It’s pulled from the chef’s experience and travel and training and from the host of the party or the couple celebrating the anniversary. We take into consideration special dietary needs, their experiences, their travel, their preferences, and the feel for the celebration.

Menus are the creative piece that chefs themselves put together. A menu can be based on 100 things, and no chef can read your mind to know them.

It’s like creating a painting, creating a meal experience, especially for two people.

Chefs love the creative process of studying the people and their cuisine preferences and all of that.

Getting to know you

We use many things to determine menu. Each menu is 100% customized to the people in attendance, and especially the guest of honor.

We ask for favorites of the person who’s being honored. We ask for travel experience and cuisines they love but don’t get to enjoy often, and we ask for special dietary needs to see if there are cuisines they haven’t been able to enjoy at a restaurant because there’s only so much customization that can be done.

Because of our team’s training, we can provide any of our services to you within the dietary guidelines of your choosing.

Some like their vegetables soft, others medium, others al dente – like Goldilocks and the three bears.

Food is the most subjective item in our lives so it can take a few services to tweak to each person’s preferences. Feedback is requested so that we can cook exactly as you prefer.

It takes a conversation with a real person, a chef who will remember it from that point on.

Where the ideas come from

Our original tagline was “We bring the food of the world to you.”

The name The Travelling Cafe (perhaps it’s obvious now) includes a season of leaving the physical cafe, travelling the world, and now travelling into peoples’ homes with what’s been learned.

Our food experiences and cooking classes are designed to transport you to the place from which they come. Our cooking classes and boutique catering can transport you and your guests to a place you have never been, or to one you long to return.

Why we don’t have set menus

We do not have set menus in place for people to choose from. Catering companies that turn volume do that, so it’s easy to pick from. It’s very easy. Places like Mediterranean Deli win awards year after year from customers voting because they’re popular and they do the same things over and over again so very well, like a well-oiled machine.

Personal and private chefs don’t work like that. We thrive and excel with small groups and celebrations.

And while a menu you found sounds amazing, our chef may not want to cook that for you, because they’ve maybe never done one of the dishes or one of the drinks before.

We are completely committed to cooking 100% custom and delicious and consistent for our clients.

So our services, from weekly meal prep to private cooking classes to dinner parties and celebrations, are all based in this custom menu design.

That’s the part of the work that we really need to leave to the chefs, and it takes time.

Why it matters

The food is the vehicle, but the purpose is the hospitality and the purpose of hospitality is always to bring people closer together.

We allow the hospitality to flow by taking care of all of the food portion and a lot of the work, so there are no distractions, and the host can be a guest at their own party.

How it works

That’s why we book the date first, and then whatever chef is assigned for your event will discuss the menu with you.

Half is due to hold the date. Then the menu is crafted. The other half is due five business days prior to the event, with gratuity payable the night of, by cash or Venmo.

Your chef curates and creates your menu and recipes, customized according to your preferences and special dietary needs.

For weekly meal prep, we match you with the perfect chef based on your needs and preferences. Your personal chef will custom design a menu for you weekly according to your preferences, with everything from scratch.

Every menu includes a signature drink and a mocktail.

We go into your home and cook. Hopefully you’re only left with memories and nothing else to do.

Ready to hold your date? See our Dinner Parties page or call 919-444-2840.

With you at the table.