Guest Services

Private Chef Services

Hiring a private chef for your vacation rental provides the ultimate culinary indulgence, allowing you to relax and savor exquisite meals tailored to your preferences, while enjoying the comforts of your home away from home.

Don't forget to book your vacation rentals with us

Delicious food

Spend an Evening with a Private Chef!

We have a fantastic team of private Executive Chefs available to attend to your favorite culinary ambitions. Want to host a party? No problem! Care to surprise your loved one with a romantic dinner? It would be our pleasure to make all the arrangements for you!

Feel free to contact our office anytime and we would be happy to look after all the details.

Let us introduce you to our team of Executive Chefs!

Meet Our Chefs

Ben & Arthur

Benjamin CelBert and Arthur Herrmann are longtime friends from France with a taste for quality, sharing and generosity. As private chefs in the Tamarindo area, they like to introduce food lovers to fresh and seasonal cuisine, mixing flavors and inspirations from all over the world. 

Having attended culinary schools at the Glion in Switzerland and the Ritz in Paris, Ben & Arthur spent 10 years working all over the world, from Spain to China to Israel. They specialize in Mediterranean fusion and Japanese, with fish and homemade ravioli made from local, fresh ingredients.

Ben & Arthur work with clients to create personalized menus to accommodate any dietary restrictions, including gluten-free and dairy-free. They love to work with new dishes and flavors, and they encourage customers to make any special requests for fish, meat, vegetables or anything else so they can customize a menu for you.

Here are some of their dishes:
  • Homemade, slow-cooked pork ravioli with cherry tomato sauce and parsley cream reduction
  • Beef tataki with dauphinoise potatoes, glazed pork sauce and parsley cream 
  • Poached egg with mushroom cream, roasted mushrooms, fresh mushrooms and parsley powder
  • Roasted apple marmalade, Granny Smith brunoise, apple caramel and crumble

Meet Our Chef

Gerardo Godínez

A native of San José, Gerardo studied at Instituto Gastronómico Internacional in Alajuela for three years. His experience as a chef includes:

  • 8 years at Hotel Intercontinental Escazú
  • 2 years at Cariari Country Club
  • 5 years at Tryp by Wyndham in La Sabana
  • 2 years at Hotel Crowne Plaza Corobicí
These are some of his most popular dishes:
  • Mahi-mahi ceviche with cilantro, lime and plantain patacones
  • Baby leaf salad with mandarin, Poás strawberries, gooseberry, blueberry and caramelized almond with balsamic blackberry dressing
  • Beef tenderloin with merlot, mushrooms and coffee essence
  • Poás strawberry cheesecake with red fruit coulis

“I am a chef in love with gastronomy,” says Gerardo. “My mission is always to delight the palates of our guests, creating unique specialty dishes native to our region. Our menus are adaptable to any dietary restrictions. We use fresh, organic ingredients of excellent quality, without preservatives, serving food that’s both good and good for you.”

Book Your
Costa Rica Vacation
Ready to experience the beauty and adventure of Costa Rica? Book your vacation now and discover all that this stunning destination has to offer!

Meet Our Chef

Hugo Arias

An experienced chef with a background in top hotels in Costa Rica, Hugo has been working as a private chef since 2012. His menu includes a diverse selection of international dishes alongside authentic Costa Rican cuisine, with a specialization in Asian cuisine and sushi. 

“My goal is to provide exclusive and personalized service, ensuring that each client’s stay in Costa Rica is effortless, delicious and unforgettable,” he says.

Hugo uses fresh, seasonal ingredients to create “exceptional dishes with unmatched flavors.” He caters to all dietary preferences, offering gluten-free and vegetarian options. 

His signature dishes:
  • Chef Trio combination of tenderloin, mahi-mahi and shrimp, with special sauces, mashed potatoes, vegetables and mixed green salad
  • Grilled lobster tails with passion fruit sauce, risotto, asparagus and mixed green salad
  • Fish with green curry, vegetables, coconut jasmine rice, mixed green salad
  • Mahi-mahi with tamarindo sauce, served with mashed sweet potatoes or rice, vegetables and Costa Rican salad

Meet Our Chef

Danner Araujo

Born in Spain to parents from Ecuador, Danner has 13 years of experience working at restaurants in Madrid, Valencia, Almería, Stockholm and Costa Rica. Based in Tamarindo, he specializes in Mediterranean cuisine and offers these dishes:

  • Seafood paella, available with quinoa
  • Rigatoni in an Italian sauce with black olives and osso buco (veal shanks) in a soy and cabernet reduction
  • Reimagined caprese salad with ricotta cheese in a pesto sauce with honey and crunchy rice
  • Pumpkin risotto with sauteed lobster in butter and cider with asparagus tips
Menus are adaptable for those who don’t tolerate lactose, wheat or gluten, as well as for vegetarians and vegans. And while Danner strives for the eternal watchwords “fresh, local ingredients,” he says “fresh” is harder to find than you would think. Fruits and vegetables are no problem, but fish can be a challenge because most providers sell frozen fish. And strangely, some of the freshest and highest-quality ingredients have to be imported.
“I do love the tomatoes from this area, as well as the avocados and limes,” he says.

Meet Our Chef

Gianina Padilla

Gianina learned to cook as a child growing up in a family of cooks, and now she has 20 years of experience. Her family runs the beachfront restaurant Pleamar in Flamingo, actually on Playa Potrero but just 1 kilometer east of the new Marina Flamingo, and also other eateries including the Costa Azul next door and the Piel Morena in El Llano, between Huacas and Portegolpe.

Gianina studied for two years at the Sulivan cooking school in Nicoya, and she says, “I worked all my life in food and drink.”

“I specialize in organic, vegan and special diets, gluten-free, keto zero,” she says. “My specialty is vegan food, but also seafood, meats, pastas.”
Here are some of her dishes:
  • Pork ribs with organic tamarindo sauce
  • Roasted chicken with coconut sauce
  • Vegan pasta with white almond sauce and heart of palm
  • Vegan lasagne with chicken substitute, vegetable broth and cheese made from cashews
“I like fusion cooking,” she says. “We use recipes from the past and we modernize them. Since I live on a farm, we have plantains, limes, cheese, milk, eggs, fruit.”

Gianina’s sister is also a cook, her mother is a pastry chef, her husband and father are “mixologists,” and her 12-year-old son is learning fast.

Meet Our Chef

Francisco Chaves & Alexus Barnes

Francisco studied culinary arts for two years at the Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje (INA) and has had his own private chef and special events team (Pure Dream Life) since 2020.
He specializes in food made with local products with an infusion of Caribbean flavors and tropical fruits. He adapts his menus to different diets and preferences, assuring that despite restrictions or allergies clients can enjoy the best flavors incorporating diverse ingredients.

His style of cooking strives for unique tastes using local, organic products with a Caribbean touch. 

Some of his dishes:
  • Bourbon tamarindo ribeye, with prime ribeye steak in a flavorful, creamy bourbon-tamarindo sauce, served with lemon butter asparagus and baked mashed potatoes
  • Caribbean ceviche: fresh mahi-mahi ceviche infused with coconut milk, local herbs and mandarin lime, served on a coconut shell with patacones (mashed, fried plantains)
  • Creamy passionfruit mahi-mahi: Pan-seared, locally caught mahi-mahi topped with passionfruit-thyme creamy coconut sauce served with parmesan herb-roasted red potatoes and balsamic drizzle
  • Mini coconut crusted chicken empanadas: homemade mini empanadas, crispy coconut chicken and tropical mango dipping sauce
  • Passionfruit cheesecake: private recipe, served with homemade macaroons, coconut cookie crumble, red fruits and passionfruit coulis
  • “Our mission is to bring to you the best gastronomy experience, unlike anything in the area, by creating unique flavors, infusing local and tropical ingredients,” he says.

Meet Our Chef

Jean-Luc Taulere

Jean-Luc Taulere is an 8th-generation chef whose culinary family dates to the 1700s, when it had a hotel and restaurant in the south of France. Born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, he showed interest in the kitchen at a young age cooking with his father and in the family restaurant in Sarasota. Among the items on his resume:
  • Attended the prestigious Johnson and Wales University culinary school in 1999, obtaining an associate’s degree in culinary arts in just one year
  • Worked as an intern in the south of France, did a special study project in Eastern Europe and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in food service entrepreneurship
  • Completed a postgraduate internship at the 2-star Michelin Chez Lasserre Restaurant in Champs-Élysées, Paris 
  • Won competition for best young chef in 2003 sponsored by La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs for the Southeastern United States

In 2004, Jean-Luc moved to Costa Rica to open Mar y Sol restaurant in Playa Flamingo with his father. The next year, he opened Catering Costa, specializing in intimate high-end private chef events as well as weddings and large events. He has cooked for former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and a certain ex-quarterback named Tom Brady.

Jean-Luc is the owner and operator of Coco Loco, the top beachfront restaurant in Flamingo and beyond, and he also started Terrazas Flamingo, an outdoor venue for weddings, private events and community gatherings.

Leading a team of five chefs, Jean-Luc offers menus with the best ingredients Costa Rica has to offer. His cuisine is French-based but with a focus on Costa Rican ingredients and tropical flair. 

Here are five of his dishes:
  • Heart of palm mousse with chilled lobster and a vanilla foam
  • Cured yellowfin tuna with a green mango and lime sorbet
  • Beef tenderloin with lobster tail and chimichurrihollandaise sauce
  • Seabass with lemon grass foam, grilled shrimp and seasoned rice
  • Coconut ice cream flambeed with tropical fruit and aged rum
Book a Private Chef
Find a Property