Notes from my kitchen and my life: private dinners, seasonal cooking, family, and the food we love.
Tri-tip, the family way
October 2026 · From home
First slices off the board, the part everyone crowds around for.
I spent some time with family recently, and like most of our get-togethers, somebody fired up the grill for tri-tip. Watching everyone crowd the cutting board for the first slices reminded me how much we all love it. In my family, tri-tip isn’t a recipe so much as a tradition.
It’s a Central California classic for a reason: a simple rub, real heat, a good rest, and slicing it thin against the grain. That’s the whole secret. It’s also why my Tri-Tip Dinner stays on my menus: herb-crusted tri-tip with Yukon potato purée, roasted leeks and a red wine reduction. It’s the food I grew up around, plated for your table.
Back from a few days at Disneyland
October 2026 · From home
An orange float at dinner on our trip. Simple, a little nostalgic, gone in minutes.
We recently got back from a few days at Disneyland with our boys. I’m the guy reading every menu in the park like it’s homework, and what stuck with me this time was how happy people get over simple food done well: a warm churro, a soft pretzel with the right amount of salt, chowder in a sourdough bread bowl on a cool evening.
None of it is fancy. It’s memorable because it’s tied to a moment. That’s what I try to cook for every client. If there’s a dish tied to one of your favorite memories, tell me about it and I’ll find a way to bring it into your dinner, maybe as the dessert course.
Where my cooking started
October 2026 · From home
People ask how I got into this. The honest answer starts with my grandma Anita. She was the first one to make me care about what was on the table, and the matriarchs in my life kept that going for years.
I started working in kitchens at 17. That first job is where I fell for pizza and for the Food Network classics that played in the restaurant and at home. From there I moved through fine dining kitchens up to executive chef, and after our youngest was born I started cooking for myself. Everything I cook still has a little of my grandma’s kitchen in it.
How a private dinner with me works
October 2026
Finishing dessert with a torch, right in a client’s kitchen.
People often ask what happens between "yes, let's do it" and the first course. Here is the whole path.
Tell me about your event. Fill out my event questionnaire, or text me your date, guest count and any allergies.
Pick a menu. Start with one of my sample menus, build your own, or choose Chef’s Table or a Custom Budget and tell me what you want to spend. Plated or family style, two courses or five, I cook what you want.
Secure your date. The booking fee is 18% of the food total, due when you book. Half the food total is due halfway to your event, and the rest 14 days before. Every payment is non-refundable.
I shop local. Produce, dairy, meat and seafood come from farms and purveyors within about 100 miles of Oakhurst and Mariposa, or of Merced and Modesto.
I cook at your table. I cook in your kitchen, cabin or event space, plate every course and walk you through it.
You keep the menu. A laminated copy of your menu and a personal note from me are included in the price.
Cooking late October in the Sierra foothills
October 2026
Cold nights call for slow braises over creamy polenta.
This is when my menus turn toward squash, apples and pumpkin. A winter squash soup with harissa pepitas opens a dinner well. Sugar pumpkin ravioli in sage brown butter makes a generous second course. A smoked pork loin chop with braised Sierra apples and pomegranate molasses is a main I come back to every fall, and a honeycrisp apple tart with whipped cinnamon cream closes the night.
My menus follow what the foothill and Central Valley farms are growing, so a dinner in November will not read like a dinner in June. If you have a dish you love, tell me and I will work it in.
A short checklist for your wedding or rehearsal dinner
October 2026
Plated and lined up under the string lights, so every guest is served at once.
Pick your style. Plated courses put a dish in front of every guest at the same moment. Family style sends platters down the table. I do both.
Count your guests early. Larger parties pay less per person, and a kids' menu is $25 per child.
Check the kitchen. Tell me what you have: a full kitchen, a limited one, or only a grill.
Plan your rentals. I can arrange pick-up and delivery of rentals for an additional fee.
Think about distance. Events outside the Mariposa and Oakhurst area include a travel fee based on distance.
Check my calendar. Weekends fill first, and your date is secured once the booking fee is paid.
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