Campania · Private chefs · London
Neapolitan private chef in London
A chef from Campania cooking the food of Naples in your kitchen: slow ragù, volcanic tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and rum-soaked babà.
The cooking
Patience, tomatoes and a volcano
Neapolitan cooking rewards patience. Ragù napoletano is not a quick meat sauce: whole cuts of beef and pork braise in tomato for six hours or more, the sauce dresses the pasta, and the meat follows as a second course. Genovese, despite its name, is a Naples dish of onions cooked down with beef until sweet and jammy.
The flavours come from the land around Vesuvius: San Marzano tomatoes, piennolo cherry tomatoes hung in bunches through the winter, buffalo mozzarella from the plains of Caserta and Salerno, lemons from the Amalfi coast. Add a street-food culture that turned frying into an art, and the inland and coastal cooking of Cilento and Sorrento, and Campania has more than enough for a dinner party.
Signature dishes
What a Neapolitan chef cooks
Ragù napoletano
Beef and pork braised for hours in tomato; the sauce for ziti, the meat for the secondo.
Genovese
Onions and beef cooked down into a sweet, dark sauce for broken ziti.
Parmigiana di melanzane
Layers of fried aubergine, tomato, basil, mozzarella and parmigiano.
Salsiccia e friarielli
Pork sausage with bitter broccoli rabe sautéed in garlic, oil and chilli.
Pasta e patate con la provola
Pasta and potato cooked together until creamy, finished with smoked provola.
Spaghetti alle vongole
Clams, garlic, olive oil and parsley. Nothing else.
Babà
Light yeasted cake soaked in rum syrup.
Pastiera
Easter tart of ricotta, cooked wheat and orange-flower water.
Sample menu
A Neapolitan dinner party in four courses
An example only. A real wood-fired Neapolitan pizza needs a far hotter oven than a home kitchen has, which is why fried pizza is the honest choice here.
Through the year
Seasonal notes
Winter is ragù and friarielli season. Christmas Eve in Naples is a fish dinner: spaghetti alle vongole, fried baccalà, insalata di rinforzo with cauliflower, olives and pickled peppers, and struffoli, small fried dough balls glazed in honey.
In summer the cooking turns to tomatoes, courgettes and lemons: spaghetti alla Nerano with fried courgette and provolone, and fresh mozzarella eaten the day it arrives. Your chef plans around what London markets have that week.
How Venti works
A dinner party with nothing to do
Tell us the occasion
Date, number of guests, allergies, budget. By message, any time of day.
Meet your chef
We match you with a chef born in Campania and send you their menu to shape together.
They cook, you host
The chef shops, cooks, serves and leaves your kitchen clean.
Venti is opening in London this winter. We are matching our first chefs for this winter, so join the waitlist to be first in line for a Neapolitan dinner.
Questions
Frequently asked
What does a Neapolitan dinner party at home include?
You agree a menu with a chef from Campania, usually four courses: antipasto, primo, secondo and dolce. The chef shops for the ingredients, cooks in your kitchen, serves your guests and leaves the kitchen clean. Wine and drinks are your choice.
Can a Neapolitan chef make pizza in my home?
A true wood-fired Neapolitan pizza needs an oven much hotter than a domestic one, so chefs usually suggest pizza fritta or montanarine, which work in any kitchen. If you have a pizza oven at home, tell us and the chef can plan around it.
Can the chef cook around allergies and dietary needs?
Yes. The 14 major allergens are confirmed with you before the menu is final, and dishes are adapted or swapped where needed. Tell us early about any allergy, intolerance or dietary rule.
How does booking work, and how many guests can we have?
Venti is not open yet: we are matching our first chefs for this winter. Join the waitlist and tell us the date, number of guests, allergies and budget. From a dinner for two to a larger party, we confirm what works for your kitchen and the chef before anything is agreed.
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