A Private Chef
for HanukkahOne Night or All Eight · Chef in Your Kitchen or Catered
Latkes that hit the table hot, brisket that braised since morning, sufganiyot fried while the candles burn. A chef in your kitchen or a catered table for the whole family, across Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming. Kosher-style by default, your home's kosher rules when you ask. 24-hour proposals.
Hanukkah Private Chef and Catering
Hanukkah 2026 runs from sundown Friday, December 4 through Saturday, December 12. We cook it two ways: a private chef in your kitchen from $150 a person, or full-service catering for a big family table from $150 a person. Both are all-inclusive and quoted in writing within 24 hours. No drop-off menu for Hanukkah, the latkes have to be fried where they are eaten. The best nights go by December 1. We can book closer than that, and often do.
One Night. Or All of Them.
Most families book the night that gathers everyone: the first night, the Saturday, or the closing weekend when the out-of-town cousins land. Some book a chef for a stretch of nights and let the menu move through the week, brisket one night, a dairy table the next, a kids' latke night in between. Either way the host lights the candles instead of watching the oil.
The chef arrives with the groceries, fries latkes in small rounds through the meal so every plate gets them hot, serves, and leaves the kitchen clean. For a house with thirty people in it, the same kitchen runs it as full-service catering with a service team.
When the Dates Actually Go
How the calendar moves: the best Hanukkah nights go by December 1. The first night, Friday December 4, and the Saturday after it go first, then the closing weekend of December 11 and 12. Midweek nights hold open longer. We can book closer than that, and often do, but December 1 is the date that still has a choice of nights.
Hanukkah 2027 starts on Christmas Eve and ends on New Year's Day, which puts it inside the busiest week of our year. If that is the year you are planning, the best dates go by November 15 and the holiday page has the whole calendar.
Latkes, Brisket, and the Real Dessert
Three menu directions come up most often. None of them are fixed, and every one is built around your table's rules before the first grocery run.
Traditional Ashkenazi
Slow-braised brisket in real stock, onions cooked down for an hour before the meat goes in. Hand-grated latkes fried in rounds through dinner with house applesauce and sour cream. Roasted roots, honey cake or rugelach to close.
Meat main, parve dessertSephardi and Modern
Roast lamb shoulder with preserved lemon and saffron rice, fattoush with sumac and pomegranate, sufganiyot with a citrus curd center fried to order. A different register, equally at home on the eighth night.
Built for mixed traditionsDairy Table
Cheese latkes beside the potato ones, blintzes with farmer's cheese, herb-crusted salmon with a citrus butter, chocolate babka or ricotta cheesecake. The menu for tables that keep meat off the holiday.
Fully dairy, no meat on the tableKosher, kosher-style, and mixed tables. Kosher-style is the default: no pork, no shellfish, meat and dairy held apart within the meal, meat main with a parve dessert. Strictly kosher dinners run as a partnership, with certified proteins from a kosher kitchen and our chef cooking the sides and plating in your home under your kitchen's rules. Tell us at booking and we plan the observant guest's plate first, then build the rest of the table out from it.
Two Ways to Do Hanukkah
Same kitchen, same chefs. Both are all-inclusive and come back as one written number within 24 hours. There is no drop-off Hanukkah menu, the latkes and sufganiyot are fried where they are served.
Private Chef in Your Kitchen
A chef arrives with the groceries, cooks in your home or rental, fries the latkes in rounds, serves, and leaves the kitchen clean. One night or a stretch of nights, menus that change through the week.
From $150 a person, most $150 to $250Full-Service Catering
For the big family night: chef-led team, service staff, rentals when the room needs them, and complete cleanup. Plated, family style, or a latke station that runs all evening.
From $150 a personGift a Hanukkah Dinner
Eight nights means eight chances. A gift card covers a chef-cooked dinner on any night in any market, delivered by email within minutes.
$250, $500, $1,000 or custom| Format | Best for | Latkes fried on site | Kosher-style | Strict kosher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private chef in your kitchen | 6 to 20 at the table | Yes | Yes | Partnership, certified proteins |
| Full-service catering | 20 to 100 plus | Yes, station or rounds | Yes | Partnership, certified proteins |
| Drop-off | Not offered for Hanukkah | No | No | No |
One Number, Everything In
Chef and culinary team, ingredients and sourcing, staff and service, rentals coordination, and complete cleanup in one written number, stated up front. Multi-night Hanukkah service is quoted for the run of nights, not per meal. Full tiers by headcount are in the full private chef pricing guide.
From the First Call to the Last Candle
Eight nights is a lot of calendar. Here is how the booking runs.
Pick the night
Tell us the market, the headcount, which night or nights, and how your table keeps kosher.
Menu and proposal
The all-inclusive number in writing within 24 hours. Deposit holds the night.
The week before
Dietary needs, kids' plates, timing around candle lighting, and the kitchen scouted if it is a rental.
The night
Chef arrives with the groceries, latkes go out in rounds, the kitchen is clean before the last candle burns down.
Hanukkah in a Ski House
A lot of December Hanukkah bookings are ski weeks. Vail, Aspen, Park City, and Jackson Hole rentals with a family spread across three generations and a kitchen nobody has cooked in before. We scout the rental kitchen ahead of time, bring what it lacks, and run the holiday table the same way we would at home. Scottsdale and Paradise Valley run the largest Hanukkah tables we cook outside Denver.
Hanukkah Private Chef, Wherever the Family Gathers
Every market below has its own page with local venues, local menus, and this season's holiday details.
More on Hanukkah and the Season
Asked Every December
Two Ways to Start
We respond within 24 hours, every time.
Most clients prefer a 15-minute conversation. Chef Steve answers personally.
For full proposals or detailed inquiries.
"Whether you start with a form, an email, or a call — every inquiry comes directly to me. I'd love to hear about your event."