Chef Donny: Private Chef & Catering

Chef Donny is a private chef, event caterer and wine-tasting teacher based in Jerusalem. He trained at the Culinary Institute of America and builds each menu around the client and the season, with local ingredients from the shuk and the surrounding hills wherever they beat the imports.

Private chef dinners: a restaurant-quality meal cooked in your own kitchen, from a romantic dinner for two to a Shabbat table for twenty. You agree the menu in advance; he shops, cooks, plates and cleans up, and you sit down with your guests.

Events and semachot: catering for a bris, simchat bat, bar or bat mitzvah, engagement, sheva brachot or wedding, sized from a small home gathering to a full hall. Dietary needs such as gluten-free, vegan or allergies are built into the menu rather than bolted on, and menus are prepared to the kashrut standard you keep, so say what you need when you enquire.

Classes: hands-on private cooking classes, a knife-skills workshop, baking sessions, and wine tasting and pairing evenings for small groups, at your home or in his kitchen. Online classes are available for anyone who wants to cook along from elsewhere.

Kids: in the summer he runs cooking camps and classes for children, a practical answer to the August gap between the end of gan and the start of school.

How it works: email with the date, the number of guests, your kashrut requirements and the kind of meal you have in mind, and you will get a proposed menu and a quote. Pricing depends on the menu and the group size, so there is no fixed price list.