Chef4U: Private Dining Perfected

Chef Nicolas Devenelle once showed up to serve a private catered dinner for four at Punta Cacique, between Coco and Hermosa. A huge extranjero answered the door, saw a chef, and happily welcomed him into his home.

Nicolas wondered where the other three people were, but he figured they were in their rooms, perhaps showering and dressing. He started the dinner prep and set the table, obsessing as usual over the perfection that he requires of himself and his staff at Costa Rica's finest private catering service, Guanacaste Chef4U.

Then the wife finished her shower, came out to the kitchen, asked the chef his name, and said, “We never ordered a dinner tonight.”

It turned out Nicolas had the wrong address. D'oh!

It's all in a night's work for Monsieur Devenelle, 42, a French-born chef with a lengthy pedigree under Michelin-starred mentors on two or three continents. On any day of the year, anywhere in Guanacaste, Nicolas is prepared to serve up a five-star, four-course dinner at a three-star price for groups as small as two, sometimes with only one cook — usually at the right address.

On the day after Valentine's, February 2018, Nicolas and his chefs Priscilla and Maykel found their way to our home and served a succulent supper for my girlfriend, Guiselle, and me, and we dined like royalty.

For the occasion I had bought a bottle of decent Chilean wine, but it turned out that we didn't have a corkscrew. Guiselle asked Priscilla if by chance she had one, and Priscilla went downstairs — I thought to look for a corkscrew in her car. Priscilla came back with a brand-new corkscrew she just bought at the Luperón next door.

This is not normal, I thought. This is exceptionally excellent service, above and beyond the call of duty.

Once the food started coming out, the service only got better. By now Chef