Private Chef Alex Alex

I grew up on a farm. That is still the part that matters most: I learned what a tomato tastes like when it is picked at the right hour, and how an animal should be raised, long before I learned to cook one properly.

The technique came later over a decade in Cambridge's best kitchens: the University Arms, Autograph Collection by Marriott; DoubleTree by Hilton; Quy Mill. I trained under Lee Clarke, whose own restaurants earned Michelin Guide recognition and three AA rosettes, and who learned his craft from Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux. What I cook now sits between the farm and that training: French and English method, Asian flavour, and whatever the island gave up that morning. Cherne with green-chilli and coriander mojo. Canarian goat, slow-cooked with star anise and orange. Local prawns, XO butter, gofio.

I write every menu for the table that booked it. Vegetarian guests get their own three courses, not the side dishes. Tell me you hate coriander and you will never see it.

I arrive two hours before service with everything, including my knives — I only need your oven and two burners. I cook in your kitchen, serve each course at your table, and leave it cleaner than I found it. You do not shop, plate, pour or wash up. Spanish food-handling certificate and full public liability insurance. I work in fluent English and native Romanian, and my Spanish is improving every week.

For me, cooking is...

Is an act of respect for the ingredient, the season, the person I'm cooking, and ultimately the connection.

I learned to cook at...

From French-cuisine roots to luxury Cambridge kitchens — a decade of refined, soulful, farm-to-table cooking.

A cooking secret...

Respect the ingredient, let the season lead, and cook with the same care as feeding my family.

My menus

Sobremesa

STARTER

All inclusive

Prawn on focaccia, black garlic, chilli Glass-crisp underneath, soft above. Black garlic, sweet and almost balsamic, and a chilli oil that arrives a second after everything else

FIRST COURSE

All inclusive

Beef tartare, cured yolk Cut by hand and dressed lightly, under a yolk cured in salt until it grates over the top like a hard cheese

MAIN COURSE

All inclusive

Confit suckling pig, apple, thyme Six hours in its own fat, then taken to a fierce heat so the skin shatters under the back of a spoon. Roast apple, thyme picked that morning

DESSERT

Choose 1 dish

Canarian cheeses, quince, gofio Three island cheeses at three ages — fresh, semi-cured, aged — with quince and a gofio biscuit. The course nobody gets up from

Flor de Guía cheesecake, fig, honey Made with the cheese set by thistle flower rather than rennet — faintly grassy behind the cream. Black figs roasted in honey

Travesía

STARTER

All inclusive

Cured parrotfish, tomato dashi, cucumber, green mojo Line-caught off Arguineguín and cured at first light. Cold, clear, and green with coriander at the finish

FIRST COURSE

All inclusive

Scallop, cauliflower, miso brown butter, lime Caught on one side only and left barely warm through. Brown butter turned savoury with miso, lifted at the last second by lime

MAIN COURSE

All inclusive

Kid goat, palm honey, star anise, heritage potato A whole day of cooking, then glazed dark with palm honey from La Gomera until the edges catch. The sauce comes from the bones

DESSERT

Choose 2 dishes

Flor de Guía cheesecake, fig, honey Made with the cheese set by thistle flower rather than rennet — faintly grassy behind the cream. Black figs roasted in honey

Canarian cheeses, quince, gofio Three island cheeses at three ages — fresh, semi-cured, aged — with quince and a gofio biscuit. The course nobody gets up from

Huerta

STARTER

Choose 1 dish

Charred aubergine, onion, bread Burnt whole over the flame until they collapse. Deep smoke, slow onion, and bread still warm enough to steam when it is torn

FIRST COURSE

Choose 1 dish

Tuna, ponzu, avocado Cut to order and dressed at the last moment, so the ponzu arrives late and sharp rather than settling in

MAIN COURSE

All inclusive

Canarian black pork belly, apple, carrot Black pig raised on the island. Skin that cracks under the knife, and apple sharp enough to cut straight through it

DESSERT

All inclusive

Torrija, banana, caramel, honey rum A sheet of caramel that shatters, banana custard and honey rum poured while it is still too hot to eat