Personal Italian chef · Great Falls · McLean · Tysons · Arlington
I'm Tony DiLoreto. I plan the menu, shop the market, cook a multi-course Italian dinner in your kitchen, pour a wine pairing chosen for the night, plate every course, and leave the kitchen spotless. You don't lift a finger — and the leftovers are yours.
Tonight's table, set in your dining room.
Done, in full
A real dinner party with none of the work — no planning, no shopping, no cooking, no dishes. Here's what's covered, every single time.
I build the menu and source every ingredient on your behalf — the morning's fish, the right cheeses, the produce. You approve; I handle the rest.
Same-day fish and chops or smart pantry swaps; pasta I roll by hand or quality dried. You set the spend — I make it taste like more.
Keto, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, gluten-free, allergies — real ingredients, olive oil not seed oil, portioned how you want. Built in, never the sad "diet" plate.
Courses come out at your pace. When the last plate's cleared I pack out and leave the kitchen spotless — and the leftovers are yours.
Tight on appliances? I can bring portable burners and a countertop oven, so a bare kitchen is no obstacle to a full dinner.
A red, a white, or both — matched to the menu and your budget. And yes, I'll happily run the evening in Italian if that's your thing.
Why not just…
Four ways to handle dinner — and where a chef in your kitchen quietly wins on convenience, taste, and how good you feel afterward.
You could. But someone has to shop, prep, plate, and face the sink at 10pm — usually the same person who just wanted a nice evening. I take all of it. You take the credit.
No reservation, no valet, no rushing the sitter. The kids stay home, nobody circles for parking, and the couch is right there for after. Same caliber of food — minus the logistics.
Delivery shows up sweating in a plastic clamshell and tastes like it. This is cooked fresh in your kitchen — as light or as indulgent as you choose. You decide how healthy it is, not a ghost kitchen.
Plenty of good chefs around. Few were taught by an Abruzzese grandmother, trained ten months across Italy, and will pour a real wine pairing while running the night in Italian. I'll also make you laugh — ask my regulars.
The chef
I learned the staples standing next to my grandmother from Abruzzo — slow gravy, hand-rolled pasta, the dishes that take all afternoon and disappear in twenty minutes. I've been cooking for other families since college, going on twenty years now.
Then I went and earned the rest of it: close to ten months living and cooking across Tuscany, Campania, Sicily and Abruzzo, a week in the kitchen of an agriturismo near Naples learning from its head chef, wine courses on both sides of the Atlantic, and the more modern side of Italian cooking picked up between Italy and New York.
What you get is the real thing, cooked in front of you — the warmth of a family table with the polish of somewhere you'd have to book a month out. Also: good company. I talk, I pour, I make the night fun.
— Tony DiLoreto
Where it comes from
Four regions, one long apprenticeship. The dotted line is roughly the route — and it shows up on your plate.
Nonna's kitchen. The staples, the patience, and a Sunday gravy that doesn't get rushed.
Produce-first and unfussy — great olive oil, a few perfect ingredients, restraint that tastes like luxury.
A week in an agriturismo kitchen near Naples: pasta, tomatoes, fire, and zero shortcuts.
Citrus, seafood, and desserts that quietly ruin every other dessert for you.
Dinners
The figures below are starting points to give you a feel — every dinner is quoted after we talk through the menu, headcount, wine and your budget. Groceries and wine are billed at cost on top of the chef's fee.
A multi-course Italian dinner for two with a wine pairing — anniversaries, birthdays, or just a Tuesday worth dressing up for.
The full spread for up to 6 — antipasti, a hand-made pasta, a main, dessert. The dinner you wish you had the afternoon to make.
Friends or clients at your place. A custom multi-course menu served at your pace — you're a guest at your own party.
Several restaurant-quality Italian dinners cooked and stocked in your fridge each week, with heating notes. Eat well on the busy nights.
How it works
Send the form — date, headcount, the occasion, dietary needs, a sense of budget. I reply with a proposed menu and a quote.
A 50% deposit holds your evening. I plan the wine pairing, hit the market that morning, and arrive about 90 minutes ahead.
Courses at your pace, poured and paired. Balance settled at the end, kitchen left spotless, leftovers packed for you.
Weekends and special occasions tend to book weeks — sometimes months — ahead. Send your date and I'll tell you what's still open.
Check your dateQuestions
Check your date
Send the details and I'll come back — usually within a day — with a proposed menu, a wine idea, and a quote. No deposit to inquire, no obligation.
The more you tell me — the occasion, who's coming, any diets, a sense of budget — the sharper the menu I can put together for you.
Your request is in. I'll be in touch within 24 hours with a menu, a wine idea, and a quote.