Chef Vanessa is amazing!!!! She has been cooking for us weekly for a few months and I cannot say enough good things about her services. She makes the most delicious food and she is such a pleasure to have over. She loves our puppy as if he were her own . Her meals are so affordable. I am saving so much money with her fresh delicious meals compared to when I was using door dash every night. Book with her immediately!!! read more

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I reached out to Vanessa for my 30th birthday dinner party and she was amazing from the start! Great communication, had a big menu selection, reasonable price, and very accommodating. I didn't feel like it was my first time communicating with her. I needed halal options for my dietary preferences and she was able to find halal steak which not a lot of people will go through the hassle to do. On top of that, she was so pleasant to have around. Her food is better than any restaurant. Her egg rolls and coffee cake is the best thing this planet has to offer, and this is coming from a picky girl whose mom cooks the best food! As a type A person I was worried about many aspects about my birthday but dinner was something I wasn't worried about because of how on top of everything Vanessa was! I got really lucky with her and definitely recommend her! read more

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Another home run with Ms Chef Vanessa and her beautiful team. My husband hired her to cater my 50th birthday party and what an amazing job her and her "SAME" team did. Big smiles, professional, excellent customer service and the food so tasty and fresh. Friends were like "They are just amazing"!!! Grateful- Doug and Mariana read more

We used Vanessa for our girls dinner party and the food was to die for! On top of that, Vanessa was great on communication from the start. Highly recommend hiring Vanessa for your next event! read more

I hired Chef Vanessa to cater my wife's 50th birthday party. Her rates were reasonable and her communication was superb. She has an extensive menu of dishes to choose from. She showed up on time with her helper, cooked amazing food and cleaned everything up and left the kitchen spotless, as though she had never been there. Cannot recommend her enough! read more

Chef Vanessa was amazing! Firstly her food was fantastic!! She gave us a great list of options and everything looked amazing. What we picked was so tasty and did not disappoint at all. Vanessa was also really communicative, worked with us and was really flexible to some late adjustments. Everything was timed to perfection and the kitchen was left spotless. I will definitely use Vanessa again, and would recommend her to anyone! read more

About 2 years later and I'm finally writing a review for Chef Vanessa. She is so easy to work with, has a great menu with many varieties and she is super super sweet. She helped with my baby shower and it felt like chaos in the kitchen. My mom didn't have very many hands to help her (since I'm usually cohosting), but chef Vanessa was able to provide that extra help. Though she is a one women show, she can do it all. She served apps, plated and made them. Would definitely recommend her and probably use her again sometime in my next event! read more

Chef Vanessa catered a dinner for my family when relatives came to town. She did a fabulous job, everything was delicious and our relatives were very impressed!! I have been using Chef Vanessa for several years and will continue to use her for years to come! She never disappoints! She is always cheerful and accommodating and the food is always wonderful. read more

My daughter hired Chef Vanessa for my birthday dinner. We had ten guests and two with dietary restrictions. She was able to accommodate all of my guests. She was so easy to work with and a pleasure to have in my kitchen. She is amazing and her dish presentation is wonderful. We had three appetizers, two mains, a veggie and dessert. She shopped, cooked and cleaned up. I was able to enjoy our guests and sit back and enjoy. I highly recommend her for your next get together. Her assistant was great as well. read more

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Had the pleasure of using Chef Vanessa for a bridal shower luncheon for 30. She is so pleasant and accommodating! We had multiple dietary accommodations including Celiac, vegetarian, gluten free, gluten and dairy free - my head was spinning - but Vanessa handled at all. The kitchen was calm while the rest of us scurried around with last minute prep. Everyone loved the food and as a bonus we had leftovers for dinner and didn't have to cook that evening! So glad we found her! read more

We hired Chef Vanessa and one of her assistants for my mother's birthday dinner party. We had a party of 10. The food was great and tasty. The assistance in the shopping, meal prep, meal cooking and cleaning were amazing. We did not have to do a thing. It made our dinner party so enjoyable! We picked out our meal ahead of time via email with Chef Vanessa. We had 3 appetizers, salad, two sides dishes, two proteins and a dessert. She was very easy to communicate with ahead of time. We had a dietary restriction for one guest and Chef Vanessa prepared a special dish so our guest could enjoy the meal too. She bought and brought all of the food. She did use my mother's plates, pots, pans, baking sheets, appetizer plates etc. At the end, the kitchen was cleaner than when they arrived! We will be hiring Chef Vanessa again for other events in the future. read more

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Terrible. Signed a contract, never arrived. Ruined everything for us. Left everyone with no options.

We received a dinner for 6 with chef Vanessa form our kids as a gift. Vanessa has a menu with several wonderful & tasty choices. She's a lovely person who really has a love for cooking. We all enjoyed her dishes! The evening was fun and relaxing!! read more

Her food is magnificent. She is friendly and very fun and positive. So easy to work with too!!

Vanessa catered my 50th birthday party with about 40 people. Everyone loved her food - egg rolls were my husbands favorite. It was great too have someone come and do all the shopping, prep, cook and clean kitchen. And the food was very good. read more

Chef Vanessa was amazing! I booked her to come cook a nice dinner for my wife to celebrate our anniversary. She had just had a baby (he is 10 weeks old) so we were not able to get out of the house much. Vanessa made everything so enjoyable. She was flexible in dates and time, she had a very extensive menu of food items to choose from, gave some ideas on food items, kept in touch, was accommodating by wearing a mask in the house, accommodating when my wife would have to go breast feed, and I have not even started talking about the food yet. The dinner was incredible, the appetizer dishes were perfect, the salad was good, the main entre was incredible and the dessert was to die for. We have lots and lots of leftovers and Chef Vanessa even cleaned up the entire kitchen when she was done. It was such a great experience and I highly recommend! read more

I hosted an engagement brunch that was very important to me because family came from all over the country. Chef Vanessa served the most beautiful and delicious menu and even created an frittata that looked like art! All the guests were amazed at the brunch and thanks to her and her helper, Maria, it was a complete success. read more

Vanessa was my " personal chef" for years when I was ill. Miss her since she moved. Very creative in adapting to diabetic needs, low carb alternatives , calorie conscious etc... Also catered for my parties with delicious menus. read more

Chef Vanessa is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! My significant other hired Chef Vanessa for our proposal dinner. Each dish had beautiful presentation and was delicious! We had appetizers in the kitchen and chatted with her before the proposal. She was a delight to talk to and was able to keep the secret that he was about to pop the question. She shopped, prepared, AND cleaned up everything. In addition we had enough leftovers that we didn't have to cook for the rest of the week. I highly recommend her! Amazing food, amazing value, and an amazing person! @Vanessa - Thank you for adding to our special night! Do you do weddings? :-) read more

Vanessa catered an AWESOME birthday dinner for 4 people. We wanted to celebrate at home and the evening was perfect. She brought an additional person to help her. Vanessa arrived with everything needed for the meal. Prepared a wonderful dinner in our kitchen. And cleaned up like she had never been there. Be sure to ask for her spring rolls. And the guacamole was super delicious too. I look forward to another dinner celebration! read more

Chef Vanessa went above and beyond all our expectations and made it a point to make our wedding day special. The time and care she puts into her dishes are amazing and all the food is delicious, fresh, and original. She was even kind enough to accommodate one of our vegan guests. Everyone kept raving about the sliders she put out for appetizers, too! Safe to say Chef Vanessa was a smash at our wedding and we sincerely thank her from the bottom of our hearts for all her hard work and effort she put into making sure it was perfect. Will definitely be recommending her to all our family and friends :)! Thank you again, Chef Vanessa! read more

I highly recommend Chef Vanessa for all of your catering needs! Chef Vanessa and her crew catered my wedding last month in August of 2015. She was an absolute delight to work with, and I am so happy I had her prepare the buffet for our special day. I had a wonderful first impression of Vanessa. Originally, when I first started looking for a catering company, I filled out forms/emailed about eight different catering companies that were highly recommended in the Bay Area. Some of them never bothered getting back to me about my request form, and some of them took multiple days to respond (which I took as a bad sign of their customer service). Many of the companies that I did get into contact with wanted $60/person just for the food, which was a price my partner and I just couldn't afford. Vanessa was not only the most affordable option we came across, but she had a larger menu of appetizers and dinner entrees to select from than a lot of the other companies. After I sent out the initial group of emails/request forms, Vanessa contacted me within 24 hours, and we quickly scheduled a meeting. She was even willing to bring a few dishes for us to sample at our first meeting. Most of the other companies wanted to charge a steep fee for sampling - which I thought was pretty ridiculous. I could tell from our first meeting that she was knowledgeable, professional, and had lots of experience cooking/catering. On top of that she had a wonderful smile! The dishes that she brought for us to sample were delicious too. Over the next few months leading up to the wedding, we met two additional times. She even drove all the way to my house in Alameda at one point and cooked for my fiancé and I some options from the menu that we were considering for our wedding. We were blown away by how good everything tasted. She was also incredibly easy to reach during the whole process - each time I had a question for Vanessa via email, phone, or text, (which was often) she got back to me right away without delay. The day of the wedding, the food came out looking terrific and tasting GREAT. Many of my guests (including the vegetarian ones) commented to me during and after the wedding that they really enjoyed the appetizers and food at the wedding. I feel very good about being able to feed my guests well - that was one of my priorities for that day. Anybody that is planning on having a big celebration and needs catering should definitely consider Chef Vanessa. Looking back on my wedding day, Vanessa and her catering is the thing I feel the proudest about in terms of making my 90 guests happy. Thanks Vanessa for doing such a wonderful job!! read more

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Another great experience with Chef Vanessa. From the meal selection to the preparation and the actual event - it's all about what the client wants. This time we used Chef Vanessa for a small sit down birthday dinner with apps as well. Vanessa made modifications and did items that were not necessary on the menu options but it all tasted great! Our guests loved it all! read more

My wife and I don't even know where to begin. Chef Vanessa went above and beyond all our expectations and made it a point to make our wedding day special. The time and care she puts into her dishes are amazing and all the food is delicious, fresh, and original. She was even kind enough to accommodate one of our vegan guests. Everyone kept raving about the sliders she put out for appetizers, too! Safe to say Chef Vanessa was a smash at our wedding and we sincerely thank her from the bottom of our hearts for all her hard work and effort she put into making sure it was perfect. Will definitely be recommending her to all our family and friends :)! Thank you again, Chef Vanessa! read more

Her egg rolls are my favorite!! Chef Vanessa cooks for my family every week, a big help for us with our family of 6. She has a great menu of food to choose from, changing foods up each week. I seem to keep finding a new favorite with all the delicious foods Chef Vanessa makes. I love the chili's and soups, her desserts are amazing too. I can't stop sneaking bites on the days she cooks the Kentucky Butter Cake. Chef Vanessa also catered a few parties I had. Everyone loved the food, people even asked if they could take some leftovers home. Aside from being an amazing chef, Vanessa is one of the nicest people I know! If it were possible, I would have her cook for us everyday. read more

Vanessa is an absolute queen at what she does!! She recently catered for a big birthday dinner we had and the food was phenomenal - everyone was asking who the caterer was & giving non stop compliments to the chef so she should get plenty of follow up customers from us;-) We have some very fussy eaters in our friendship group & she catered to all their requests and needs with no problem at all- including gluten & dairy free diets. I cannot recommend her and her team enough! Thank you so so much Vanessa & hope to see you again soon :-) read more

We had the honor of Chef Vanessa creating delicious tea refreshments for our daughter's Chinese tea ceremony, and even more delicious wedding reception lunch afterwards...all from our small, outdated kitchen with a tiny oven, electric stove and weber grill! Her staff were all very warm, friendly, and most helpful during the afternoon of serving the tea refreshments, beverages and serving a sit-down lunch. They were all very efficient, cleaned everything up, putting away any left over foods or ingredients, rinsing off the rented plates, and utensils, and wiping down the kitchen. Vanessa is fun and easy to work with, she has a lot of experience, and has a very big menu to select from. We had some gray areas on timing, and with Vanessa's experience, she helped us to make a reasonable schedule of activities, from when to start the tea ceremony, until it was time for them to leave. Vanessa and her staff truly made a huge difference on the success of our event - a very lovely tea ceremony and wedding reception. We definitely recommend Vanessa as a personal chef to prepare a very special, outstanding meal in your own home! Thank you very much, Chef Vanessa and Staff! read more

I've been meaning to leave a review for months. We had Vanessa cater our baby shower last November. She was wonderful! She answered my million emails beforehand. She worked with our budget. She was so helpful day of. She was great with my crazy, loud Filipino family. Lol. The women that helped her were also fantastic. The food was perfect. My husband still talks about the mash potato, chicken and waffle cone appetizer! Delicious! Would highly recommend Chef Vanessa! Thanks for making our special day so easy and wonderful. :) read more

Thank you Chef Vanessa. You are professional, you have a "great palette," patient and lovely person. You were very helpful with the planning of the menu, walking me through options, while making sure I didn't miss anything. And for that "I'm really grateful." My sisters are still talking about our event Chef. You made a huge impression - not only on me! read more

Wow! We had Chef Venessa cook us an anniversary dinner. The whole process, from menu to dinner, was super easy. Vanessa had great suggestions and worked with me to create a great menu tailored to the things we really like. The dinner was absolutely wonderful and Vanessa is really nice. read more

Chef Vanessa made a wonderful meal for our large bachelorette party in the home we were renting. From the moment I contacted her she was friendly, communicative, and all-around amazing! She helped me plan our meal and had a large selection of dishes to choose from. The day of our dinner she brought the food over in the morning to put some of it in the fridge and even dropped off some homemade macaroons! They were delicious! Later that afternoon she came back to start cooking. The appetizers, dinner, and dessert (strawberry shortcake with butter cake!) were all so well made and everyone couldn't stop commenting what a good job she did. She cleaned up everything after dinner and we didn't have to worry about a thing! She even put a quiche together for us to make for breakfast in the morning! I would recommend her to anyone. I know our group of 12 girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience of having a chef make dinner in our home and throwing a little cocktail party for ourselves. Thank you, Vanessa!! Tip: whatever you decide for your menu from Chef Vanessa MAKE SURE IT INCLUDES THE FRIED CHICKEN IN WAFFLE CONES WITH MASHED POTATOES. Hands down one of the best things I've had in my life. read more

Excellent! Food was amazing. Staff was very helpful and personable. Nothing but compliments from guests! Can't imagine doing another party without them. read more

Happy days! I was completely stumped a week ago..actually 6 days before having an important business meeting with colleagues from around the country. This was to include dinner at my home after a long day of conference, and suddenly, it dawned on me that there was no way I could handle the food preparation and my guests and come out alive. I went on line and looked for local caterers who could handle a small dinner party -- with many of them only doing larger affairs. This had to be both intimate and flexible in creating a menu for 5 of us with some diverse dietary needs -- and also within a reasonable budget. What a refreshing departure to work with Vanessa Davisson, the owner/founder of Chef Vanessa. She was able to handle this -- doing the shopping, arriving at my home and getting all of the preparation taken care of on the Friday so that the only concern I had the day after was to put things in the oven. What could have been a nightmare became a memorable evening with my being able to attend to my guests. The food was truly home-made and delicious -- a terrific guacamole and salsa with dipping chips to start; mushroom, spinach and feta stuffed chicken breasts with several glutten and dairy free, on a bed of zucchini with beautifully prepared Yukon and Purple roasted potatos coated in garlic and rosemary; tossed salad with toasted almonds and cranberries and a citrus vinegrette -- and a GREAT fruit crisp for dessert. My guests were uniformly impressed with the meal. Hooray for Vanessa...she is a true find! With a lot of appreciation for saving my day -- and evening! Johanna F read more

A huge thank you to Chef Vanessa for presenting a wonderful meal for my family in honor of my sister's 40th birthday. She worked with me to develop the perfect menu, and prepared everything just as requested. My family devoured the Greek menu she designed with plenty of compliments to the Chef. Vanessa made it comfortable to have a 'stranger' in my sister's kitchen while we celebrated as a family. She provided hors d'oeuvres and a full meal with several sides and two entrees. The perfect strawberry shortcake was a delighful dessert, and she was gracious enough to share her recipe with the birthday girl. Everything was provided, and everything was spic and span when she finished (which was as we finished as well, so she did not have to linger). My family and I could not have been more grateful for a relaxed and delicious evening. Just truly WONDERFUL! read more

I got Chef Vanessa to cook for me after a serious breakup. She made me the most exquisite garlic cream fettuccini, artichokes, and fresh crab with dipping butter. Talk about comfort food! I'll never forget how soothing that meal was. I highly recommend hiring her as an act of self-care. read more

Cannot say enough wonderful things about Chef Vanessa! She came to our VRBO and cooked an AMAZING 4-course dinner for our group of 6, and everyone raved. She even made breakfast for us to cook over the next couple of mornings we were there. She was super-responsive to email, sometimes within minutes, and she offers an extensive menu from which to choose items in each course. I would not hesitate to use her again during our next excursion to Napa, and I would recommend her with highest regard to anyone! Cheers, and thanks again for a great experience, Vanessa!! read more

Chef Vanessa made my husband's 40th birthday so incredibly special. I found her through her great Yelp reviews, and she sure lived up to them! We had an intimate dinner party in our backyard and had a very specific menu and overall ambiance we had in mind, and Vanessa was so great to work with from the planning, day of prep, and execution of the menu, the service for the passed hors d'oeuvres, and clean up. She really enabled me to enjoy the party as well as I knew the food was in excellent hands. Our guests raved about the food and even gave her and her assistant a round of applause as they were leaving! I would absolutely recommend Vanessa and will look to her should we ever have another catered event! read more

What a pleasant evening...went to visit friends we grew up with who recently moved to Rio Vista. We met eight new friends at their dinner party. All of us were treated to Vanessa's amazing dinner. Appetizers: prawns in pesto, quesadilla with mango salsa, French bread with goat cheese and caramelized onions, and man I could have just had those delicious crab cakes for dinner. For dinner salmon was cooked perfectly, multiple people raved about the fillet, the BBQ'd chicken was moist and flavorful. Corn in the mashed potatoes gave it a crunchy sweetness, very nice touch. All topped off with a very tasty berry crisp and ice cream. Vanessa and her other chef (sorry I forgot your name already) have a very calm and pleasant demeanor as they expertly crafted our evening's meal. I go to Yelp a lot, like to eat out at different places; but Chef Vanessa got me to write my first review. Old friends, new friends, zen chefs displaying the art of cooking...what a pleasant evening! read more

I had Vanessa cater a buffet dinner for 40 and she did an awesome job. She is super easy to work with and has an amazing menu offering. She uses best quality ingredients and produces delicious appetizers and entrees. She and her crew did a fabulous job with prep, presentation and clean up. Definitely 5 out of 5. Thank you Chef Vanessa read more

I have had the pleasure of enjoying Chef Vanessa's savory dishes on a few occasions. Everything from the perfectly spiced pazole, frittata, amazing crab cakes & potato cakes, to her flourless chocolate cupcakes and delicious bite sized cinnamon-apple treats topped with candied ginger whipped cream (yum!!) desserts has been excellent! I must say my absolute favorite is her eggrolls. My husband is anti-eggroll due to the soggy texture inside they usually have. Chef Vanessa has changed the eggroll game. The hubby (hesitant at first to try) took a bite and said "that's the best eggroll I've ever had". Yes, they're that good! Ive been to two parties that she has catered and she is awesome. She's very creative and talented with food; and how she multi-tasks amazes me. You can definitely tell she has a passion for her craft. I highly recommend Chef Vanessa for catering any sized party and/or the luxury of having her prepare your hearty family meals for the week in your own kitchen when you dont have time to prepare them yourself. read more

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