Savoury Kitchen’s in-home private chef service takes the hassle out of hosting
Winter/Spring 24-25
Written By: Evie Carrick | Images: Julie Shipman
Hosting friends or family for a meal is not an easy feat. There are drinks to be poured, chit-chat to be made and somehow you have to find time to get food on the table. It’s not surprising that even the most prepared and experienced hosts find it hard to actually enjoy their guests or fully relax — there’s always a salad to put together and drinks to top up.
And, for some occasions, a meal out at a restaurant just won’t cut it.
Enter the team at Savoury Kitchen, a catering company that specializes in in-home private chef services.
“We bring the restaurant to your house,” explains Chef Joseph Saladyga, the owner of Savoury Kitchen. “When the client asks us what they can do to help, we tell them to sit down, relax and enjoy a beverage. The idea is for you to be a guest in your own home.”
Don’t have enough flatware or glasses? They’ve got you covered. Need more chairs? They’ve got those too.
And as for the feel, that can be whatever you want it to be. “It can be a five-star restaurant with French service or more interactive — a lot of our clients become friends and request their favorite chefs,” says Joseph, who notes that they also offer cooking classes and do catering for larger events, like weddings and corporate gatherings.
No matter what sort of food- related services you need, you’ll be in good hands. Joseph is one of those few people who has always known he wanted to work with food.
“My mother had a catering business so I’ve been playing with knives and fire since I was about 12 years old,” he laughs. He attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, not far from where he grew up in Southeast Massachusetts. But he always knew he wanted to move West.
“Since I was 5 years old I said I was going to move West to ski,” Joseph says. And he did just that — landing in Breckenridge, Colorado, before a bet with his uncle brought him to Park City.
“My uncle and I have a standing bet over the Red Sox and the Yankees — whoever’s team goes farther in the regular season gets a drink bought from the other person,” he says. That year, Joseph made the drive to Park City to buy his uncle a drink.
“We went out for lunch in November and sat outside on a patio and I looked around and said to myself, ‘Why am I freezing my butt off in Breck where it’s 9,600 feet?’”
He left his resume in Park City and got a call from a hiring manager on his drive back to Colorado. And so began a string of cooking gigs around town, including stints at the Legacy Lodge, Windy Ridge Café and Dynamite Dom’s. At the latter, he met his wife, who he now has two children with.
After a short-lived catering stint, the catering business he was working for closed due to the Great Recession.
“I was at a crossroads, and didn’t know what I wanted to do and I had a 2-year-old and a newborn,” he remembers. Rather than changing industries or moving out of Park City, he took a risk and started his own catering company in 2009.
Now, over 15 years later, Joseph and the Savory team are thriving. They make breakfast burritos for a handful of local coffee shops, put together adventure meals for All Seasons Adventures, cater events both big and small, and make school lunches for the Soaring Wings International Montessori School.
However, Joseph says that 80 percent of the business comes from their in-home private chef services.
Hiring Savoury for an in-home meal starts with a questionnaire: Do you want staff on site? Are there food allergies? Do you want the meal plated, family style or buffet?
From there, Joseph and his team of chefs put together a menu for approval. They’ll do a majority of the prep work and cooking at their commercial kitchen, then do the finishing work in your kitchen — things like sautéing vegetables and heating up soups.
The in-house team will explain what they’re doing to interested guests, or can work in the background while everyone enjoys cocktail hour.
“I’ve really reached the pinnacle team right now,” says Joseph, giving credit to his chefs and admin team.
That level of care continues until the last dish is washed — which is perhaps the biggest perk of all: At the end of the night, Joseph promises that your kitchen will be cleaner than you left it.
How’s that for the makings of a relaxing evening?
