Cooked in your kitchen
Private chef in Suffolk
Your table in Suffolk, at home or in the house you’ve rented: a bespoke menu written for your table and cooked in that kitchen — prep, service, and a spotless kitchen before I leave.
Since autumn 2024 I’ve cooked twenty times in Suffolk, twelve of them in rented houses: on the coast around Aldeburgh, Orford, Woodbridge and Southwold, on the Shotley peninsula, near Hadleigh, around Bungay and Halesworth, and inland around Stowmarket, Debenham and Bury St Edmunds. Tables of six to thirty; eleven of the twenty were in the past year.
My Suffolk tables have been 50 to 90 miles by road from the kitchen in Rayleigh.
Photo: Neil Theasby, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped · Wikimedia Commons
Who is cooking
A private chef in Suffolk, from a kitchen in Rayleigh
I’m Mike Sutton: 20 years in professional kitchens, nearly a decade running my own restaurant, trained under Gennaro Contaldo and Jamie Oliver. Tipsy Squirrel Events is what I did after I sold the restaurant — the same cooking, brought to your home instead.
The kitchen is in Rayleigh, 50 to 90 miles by road from the Suffolk tables I’ve cooked for, and I cook across Essex, London, the South East and East Anglia. Every menu is written from scratch for your table, with 43 sample menus from six regions of the world to start from, and every dietary in the room handled within the same courses — nobody gets a visibly different plate.
How it works
Tell me the date, the headcount, and the occasion — four fields or a WhatsApp message.
I write the menu around your table and every dietary in the room, and we refine it together.
On the night I arrive early, cook, serve, and leave your kitchen spotless.
The practical bits
From £75 per head, £449 minimum spend
Travel to Suffolk is quoted with the menu, based on the distance from Rayleigh.
Ingredients, menu design, chef and service, equipment and a full clean-down included
Every dietary catered — nobody gets a visibly different plate
From recent tables
In their words
What guests said
“Mike was super flexible, attentive and supportive from briefing, to menu development, to delivery. My guests loved the food and the experience. I'd definitely use Mike again.”
“Excellent service, food quality was amazing & Mike offered a friendly & personal approach. I would definitely recommend Mike & plan to book him for future events. 5 stars.”
Questions from Suffolk
Before you book a private chef in Suffolk
How much is a private chef in Suffolk?
From £75 per head with a £449 minimum spend — ingredients, menu design, the chef on the night, the equipment I bring and a full clean-down are all in that figure. Tell me the date, the headcount and the occasion and you will have the exact price the same day.
Do you charge travel to Suffolk?
Travel to Suffolk is quoted with the menu, based on the distance from Rayleigh, and shown as one line on your quote before you commit — nothing is added later.
Can you cook in a holiday rental in Suffolk?
Yes. Most hen do bookings are in rentals. Send a photo of the kitchen when you enquire and I will build the menu around what is actually there — I bring whatever is missing.
How far ahead should I book for a house in Suffolk?
Ten of my twenty Suffolk bookings were on a Saturday, and they come all year round, not just in summer. For a Saturday in summer, six to eight weeks ahead is safest; shorter notice is often possible, particularly midweek — ask, because cancellations happen.
Planning a wedding? See wedding catering in Suffolk or all my wedding menus and prices.
Christmas? I cook Christmas Day at home and office Christmas parties from £39 a guest.