What Happens in Our Kitchen Before Your Event

By the time we arrive at your vacation rental, the real work is already done.

Most guests see the plating, the service, the perfectly timed courses. What they don't see is the preparation that happens hours earlier in our commercial kitchen—the mise en place, the advance prep, the careful orchestration that allows us to deliver restaurant-level refinement in a rental kitchen with two burners and limited counter space.

Here's what happens behind the scenes before your private chef experience.

The Day Before: Menu Finalization and Sourcing

Confirming Your Menu

Ten days before your event, your menu is locked. This gives us time to source ingredients, coordinate staffing, and plan logistics.

If you've chosen one of our curated menus, we already know what we're preparing. For custom menus, we've had multiple conversations with you to dial in every detail—flavor profiles, dietary restrictions, guest preferences.

By the day before your event, there are no surprises. We know exactly what we're cooking.

Sourcing Ingredients

We source Gulf seafood from trusted local suppliers. Snapper, cobia, triple tail, wahoo—whatever's fresh and in season. Some days, our seafood supplier calls with a last-minute catch that's too good to pass up. When that happens, we adjust.

Produce comes from a combination of local farms and specialty distributors. Proteins are ordered days in advance. Dry goods and pantry staples are stocked in our kitchen year-round.

For certain menus, we source hyper-specific ingredients: heirloom tomatoes from Covey Rise farms in Louisiana, stone-ground grits from a mill in Jacksonville, specialty cuts from a butcher in Atlanta. These details matter.

Every ingredient is inspected when it arrives. If it doesn't meet our standard, it doesn't make it to your table.

The Morning of Your Event: Prep Begins

Breaking Down Proteins

Trimming, portioning, seasoning. A whole beef tenderloin becomes perfectly uniform filets. A whole fish is filleted, skin scored, pin bones removed. Pork belly is portioned into precise cuts for braising.

This level of butchery and prep takes time. It's faster and more precise to do this in our kitchen than in your rental.

Mise en Place: Everything in Its Place

Vegetables are washed, peeled, and cut. Herbs are picked and chopped. Sauces are started. Stocks are simmering.

By mid-afternoon, every component of your menu is prepped and organized. Proteins are seasoned and ready to sear. Vegetables are cut and stored in containers. Garnishes are prepped and held in the walk-in cooler.

This is the professional kitchen principle of mise en place—everything in its place. It's what allows us to execute a four-course dinner in your rental kitchen without chaos.

Pastry and Dessert Prep

Desserts are often fully prepared in our kitchen. Tarts are baked and chilled. Ice creams are churned. Sauces are made and portioned.

For our Signature Private Chef Brunch, the limoncello cream is made the day before to allow flavors to develop. Biscuit dough is mixed and portioned. Everything that benefits from advance prep is handled in our kitchen.

Testing and Tasting

We taste everything. Sauces are adjusted for seasoning. Garnishes are tested for visual impact. If something isn't perfect, we remake it.

This is where experience matters. After 2,500+ events, we know what works and what doesn't. We know how long a protein will hold in a warm oven. We know which sauces can be made ahead and which need to be finished on-site. We know how to plate a dish so it looks pristine after a three-minute drive from kitchen to table.

The Hour Before Service: Packing and Logistics

Packing the Van

Every piece of equipment, every ingredient, every garnish is loaded into our vehicle. We bring backups for critical items—extra proteins in case one doesn't sear correctly, backup garnishes, additional sauces.

Nothing is left to chance.

We also bring all of our own cooking equipment. Pots, pans, knives, cutting boards, serving platters, utensils—everything. This ensures consistency across every event and eliminates surprises when we arrive at your rental.

Final Checklist

Before we leave our kitchen, we run through a checklist:

• Proteins: checked and packed

• Produce: prepped and packed

• Sauces and garnishes: ready

• Equipment: loaded

• Napkins and serving ware: packed

• Cleaning supplies: ready

If anything is missing, we catch it now—not when we arrive at your rental.

Arriving at Your Rental: Setup and Execution

The First 15 Minutes

We unload equipment, organize the kitchen, and set up our workspace. Proteins go into the refrigerator. Dry goods and equipment are staged on the counter. The oven is preheated.

This is the choreography that allows us to execute efficiently in an unfamiliar kitchen.

Cooking and Plating

With all the advance prep complete, the on-site cooking is focused and precise. Proteins are seared, vegetables are finished, sauces are plated.

Every dish is plated with the same care you'd see at a fine dining restaurant. Garnishes are placed deliberately. Sauces are drizzled with intention. Nothing is haphazard.

Timing

Your first course is served at the exact time you selected. If you requested 6:30 p.m., the first plates hit the table at 6:30 p.m.—not 6:35, not 6:40.

This precision is possible because of the work that happened hours earlier in our kitchen.

After Service: Cleanup

Once the final course is served, we clean the kitchen, pack up equipment, and leave the space as we found it. You won't find a single dirty dish or a crumb on the counter.

The kitchen looks like we were never there—except for the memory of the meal.

Why Advance Prep Matters

The reason we can execute a four-course dinner in a rental kitchen with limited space and equipment is because most of the work happens before we arrive.

Advance prep allows us to focus on cooking and service—not scrambling to chop vegetables or portion proteins in a cramped rental kitchen.

It's the same principle used in fine dining restaurants: prepare as much as possible in advance so service is seamless and precise.

The result is a meal that feels effortless. But behind that ease is hours of preparation, years of experience, and an obsessive attention to detail.

The Full Marrow Team on Every Menu

Here's something most guests don't realize: every menu involves our entire team.

Our pastry chef contributes to desserts. Our executive chef oversees menu development and quality control. The event chef executes on-site service. Every menu benefits from the combined expertise of the full Marrow team.

This isn't a one-person operation. It's a coordinated effort that starts hours before we arrive at your rental.

Behind the Scenes Is Where the Magic Happens

By the time you see us plating your first course, the real work is complete.

The magic isn't in the final flourish of a garnish—it's in the hours of preparation that happened in our kitchen before you ever saw us.

Learn more about what to expect when you book with Marrow, or explore our menus to start planning your experience.