Chef Vanessa

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.

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!

Chef Vanessa catered a lovely closing night party for a small group of tech entrepreneurs visiting Silicon Valley. We wanted the evening to be intimate and fun at a private home (after a week of business dinners and working lunches). Chef Vanessa met all of our requests and presented a charming and informal multi-​course meal. Her food was simple, classic California cuisine using all fresh ingredients. It had a home-​cooked touch that the guests totally enjoyed. Chef Vanessa was reliable and delivered everything she promised. Highly recommend!

As a new mom, I needed to do something for my anniversary that was easy but still special, and Chef Vanessa was the perfect solution! She came to our home and cooked a fabulous meal for us so we could keep an eye on our little one and still enjoy each other. The meal was creative and delicious and Vanessa even accommodated my crazy requests! Hearing I was a new mom, she brought some extra marinated chicken breasts that we could quickly cook up for another evening — so thoughtful. She is a delight to have in your home and VERY self-​sufficient. She left the kitchen even cleaner than when she started. Thank you, Chef Vanessa, for a wonderful anniversary celebration!

I had an excellent experience having Vanessa cater my wedding. She was incredibly professional, easy to reach, flexible, fun, helpful, talented. Really wonderful all around. She ran in to some MAJOR challenges on the day of (including the gas going out in the whole house!) that were completely out of her control and she did an unbelievable job getting everything done, and done perfectly, despite them. I would have never known of the trouble had I not been told of it afterwards. She never panicked. All the food was delicious and they left the kitchen impressively clean after it all. I found it really hard to trust someone with something so important but Vanessa made it easy. I recommend her whole heartedly.

I came across Vanessa and crew on Unilocal.We were having a good size (100+) pre wedding party at our home. Really, a rehearsal dinner that grew out of control! I called Vanessa, went through everything with her, and she immediately seemed very confident that she could deliver on my expectations.
She has an extensive menu of delicious meal options. We had fantastic passed hors d’oeuvres, an amazing buffet of options covering vegetarians and meat eaters, and a delicious dessert. The guests raved!
She and her staff were very professional. They cooked everything in my kitchen, which I think made the food so fresh as opposed to bringing it in. They made themselves familiar with my kitchen and I was surprised and impressed to find some of the food beautifully displayed on my trays. She and her staff just figured it all out. I did not have one worry in the world, and that is pretty amazing considering we hosted a dinner for 100+. Seriously, we are still getting thank you notes in the mail about how fab the party was. Vanessa and crew were a major part of that. I highly recommend!

Chef Vanessa came to the rescue! Teresa our chef knocked it out of the park with our dinner and brunch. The rolls, coffee cake and quiches were awesome! Brunch was the ultimate. Thx!

My wife and I recently hired Chef Vanessa to cater my 50^th birthday dinner party that we were hosting for our families. She came highly recommended by one of my colleagues. Vanessa and her assistants, Theresa and Jenny did such a fantastic job that I will be using them again if I cater another dinner party at our home! All the guests raved about how great the food tasted and their service was excellent. Even if you’re not looking to cater an event, Chef Vanessa is also a private chef and she can prepare home cooked meals for you on a weekly basis.
The unique part is that they cook and prepare the meal at our home. My wife and I along with some of our guests enjoyed watching them cook. How can you pass up a free cooking demonstration! I would definitely recommend Chef Vanessa to my friends and clients.
And we highly recommend her signature appetizer… pork eggrolls. They were delicious!

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

Simply said, Chef Vanessa is The Best. If Unilocal had 10 stars, I’d give her 11. Vanessa has been our weekly in-​home chef and our go-​to caterer for events big (over 150) and small (12) for over a decade. Her food is delicious, creative, «of-​the-​moment» (for all you foodies out there) and she can accommodate any special needs and tastes. And, importantly, she is very reasonable in her all her pricing and event staffing costs. She has been feeding our family with her «Save The Day» service since our children were toddlers and now, as teens, she has still continues to please their ever-​changing tastes… while getting them to eat healthy things like fish and unusual, vitamin-​packed veggies! Once a week she spends about an hour in our home and creates 3 entrees and two huge two side salads (one green, one fruit — which we eat from all week long as snacks, salads as lunch for me with a little protein that I add, pre-​cut fruit for breakfast or as «smoothie» fruit, etc. as well as for side dishes) and I then come home, put a single dish in the oven, add an easy veggie and another side as «Viola!» dinner is served within minutes — with almost no clean up. It sounds luxurious, but actually it’s the best way to keep our family eating a variety of healthy, delicious foods for not much more than the price of take out or pizza. Vanessa knows us so well, I don’t even need to select from her extensive menus (which are lovely and change seasonally) — she figures out the entrees, shops, and prepares everything, saving me a LOT of time because I don’t have to plan meals every week or go to the grocery store as often.
Prior to hiring Vanessa, my job as a private secretary involved working with caterers on behalf of my employer. I have worked with top tier, very well-​known names in the catering and party planning world in San Francisco, and I can tell you Vanessa Davisson, of Chef Vanessa, is a gem, on par with any of the «names» — but without the price. I urge you to try her once-​a-​week in home service. If you don’t like cooking, you’ll love it. If you DO like cooking, you will then be able to spend your time on fun dishes and let her handle the day-​to-​day of feeding your household. Vanessa is wonderful.