Kitchensurfing

Solving the dinner party problem

By Ronald Holden

Ah, the dinner party! Invite friends over, show off your place. But entertaining at home comes with its own problems: you either have to cook yourself, or else call for delivery. And catered food is almost by definition mediocre and overpriced. Still, there's one undeniable advantage of having your dinner party at home: no surcharge for wine or booze!

Second concept: at any given moment, on any given night, there are plenty of talented restaurant chefs who aren't working in professional kitchens. Maybe they're between jobs, maybe it's their day off, maybe their job description really is "personal chef." At any rate, lots of talent out there.

Chris Muscarella's solution, which was born in Brooklyn 18 months ago and launched in Seattle in late July, is a marketplace website called Kitchensurfing.com that matches high-end catering chefs and kick-ass restaurant sous chefs with folks who want to throw a party at home. Two keys: a diversity of menus, and online reviews of the chefs. "The cost is comparable to restaurant prices," Muscarella points out. "And it's as easy as making a reservation on Open Table."

He has 70 people on staff in Brooklyn, a growing number of chefs (hundreds) who participate, and thriving operations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, even Berlin. Menus and chefs are organized by category (African, Asian, Barbecue, Caribbean, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American, Malaysian ... well, you get the picture) so that you can select, for example, a North African summer getaway (Morocco!) or a Southeast Asian Old World dinner. Plated or family style. Simple or fancy. Many options are available for $40 or so.

Kitchensurfing takes ten percent as its fee; the rest goes directly to the chefs, who are responsible for their own shopping, prep, cooking and cleanup. The chefs know they're going to be rated, Yelp-style, so they're not going to be sloppy or cut corners.

And there's nothing quite like having a chef in your own kitchen, is there? While the chef and helpers chop and dice away, you're on the deck with your friends, drink in hand, watching the sunset. Isn't that why you rise at 4 a.m., bike to work, jog on weekends, drink wheatgrass smoothies? To earn these magic moments, to hear these murmuring voices, soft laughter, and tinkling glasses?

August 2014

Ronald Holden is a Seattle-based journalist who specializes in food, wine and travel. He has worked for KING TV, Seattle Weekly, and Chateau Ste. Michelle; his blog is www.Cornichon.org.