Private Chef SydneyThe chefsClaudio Zannotti
Bespoke Italian-fusion menus plated with fine-dining precision, after more than two decades at the stove.
Claudio learned to cook at his mother’s elbow in Italy and has spent more than twenty years turning that instinct into something quietly precise. His menus are a fusion in the real sense — a lemongrass beef tartare here, hand-rolled lobster ravioli there, a green-tea tiramisù to close — Italian foundations threaded with the flavours he’s gathered along the way. He treats a private dinner as a commission rather than a service: the menu is built around your table, the plating is restaurant-grade, and the timing is his to worry about, not yours. He’s also known for a generous hand — as he likes to warn hosts, nobody has ever left one of his dinners hungry.
Off recent tables
Menus
Starting points, priced per head. Each one gets reshaped around your table before a figure is locked in.
What Claudio is best for
- Hand-crafted lobster ravioli in lobster sauce
- Beef tenderloin, salsa verde and slow-roasted tomato
- Creamy hazelnut tiramisù with coffee gel
Books for: anniversaries, milestone birthdays, intimate celebrations and refined dinner parties.
Cooks across: Leichhardt, Balmain, Rozelle, Newtown, Glebe, Annandale, Sydney CBD.
Guest notes
For my mother’s 80th, Claudio delivered a dinner that far exceeded our expectations. His passion for Italian cooking showed in every course, he tailored the menu around our preferences and even added a cod main on request. He turned our dining room into a fine-dining restaurant.
We chose a seafood menu and Claudio happily mixed plated and shared dishes across seven courses. The portions were insanely generous — the salmon sashimi and the handmade gnocchi with langoustine could each have been a main — and he left the kitchen spotless.
Claudio created the most incredible four-course dinner at home for my husband’s birthday. Every dish was beautifully presented and the wine pairing made it feel like a five-star restaurant — and he handled everything from prep to clean-up seamlessly.
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