Vendador is the most trusted chef-driven event team in Chicago, Illinois. An exclusive culinary experience that transcends traditional catering, Vendador offers tailor-made tasting menus and canapé service for dining that redefines special events catering.
Imagine a traveling fine dining brigade that brings the chef's table to you. Whether in the comfort of your home, a serene canopied garden, or toasting across a candlelit table in a vast urban loft, Vendador gives you the flexibility to celebrate outside the confines of your favorite restaurant, without compromising the quality of a skillfully plated meal.
Since our inception, Vendador has become the epitome of personalized culinary experiences. Our team of Michelin-trained chefs, with decades of experience in revered kitchens, curates menus that reflect your tastes and the season’s best offerings.
Word of Mouth
five stars & over 300 reviews on Google
“Great food can be found in a lot of places. Great technique can be found in a lot of places. Great preparation can be found in a lot of places. Great service and attention to detail can be found in a lot of places…. BUT to find a team who does all of these in elite fashion at a large scale, is a rarity beyond real comparison.”
“Chef Francis and the Vendador team delivered an absolutely unforgettable experience for our private dinner party of 22. From planning to execution, everything was seamless. They created two fantastic custom craft cocktails, curated perfect wine pairings for every course, and served elegant, outstanding canapés.”
“If you're seeking a culinary experience that transcends the ordinary, Vendador is a private chef service that truly delivers. With a reputation for Michelin-star quality, they have redefined the concept of fine dining in the comfort of your home and this was a night my family and I will cherish for years to come.”
A complete fine dining ecosystem means a Michelin-trained chef designs your menu, Court-certified sommeliers and bartenders curate your beverage program, servers host your guests with warmth and genuine hospitality, and all of us manage every detail before, during, and after your event. Our promise is that you truly never lift a finger.
A chef-driven journey through 5 to 12 seasonal courses, plated with precision. Plateware, stemware, silver, and linens all provided. Every menu is designed for you and yours, never repeated.
Explore tasting menus
Certified sommeliers and licensed craft bartenders bring the full beverage experience: a rotating seasonal cocktail menu, a premium open bar, or three tiers of wine pairings. Every pour is intentional.
Explore bar & sommelier services
Elegant, high-level bites designed for entertaining. From the dock to the garden, our canapé service and chef-attended food stations set the tone the moment guests arrive.
Explore canapés & food stations
Abundant, beautifully composed, and anything but ordinary. Michelin-caliber ingredients in a format that flows naturally for open houses, receptions, and evenings where conversation moves as freely as the food.
Explore buffet dining
The symbol we cherish at Vendador is the poppy, or lulëkuqe, the national flower of Albania. It stands for the hospitality of the mountains, where going above and beyond for the people at your table is simply what you do.
A purveyor of an intimate good:
a vendor of hospitality, brought to your door.
Formerly of Japonais by Morimoto, Momotaro, and Roister of The Alinea Group, Chef Francis Pascal believes high-level cuisine shouldn’t restrict anyone to the walls of the favorite restaurant.
Life’s most important and intimate celebrations should transpire anywhere for any occasion. And never at the cost of a skillfully plated meal.
By focusing on technique, Chicago’s best private chef showcases locally sourced ingredients with a relentless commitment to hospitality in Chicago’s elite venues and private residences, resetting the standard of special events cuisine with devotion to craft in alternative spaces - with or without a kitchen.
Chef Francis was born and raised in Albania. Before moving to the US, Chef’s experience was one of direct contact with the people who were growing his food. He is inspired by their traditions. His mission is to raise awareness about people’s relationship to the quality of the food they are consuming, with special attention to the ingredients’ journey from farm to table. With tribute to this European heritage, he brings an ever-resilient commitment to hospitality, a genuine desire to give, and a globally-inspired perspective to food innovation that is evident with every bite.
Every chef, Court-certified sommelier, bartender, and server around your table is trained to the Vendador standard.
Chef Francis was born and raised in Albania, where taking care of people is a way of being. The pleasure of bending over backwards for someone, of making sure a loved one leaves your home feeling completely cared for, is its own reward.
That instinct sits at the center of everything we do. Will Guidara wrote in Unreasonable Hospitality that the greatest gift you can give someone is the feeling of being truly, completely taken care of. Not efficiently taken care of. Not adequately. Completely. Vendador was built on that principle.
The meals in your life deserve to be treated intentionally. Weekly family supper. Birthdays. Anniversaries. The dinner where you tell your family the news. The night you welcome someone new into your home, or build relationships with lifelong clients from scratch.
For when your gathering deserves more than catering…