THE president of the company is coming to town from the head office in Milan, and he'd like nothing more adventurous than a home-cooked Italian meal so that he can, well, feel right at home. The problem is, you don't do Italian - unless it involves a can opener and pre-mixed spaghetti sauce - so who're you going to call? Nowadays, a small but increasing number of restaurant and private chefs are riding to the rescue.

It's no secret that many well-established restaurants around town offer catering services to customers who wish to replicate the culinary experience at home or at venues with kitchen facilities. There are also occasions when the attention of a brand-name chef is required - and we're not talking about Chef Boyardee here.

Under these circumstances, a few names inevitably come to the fore and, depending on the occasion, are generally the ones who feature at high-profile corporate events and private homes. It's not always champagne and truffles, either, as many clients simply want quality cuisine at decent prices.

'With so many restaurants opening these days, people are spoilt for choice, so they look for something more unusual,' says Jimmy Chok, executive chef at The Academy Bistro and a popular choice as a private chef. 'A lot of people want to showcase their houses and make things more personal, so they bring a chef in. I do a fair bit of that in a sit-down situation for 10 people or more and the atmosphere is much more relaxed.'

He adds: 'From a private chef's perspective, there are still not that many in the market - it's a different approach, like bringing the restaurant over to the house. It's not enough for a business in itself for me. It's mainly through referrals.' For a typical five-course menu, which might range in price between $80 and $120 per person, chef Chok will feature dishes such as angel-hair pasta with abalone, confit of salmon belly with konbu (Japanese seaweed) crust and his current favourite, Australian pork rack.

Most customers go with a pre-planned menu rather than leaving it up to him and risk depending on what's fresh at the market on the actual day, although he tends to 'perform better if given that choice'. Once, a proposed five-course dinner turned into an impromptu nine-course culinary tour de force - making it a truly satisfying occasion for a private chef, he says.

Chef Chok, along with other big-name chefs such as Roberto Galetti (right) of the Garibaldi Group, Emmanuel Stroobant of Saint Pierre and Sam Leong of the Tung Lok Group, also work their culinary magic at private events hosted by companies such as Miele, the manufacturer of high-end appliances. The company works with premium business partners such as Vertu, Lalique and Christofle, engaging the chefs to help promote their specialty kitchen appliances. In turn, customers get to experience a chef-catered meal in a private fine-dining environment.

'It's an opportunity to show customers new cooking techniques and different ways to use the equipment,' says Galetti, whose Garibaldi Group has been offering catering services since 2005. The company is unique in that by next year, it will be able to offer chef-driven catering for Italian, French and German cuisine, given its association with the restaurants Garibaldi, Gunther's and Brotzeit.

Garibaldi caters to the high-end of the spectrum, with per-person prices in the $80-to-$150 range, for up to about 20 people. 'We don't go much higher than that because it's difficult to prepare the food and cook in a home,' says Galetti. 'I try to avoid buffets - my philosophy is to serve cuisine that I like to eat myself.'

As for that home-style meal, chances are it might come courtesy of Valentino's, the Italian restaurant run by Valentino Valtulina and his family which over the past few years, has become a popular stop for those in search of authentic trattoria cuisine. The business already features an adjoining private dining space and a typical pasticceria (pastry shop) next door but several months ago, the family also started a catering arm.

In keeping with the restaurant's homey image, a meal catered by Valentino's is likely to feature salads, pasta and some typical dishes such as ossobuco (veal shank stew) and chicken cacciatore. The service also features a cooking station where pasta is cooked to order by a chef. 'We believe that the pasta has to be cooked on the spot - the important thing is that it is cooked in front of you so the quality control is very high,' says chef Valtulina.

The home catering set up can be simple or more complex, depending on the mood required. Typical menus are priced at between $48 and $98 but when the occasion demands, Valtulina has been called upon to produce something more formal for smaller groups - and he is happy to oblige.

'We like to cater good quality food in a simple way,' he says. 'Between my wife and I, we have a very big family - when we gather, there are about 60 of us so the food options are quite limited. We want people to enjoy our food, without being overly complicated.'

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