Chef Malekae

I was born and raised in Mendocino in Northern California, which is a very small town right on the coast. My parents have a big property with pigs, goats, and chickens, so I always say I grew up on a farm even though we didn't actually sell anything. We grew all our own produce, so everything we ate was local and farm fresh, which definitely inspired my love for food.

My dad, who's French, can't cook at all, but my mom was a chef in her early twenties, and I would make dinner with her every single night from a very young age. After high school, I got my bachelor's degree from UCLA in international development, but I also took a lot of courses in food studies there. I'd worked in restaurants and loved the atmosphere, so after graduating from college, I decided to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris at the original location (thanks, Dad, for teaching me French!).

Today, I combine my background and training to make fresh, farm-to-table meals that use local, organic, and above all, delicious ingredients. It probably won't surprise anyone that I'm a big fan of Alice Waters, who many consider the modern founder of the farm-to-table movement, and Timothy Hollingsworth, who was the chef at The French Laundry.

I love cooking Mediterranean-influenced food. In fact, I would say my style's farm-to-table Mediterranean. I draw on food and ingredients from Spain, Greece, Italy, and North Africa in my cooking.

Although I've always loved the experience of working in a restaurant, I decided to go the private chef route because just as I love the connection between the land and food, I love the connection between chef and client.