The Live Cooking Show
Most private chefs work behind a closed door and send the food out. Chef Alecia does the opposite.
She arrives with the ingredients and lays them out where everyone can see them — the scotch bonnets, the ginger, the green bananas, the fish. She doesn’t pick the menu, the season does. Book her again in three months and it’s a different dinner.
Then she cooks in front of you, and she talks while she does it. She’s sharing a lifetime of knowledge she learned cooking beside her grandmother over a woodfire. Why those two spices belong together. What the pimento is doing besides tasting good. None of it was ever written down.
Five courses come out over about three hours. There’s laughter, there are questions, and somebody always ends up on their feet at the counter with a spoon in their hand. Somewhere in the middle, people stop being guests and start being part of it.
Nobody leaves without learning something they didn’t know when they walked in.
For twenty years, this was the reason travelers drove into the hills outside Negril instead of eating on the beach. Now you don’t have to.
From $200 per guest · $1,200 minimum · introductory rate through December 2026
“A cultural and dining experience unrivaled in Jamaica.”
How an evening runs
Dinner shows start at 6:00 pm. She arrives two to three hours ahead to set up, depending on the size of your party. Earlier works too — just tell us on the form.
Whichever puts them closest. She wants to be able to hand plates directly. Wine glasses full. Music low.
Soup, salad or an appetizer, a fish course, the main, and dessert. She talks while she cooks. Where curried goat comes from, why the pot has to be heavy, what her grandmother did differently.
You do not touch a dish. She leaves it the way she found it.
What’s included
Sourced, prepped, and cooked. Vegetables from the farm markets. Fish from the Gulf. Nothing bought in a box.
Soursop, June plum, sorrel, tamarind, cucumber-ginger. Pressed the afternoon of the dinner.
Her pots, her knives, her spice mixes. Your kitchen just needs a stove, a sink, and counter space.
Dishes done. Trash out. Leftovers boxed and labeled if there are any.
Twelve or more guests, a second pair of hands is included — usually Mark, her husband, or one of the local hires she has trained here.
Anywhere in Florida with a party of ten or more: also free. Beyond that, we quote destination travel separately.
Group size & price
$1,200 minimum booking. Two people or thirty — the minimum is the same either way.
Any bigger, ask. Alecia has done larger, but the room and the kitchen have to fit it.
At additional cost. It takes four hours and it’s worth it.
Earlier works too. Tell us on the inquiry form and we’ll match your evening.
Included in the per-guest price. Nobody is running out of clean forks.
$200 per guest, five courses, food and juices included. Rate goes up in 2027.
Full refund up to seven days out. Inside seven days, the deposit is non-refundable because the food is already ordered. Short-notice bookings (inside 48 hours) are paid in full at booking and non-refundable — she has already started shopping.
Where she cooks
Sarasota, Bradenton, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, Lido Key, Anna Maria Island, Lakewood Ranch, Venice, Osprey, Nokomis, and Palmetto. Free travel inside 25 miles of downtown Sarasota. Free anywhere in Florida for parties of ten or more — Naples, Tampa, Orlando, the Panhandle, the Keys.
For destination weeks farther out — the whole family renting a house on 30A, a week outside Florida, a Blue Ridge cabin — ask. She has done travel gigs for two decades and it is often easier than people expect.
Good occasions
Fifty, sixty, seventy. Anniversaries. Retirements.
Small, warm, and the food is the memory.
One night during a family week, when everyone is finally in the same house.
A closer to a board dinner or client visit. Nobody is presenting anything.
An honest reason. A lot of people book her for this.
Six to twelve people, one house, one long dinner.
Frequently asked
All the food, all the juices, all the prep, all the cleanup. Alecia arrives with the ingredients and leaves with the trash. You provide the kitchen and the people.
Two guests or thirty — the $1,200 minimum booking is the same either way. Comfortable up to thirty. Parties over twelve get a kitchen assistant included.
Plan on about three hours from first course to last, plus a half hour on either side for setup and breakdown.
In your kitchen. Sarasota, Bradenton, Siesta Key, Longboat, Lido, Anna Maria Island, Lakewood Ranch, Venice, Osprey, Nokomis, Palmetto. Free travel inside 25 miles of Sarasota — and free anywhere in Florida if your party is ten or more.
Yes. Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, nut allergies, seafood allergies. She has cooked around all of them for twenty years. Tell us on the inquiry and the menu comes back adjusted — not a separate plate that looks like an afterthought.
Send an inquiry with your date, guest count, and city. You will get a menu and a quote back within one business day. A 30% deposit holds the date. The balance is due 48 hours before the event.
Yes. Free travel anywhere in Florida for parties of ten or more — Naples, Tampa, Orlando, the Keys. Beyond Florida, note the location on the inquiry and we will talk travel.
Short-notice bookings (inside 48 hours) are paid in full at booking and non-refundable — she has already started shopping the moment we confirm the date.