Tailored Chef

If I could give this 10 stars, I would. What a wonderful evening for my husbands birthday. Above professional, friendly with an amazing talent for food. The best part was they cleaned up everything. They spent some time educating us on food preparation, temperatures and seasonings. This is a nice experience for a special occasion that is as intimate or festive as you'd like.

In a nutshell: I tried to hire The Tailored Chef for my cousin's bachelorette dinner. He bailed on me last minute and was extremely unprofessional about it. I'm glad to see there are people who are happy with his services but I have found that with reviews, people who get the short end of the stick don't say anything unless it's really, really bad. So I imagine that there are people out there who have had similar experiences to mine but didn't deem it worthy of their time to leave a review. I think it's a huge inconvenience to write this review but I wish someone else would have done this so I wouldn't have had this experience in the first place. Therefore, I am writing this to pay it forward so future bookers can have this data point before deciding if they want to book and put the reliability and concrete-ness of their plans, the smoothness of their event and ultimately their happiness and satisfaction in the hands of this careless, indifferent and unprofessional flake. Long version: The only part of the entire encounter that was positive was that after I submitted the inquiry through Yelp, he responded pretty quickly. After that, it all went downhill. Not only were the email handoffs not warm (as in a "warm handoff" that doesn't leave the customer feeling thrown around between people), unprofessional, disjointed and caused for poor customer experience, I repeatedly had to ask for a link to pay once they had confirmed the date and sent me an invoice confirmation because they had thought I had paid and I hadn't - I was being ethical and trying to make sure they got paid. Then all of a sudden one day, I got an automated email confirmation that my confirmation had been cancelled. No communication from Chef Lin Old or his assistant, Theresa. I had to reach out to THEM asking about the email and was just assuming the best and that they had cancelled it in order to send me a new confirmation where I could pay. But oh no. Chef Lin responds with the unbelievable email: "I decided to take the last two weeks of July - the first week of August to go on holiday. I'm the only one who teaches the classes ( Culinary Instructor of 11 years @ The Art Institute) so no one could cover it. That is why I canceled." I attached the email because I still can't believe how unprofessional he was. I am counting on his services, we are ONE MONTH out, he committed to my dates and the service, he cancels and doesn't even do the courtesy of letting me know himself. I am the one who has to reach out to get clarification and when he provides it, he doesn't even offer acknowledgement of / accept responsibility for / act with professional courtesy for the lack of etiquette and professionalism he is exhibiting. I then write him an email saying how disappointing this experience is and that I will write a review to let other people know they simply cannot count on him and his lack of professionalism. He responds with "Not sure what the second email is about demanding an apology & wanting to write a bad review. If this is how things are starting then we may not be a good fit for each other?" I have attached screenshots of these emails as well. I didn't demand an apology. I pointed out he didn't provide one; "That's super disappointing to hear and the lack of apology or proactive explanation for the inconvenience is really poor customer experience." And not a good fit? What a petulant understatement. I live in San Francisco and perhaps the level of service and standard of professional etiquette is higher there than in the Virginia Beach area but I found Chef Lin Old's correspondence, limited customer service, and backing out of his commitment of service (last minute, no less!) abysmal. I am sure that if we had gone through with the service, he himself would have been unbearable. The ego, dismissiveness and lack of ownership that insidiously eeked out through our interactions would have ruined my cousin's party's evening. I'm a silver lining person and so I've convinced myself it's a good thing the reservation didn't go through BUT I do not tolerate behavior like this in the customer service industry. I don't care - small company to Amazon. We are all customers these days and interactions should be led with and based on empathy and compassion. The way Chef Lin Old approached this CS interaction was like a large company that didn't care about the small customer and how it ruined their day / trip / experience: indifferent, careless, un-empathetic. No one wants or deserves to be treated this way. I am so thankful that I was able to find another chef on such short notice but being treated with such unprofessionalism and being stranded last minute without a chef when the entire attendance of the bachelorette (including the bride-to-be, my cousin, who I can't let down!) were counting on and looking forward to a private cooking class, I feel obligated to write this review so no one goes through what I did.

Fantastic meal by an exceptional chef! Punctual and professional, he was able to create a delicious meal in the Airbnb kitchen with the tools and implements available. Beautiful whole oven roasted rockfish, with fresh oysters and scallops!

The Tailored Chef catered a baby shower for me that consisted of Mediterranean fare such as Hummus, grape leaves, wraps, fresh fruit. Lin Old, chef did an outstanding job. I highly recommend him. He is professional, and the food was fresh. No complaints. All I heard were excellent remarks about the food.

We had a small family affair at Viginiga Beach last Sunday, Chef Lin and his assistant, Leya, showed up at our beach rental at 3:30 and proceeded to provide us with a wonderful dinner, better than the meals my wife and I had enjoyed at a few Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe. We were surprised the meal was that good but we should not have been if we knew what we know now. Chef Lin was passionate about his food and he cared about the quality of his food for us. Grouper was planned for dinner but Chef Lin served us fresh Alaskan halibut because when he did the shopping the halibut was better than the grouper vailable. He did not charge us extra for the upgrade. He also used fresh ingrdients from his own garden. Excellent food requires attention to details, knowledge, techniques and creativity; Chef Lin checked all the boxes for us. Thank you, Chef Lin, for the excellent food, presentation and personal service. All of us enjoyed the dinner very much. Hope we will meet again soon.

Chef Lin did an amazing job for my mom's birthday dinner. We had it scheduled for the night of the Tropical Storm and we had to reschedule. He was helpful in that process and was ready to do whatever we needed. The food was absolutely amazing. So much flavor.

We could not have been happier with Lin and his colleague. Our occasion was very special and Tailored Chef rose above the occasion. The food was great, fresh and professionally presented. The team could not have been more cooperative and friendly. The clean-up was seamless and everything was back to normal before they left. Planning on another event with Tailored Chef next summer.

I can't say enough great things about Chef Lin and his crew! Food was AMAZING! Service and personality was AMAZING! Taylored chef goes above and beyond! Book!! You won't be disappointed!

We hired Tailored Chef for a dinner out in Sandbridge over the weekend and we are still raving about it till this day. From the beginning of our communication he was professional, listened to what we wanted and then provided the most delicious 3-course meal. The food was fresh, delicious and I loved the fact he used local sourced ingredients, even herbs from his own personal garden. The food was cooked perfectly and timely. It was one of the best dinners we ever had and we can't wait to have him come back and cater our next event. I HIGHLY recommend! You will not be disappointed.

Our event was made PERFECT because of Lin!! His professionalism, eye for detail, willingness to adjust the menu each time I wanted to add something, his caring attitude and absolutely delicious food, cannot be praised highly enough. His philosophy of creating an event that the host can enjoy as well as the guests was far exceeded. We even lost electricity during the early part of the evening - no problem - Lin (and his crew) didn't miss a beat! Everything was outstanding and the event created the everlasting memories we had hoped it would. Thank you Lin!