Private chefs & entertainment · Cape Town
Your own chef,
at your own table.
All in Divine Time
The restaurant
comes to you.
Divine Time is the house behind the evening. We pair you with a chef, hold the proposal and the payment, and stay in the background while your chef takes the room. Want more than dinner? Add live music, a wine pairing or a cocktail bar, and the same proposal carries it all. Not a booking, not a delivery: an experience shaped around the people at your table.
This is us
Exclusive dining in the comfort of
your Cape Town villa or apartment.
Every evening is written for the people at the table, and it begins with a conversation rather than a menu.
Private dining at your table
As relaxed or as refined as the evening calls for.
- From a chilled braai to fine dining, and everything between
- Harvest tables and canapés when the table is long
- Seasonal, organic and free-range wherever possible
Optional entertainment
Should you want it, the music is planned into the evening rather than added at the end.
- Saxophonist, vocalist, string duo, guitarist or DJ
- Styled tables, candlelight and florals, if you would like them
- Music and menu planned as one, in a single proposal
A chef for your whole stay
For villas on the Atlantic Seaboard and houses in the Winelands.
- Daily menus that change with the week
- The shopping and the kitchen handled entirely
- Around your plans, not the other way round
Each comes as a single proposal with one investment, written for your table. Nothing is added on afterwards.
How it works
You describe the evening.
Your chef does everything else.
No browsing, no menus to compare, no quotes to chase. One conversation, one proposal, and a night you get to sit down for.
01
Tell us about the evening
Who is at the table, what the night is for, how you want it to feel. Four short screens and not one question about budget. It takes less time than choosing a restaurant.
02
Your chef writes back
Not a menu to pick from. A proposal written for your table: the courses, the wine, the music if you want it, the way the room will look when your guests walk in. One invitation, one investment, everything included.
03
Refine it together
Read it, sleep on it, change your mind. Swap a course, add a saxophonist, move the date. Your chef rewrites it until it is exactly the evening you had in mind. Nothing is charged until you say yes.
04
Secure the date
A secure link through Payfast confirms it. From there the shopping, the cooking, the table and the service belong to your chef and their team. You pour a drink and wait for your guests.
The produce
Seasonal produce, cooked in your kitchen.
Menus are written around what is in season, from the markets and the Winelands, with organic and free-range produce wherever it can be found. Everything is cooked in your kitchen, on the night. Whether the evening is a refined tasting menu or a chilled braai with friends, it starts with good ingredients and a chef who knows what to do with them.
- Seasonal, organic and free-range wherever possible
- Cooked in your kitchen, on the night
- From a relaxed braai to a five-course tasting menu
Meet our head chef
Italian inspired intimacy.
Divine Time was founded by Toia Marescia, a South African chef with Italian roots and a cook’s sense of what a table wants before it asks. She still writes and cooks many of our evenings herself. Every chef who cooks under the Divine Time name is chosen by her and held to her standard, and each brings their own team: waiters who know when to disappear, a barman for the terrace, a sommelier if the wine matters to you, performers, and someone to dress the table before you walk in. You deal with one person and one proposal. The house arranges the rest.
“A return to simplicity and to what is real, where guests are invited to slow down, connect and experience something both elegant and meaningful.”
Good to know
The questions guests ask before they write to us.
Not a marketplace. Nothing to browse, no tiers to pick. Your chef writes the evening; you say yes.
What does an evening cost?+
Every evening is written for its table, so there is no price list and nothing to compare against. Tell us about the night and your chef replies with one proposal and one investment, everything included: the menu, the produce, the cooking, the service, and the music and drinks if you want them. Asking costs nothing, and nothing is charged until you confirm.
Who will cook?+
One of our chefs, with their own team. For now most evenings are cooked by our head chef, Toia Marescia, who founded Divine Time. Your proposal comes from the chef who will be at your table, so the name you read is the person who arrives.
How quickly will I hear back?+
Your enquiry goes straight to your chef, who reads it personally and replies once they have thought about it properly, usually within a day or two. What comes back is a written proposal rather than an automated reply, which takes a little longer than a form and is worth the wait.
How far ahead should I book?+
Three days at the very least, so there is time to plan, shop and staff the evening. For a large table, a date that matters or live music, a couple of weeks gives your chef more to work with. If it is short notice, ask anyway. If it can be done, it will be.
Can I change the proposal?+
Yes, as often as you like. Swap a course, add music, move the date, take something out. Your chef rewrites it and sends it back, and nothing is confirmed until you say so. Most evenings settle in one or two rounds.
Is there a minimum number of guests?+
No. Dinner for two is as welcome as a table of thirty. The menu, the service and the size of the team are shaped to the table rather than the other way round.
Do you cater for dietary requirements?+
Always. Tell us when you enquire: allergies, vegetarian or vegan guests, halaal, children who eat early. The menu is written around them from the start rather than adapted on the night, so the whole table eats together and nobody is handed a different plate.
What do I need to provide?+
A kitchen and a table. Your chef brings the produce and their team, and the proposal tells you if anything else is needed for your particular evening. If you would like the table dressed, glassware brought in or flowers arranged, say so and it goes into the same proposal.
Can we add live music or a bar?+
Yes, and it works best planned with the menu rather than added at the end. A saxophonist for arrival drinks, a string duo through dinner, a DJ after dessert, a barman on the terrace. Tell us what you have in mind and it comes back in the same proposal, with one investment.
How do I pay?+
By secure link through Payfast, with a card or instant EFT. Depending on the evening, a deposit secures the date and the balance follows closer to the day, or the full amount is paid in one go. Your proposal sets this out before you commit to anything.
Where do you host?+
Cape Town, the Atlantic Seaboard, Constantia and the Winelands. Further afield by arrangement: tell us where you are and your chef will say what is possible.
Do you do corporate dinners?+
Yes. Executive dinners, team tables and client evenings, seated or as a harvest table with canapés. Tell us the occasion as you would any other, and mention if it is a company booking so the proposal is addressed accordingly.
Something else? WhatsApp us and a person answers.