We booked Chef by Design almost 1 year before my daughter's October 20, 2012 wedding. Throughout this time, we met several times to discuss her vision and do a tasting. They were so friendly and helpful. Joanie Powell was the best in helping us with the rentals, selections, and creative ideas. We received so many compliments from our guests on how great the food and the service were. They really loved the crab cakes and grits and rockfish appetizers-Yummm! Not only was the presentation beautiful, but even more importantly, the food was delicious thanks to Chef John. Their service was personal, their staff was professional and the food was of great quality. We would highly recommend them for any special event.

Love, love, love these people! From the first meeting with Marcie to the day of my wedding - everything was done at a very professional but personal manner! They were happy to meet with me and once we established what kind of event - Marcie, Joanie and Chef John did an amazing job! They are everything they say they are! I would not hesitate to cal them again for the perfect catering for sure. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Lynn

Chef by design is amazing! We're so glad we chose them for our wedding! Our guests are still raving about how wonderful the food was. Joanie is awesome and went out of her way to meet with me and my vendors to ensure my vision for our big day was captured. Joanie & her team were fabulous, thanks guys for making our event one to always remember!!

DELISH!!!!!! Chef by Design is incredibly amazing!!!! My husband and I went to many tastings. My husband is the cook of the house and is very picky. After meeting with Marcy and Joanie we decided from their elaborate menu what we wanted to taste. Everything from the salad to the main entrees was simply scrumptious!!! We planned our menu over a year in advanced. We were a tad leery that maybe would not be the same on the day of the wedding. A few weeks before the wedding our guest count went up, Joanie and Marcy worked with us through a few bumps in the road. On the day of the wedding Beth came out with their full staff EVERYTHING WAS BEYOND PERFECT!!!!!The food actually was better then what we had originally tasted, fit for a king and a queen! Our guest even now 2 months later are still raving about the taste and quality of the food!!! Chef by Design is simply the best in Hampton Roads!!! Thank you Marcy, John, Joanie, Beth and all of Chef by Design staff for making our wedding so grand!!!!

The Chef by Design crew was amazing. Joanie helped us with so many things! Everyone raved about the food for days after! Joanie and her staff really helped make the party!! She put together a seated dinner for 120 in a tent kitchen at a horse farm and the food was divine! It made it to the table warm for everyone. And as the bride and groom we made time to eat dinner!

Chef by Design was fantastic to work with! We had hors d'oeuvres, a seated salad, and a buffet dinner at our wedding and the guests kept commenting on how great to food was (certainly not your typical wedding food). The crab cakes, curried lamb skewers, jalapeno cheddar soup, and garlic peppercorn steak got the highest reviews! All of their food was great and they were wonderful to work with - I would recommend them to any friend! Wish they had a restaurant so we could have their food more often.

I can't even begin to say how amazing Chef by Design was... As soon as I booked my wedding, I got a menu which I was literally salivating over. I picked some of the MOST delicious things I have ever tasted in my life. Had a great experience at my tasting, was able to tweak things and truly customize it to my liking. Working with Joanie was an absolute pleasure! She made the whole process so easy! She was quick to answer any questions I had and let me personalize everything but always had a very helpful perfessional opinion on things... Super thankful for that! ALL of my guests LOVED the food. I'm pretty sure it's the one thing I hear most about now! All in all, i had an EXCEPTIONAL experience!!!

Cheers to Chef by Design for making our wedding wonderful and absolutely delicious. We brought them the challenge of creating a vegetarian reception menu that would please our palates as well as our meat eating friends and family and they delivered with ease. People are still raving about the foods we served, specifically the mac n' cheese bites, various soups and white veggie lasagna! Yum!
We also enlisted their services for our wedding cake, which turned out beautifully. They stunned us with a 3 layer creation that shimmered and was stacked with champagne glasses - AMAZING! Then there were the cake flavors themselves - my husband isn't a huge chocolate fan and scarfed down his sample during our tasting in about 30 seconds. Their carrot cake and lemon pound were also equally as tasty.
On top of all the amazing food, the service and support we received from Chef by Design was top notch. They were there to help through every step of the way, even assisting in selecting and coordinating our rentals. I can honestly say our wedding would not have been the same without them!

Nothing but compliment on the food!!! It was AMAZING!!!! If you don't get the crab cakes, then you made a HUGE mistake.....they are AWESOME!! And our guests loved them. One word of advise if you get them...get a lot of them!!!
Joanie, Marcy, and Chef John are all GREAT people and very easy to work with. My wife and I will continue to use them for parties and such now in the future. That is just a huge compliment to their quality of service.
One common phrase from our guests was, "WOW the food was awesome" and of course "Dude, are there more crab cakes"!!!
Easy selection as a caterer......They will not let you down, they are the best in town by far. Very responsive and meet/exceed all expectations!

Words couldn't even begin to describe how great Chef by Design is. They completely transformed my wedding into our theme and went above and beyond on anything we asked of them. Joanie was our day of coordinator and there was not ONE thing that went wrong on our wedding day. The food was DELICIOUS, fresh, and presented in a way that awed and impressed our guest. Definitely worth EVERY single penny we spent! I have no regrets in choosing Chef By Design.

Getting the food right is THE most important part of a wedding. We had 4 events for our son's wedding and each was different. Once we knew Chef by Design was going to be our caterer, we stopped stressing about that! It was a breeze working with Marcy, Joanie and Chef John...actually lots of fun! They handled everything down to the smallest detail. (Their staff was the best also!) The bride and groom and their parents could then enjoy (and remember) all that was happening. The food was amazing and each event had different food and different themes! It was so memorable and delicious!

This catering company is absolutely outstanding in every way. They had to change our plans for a wedding and reception on the beach to an inside wedding at the last minute due to bad weather and they responded beautifully and quickly. The food was perfect and the staff, especially the catering manager Joanie Powell, were great to work with. I recommend them very, very highly.

Chef by Design catering service was exemplary! We hired them for a wedding reception in our home. From the set up of tables and chairs to serving a delicious, well cooked menu to the clean -up, I was completely delighted with their professionalism. The food was cooked perfectly and the presentation was beautiful. Our wedding guests raved about the food! They were so accommodating to our requests and even mopped my kitchen floor before they left and took the garbage with them! I would highly recommend them.

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Chef by Design! From the moment we met Joanie we knew she would make our wedding perfect. We were greated with hugs and a bright smile. The food we enjoyed during our tasting was delicious and was just as fresh and delicious the day of our wedding. Everything was just as we remembered during the tasting and every guest at our wedding couldn't get over how great everything was. The mashed potato bar was a hit with everyone! Joanie even went with us to help pick out our linens and figure out the table arrangements. Joanie kept us up to date on the seating chart as well as all other details for the layout of our venue. We only have wonderful things to say about Chef by Design. They make sure your event is perfect and that you don't have to worry about anything!

Chef By Design is a wonderful group of people who made our reception incredible! The food was delicious, they have so many choices, plus they are very flexible in accomodating your taste. They can also give excellent advice as to what works best with the kind of atmoshphere you are looking for. The staff was also very professional the night of the reception and worked tirelessly to keep things going smoothly. I would HIGHLY recommend them for any event.

I recently embarked on the life long journey of marriage! October 11, 2010 was our big day and as for most people we wanted the day to be perfect. I had the luxury of securing Chef by Design for our catering service. I had been to event catered by the previously and had always been impressed with their service and mostly food. Chef John, Marcy, Joanie and the staff went above and beyond to provide everything that we asked and more. You know you have a great caterer when you never even know they are there. They did a great job of anticipating needs before they would arise. The did an incredible job of tweaking our menu to meet our budget requirements. The compliments we received from friends and family were all the same: "It was a such a beautiful wedding, and the food was the best we have ever had!" If you live in Hampton Roads and are looking for catering for any event, I hope that you will choose Chef by Design! They helped make my wedding the greatest day of my life!

-Caleb Hill