The Chef's Table
One guest
An entire evening composed for one. Indulgent, and entirely deserved.
per guest$450
About
The chef behind légère
légère- (Lej-air) adj: light, airy and slightly promiscuous.
Kristen Leger
Chef & Founder
Hello! I am Chef Kristen Leger, and I look forward to turning your kitchen into an evening neither of us will forget.
Across twenty years in hospitality, I have gathered a deep knowledge of both food and people. I have washed hundreds of thousands of plates and spoons, and felt my character grow with each one. I have traveled to far away places to learn about other people and the food they love.
What I learned along the way is this: few of us remember the single best bite we have ever eaten. What we remember is the company, the room, and a good meal shared among them. I believe the perfect bite happens when all of our senses meet all of our surroundings, and the two are happy together. That is the experience I hope to create for anyone kind enough to share their table with me.
With love,
Kristen
Background
Kristen has trained in New York, Paris and Oaxaca. She is the recipient of the James Beard Award’s Scholarship for Culinary Exploration as well as the Les Dames d’Escoffier Award for Women in Fine Dining, and holds an Executive Master’s of Management in Hospitality from Cornell University.
She has led teams in both front of house (her first love) and in the kitchen (her great love) in pursuit of more knowledge and experience.
Reserve an eveningThe experiences
Ways to set the table
Every dinner is a five course tasting menu, written from scratch after a short dialogue with the chef. No two légère dinners are alike. Choose the table size; we will compose the rest.
An Intimate Evening
Two guests
Candlelight, five courses, and a night that unfolds slowly.
per guest$325
Private Tasting Experience
3 – 5 guests
Your favorite people, your finest glasses, and someone else in the kitchen.
three guests$285
four guests$265
five guests$250
Private Tasting Party
6 – 10 guests
A long table, a full room, and an occasion worth every course.
six guests$240
seven guests$230
eight guests$225
nine guests$220
ten guests$215
Looking for a chef rather than a tasting experience? Explore private chef engagements →
Private chef engagements
A chef at your table, on your terms
For evenings that call for a steadier hand on the wheel: a dinner party with a menu you help shape, a weekend with friends, a table set exactly to your taste. You direct the menu and the setting; chef Leger brings the kitchen.
To be clear about what this is not: it is not catering. The same single chef, the same sourcing, the same standards as a légère evening — simply with more of the decisions in your hands and fewer surprises on the plate.
Engagements are arranged by inquiry and priced to the occasion.
InquireOur approach
The menu begins as a conversation
I
légère is led by chef Kristen Leger, whose cooking was shaped across kitchens in New York and abroad before she turned to private tables. The discipline of that world comes with her; the luxury comes to you.
II
As part of the menu curation process, you take a brief survey about the flavors you love, the heat you welcome, the season you favor, and the dishes that have stayed with you since childhood. From there, the evening takes its shape.
III
Your courses are composed from those answers and drawn from the best of what the market offers that week. Nothing is decided in advance; the season and your table arrive at it together, so no two dinners are ever the same.
IV
The day of the experience, the chef arrives an hour before the diners. Feel free to relax, pour yourself a glass of wine, or choose from one of our curated playlists to set the tone. All we ask is that you provide the correct amount of silverware and plates for your experience. In return, the kitchen and every dish are left spotless before the chef departs, leaving you and your guests to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Prefer not to use your own? We are happy to provide high quality, sustainable single use plates and utensils for a surcharge of $30.
To give your evening its fullest expression, we kindly ask that the kitchen be reasonably clean on arrival, with no dishes left in the sink.
Past evenings
Where the evening went
A few of the tables we have set, and the menus we wrote for them.
— featured evenings —
Every menu begins with a short survey. Here is how four of them became dinner.
A night that changed our lives in Provence
Getting to know each other
Cuisine you like best
ChineseFrenchNew AmericanMexicanSpanishOther
Heat the diners tolerate
01234
Favorite season
WinterFallSpringSummer
Favorite childhood meal
Roast chicken.
Foods you hate
Very sweet desserts.
Other comments
I plan on proposing tonight, and we met in Provence, so anything reminiscent of that cuisine would be greatly appreciated.
Allergies
None.
becomes
A young chef's twelfth birthday
Getting to know each other
Cuisine you like best
ChineseFrenchNew AmericanMexicanSpanishOther
Heat the diners tolerate
01234
Favorite season
WinterFallSpringSummer
Favorite childhood meal
Tortilla española.
Foods you hate
Olives, sadly.
Other comments
It's my daughter's twelfth birthday. She wants to be a chef and loves trying new things, so please be adventurous. The one thing she can't stand is olives, though my wife and I adore them. We're from the Basque region, so seafood is close to our hearts.
Allergies
None, but no olives anywhere.
becomes
A new home, and a table that wanted fire
Getting to know each other
Cuisine you like best
ChineseFrenchNew AmericanMexicanSpanishOther
Other: Indian
Heat the diners tolerate
01234
Favorite season
WinterFallSpringSummer
Favorite childhood meal
Apple pie.
Foods you hate
Under seasoned food.
Other comments
We are celebrating buying our new home! It is a double date with our colleagues. The four of us eat anything, though we tend to limit meat for sustainability. My wife and I met in India on a research trip and bonded over the food, so leaning into that would mean the world. The mother of our host family made the best roti, always with extra ghee. And we loveee spicy food.
Allergies
Tree nut allergy.
becomes
A first date, at home
Getting to know each other
Cuisine you like best
ChineseFrenchNew AmericanMexicanSpanishOther
Heat the diners tolerate
01234
Favorite season
WinterFallSpringSummer
Favorite childhood meal
Elote from the lady at the 53rd street stop after school.
Foods you hate
Nothing, honestly. But my girlfriend has some texture issues, so maybe nothing slimy or gelatinous?
Other comments
First date at home. Impress us. She has a serious sweet tooth, so two desserts would be great.
Allergies
None.
becomes
Contact
Get in touch
For dates beyond the calendar, parties larger than ten, or anything unusual, write to us directly. We answer within a day.
Reserve an evening