A Roman dinner, cooked in your Seattle home.

Nicholas Olson trained as a chef in Rome. He plans the menu with you, does the shopping, cooks in your kitchen and serves it at your table, from a dinner for two to an event for 24. When he leaves, the kitchen is clean.

Plan your dinner How private dining works

Guests: 2 to 24; A seated dinner for 2 to 10, or an event for 11 to 24 guests.
Where: Your home; Nico cooks in your kitchen, in Seattle and the surrounding area.
Included: Shopping to clean-up; Menu planning, shopping, cooking, plating, serving and clean-up.
Cooking: Roman; The everyday cooking of Rome, by the season.

A table laid for two with a square of eggplant parmigiana, a plate of meatballs in tomato sauce with basil, sliced bread, cherry tomatoes and red wine — Parmigiana e polpette

Two ways to bring Rome to your table

A dinner at home

2 to 10 guests · Seated, course by course

A seated Roman dinner at your table. Nico writes the menu with you, cooks it in your kitchen and serves each course. Shopping and clean-up are included.

Dinner menus and how to book

An event

11 to 24 guests · Family-style or buffet

Birthdays, anniversaries and family gatherings. The largest so far was a birthday dinner for 24, served as a buffet.

Event menus

Coming soon Dining Delivery and Catering. Leave your email on either page to hear when they open.

What the hosts wrote

Nico went the extra mile to meet with us ahead of time to prepare a special evening and exceeded all expectations.

Terry, who hosted a dinner party for eight September 2026

Service

5 out of 5

Food

5 out of 5
It made our celebration easy and memorable.

Alaina, who hosted a birthday dinner September 2026

Service

5 out of 5

Food

5 out of 5
One guest immediately booked Nico for her own event a few weeks later.

Bill, who hosted a birthday dinner for 24 August 2026

Service

5 out of 5

Food

5 out of 5
Chef Nico understood our needs precisely and prepared a menu of typical Roman street foods that were a huge success.

Andrew, who hosted a housewarming party for 20 July 2026 · Review on Trustpilot

Overall

5 out of 5
He curated a delicious menu and checked in with us very often during the prep work.

Can, who hosted a baby shower February 2026 · Review on Trustpilot

Overall

5 out of 5

Chef Nicholas Olson in a white chef's jacket and grey apron, hands on his hips, smiling in a kitchen

Born and trained in Rome. Cooking in Seattle.

I'm Nicholas Olson, Nico at the table. I trained at A Tavola con lo Chef in Rome, then cooked at Ristorante Pianoalto and at The American Academy in Rome.

In Seattle I cook the dishes Romans actually eat, in your kitchen.

The chef's story, from Rome to Seattle

On the table

Hover over a dish for its story.Tap on a dish for its story.

Porchetta

The best-known porchetta near Rome comes from Ariccia, in the hills south of the city, where a whole pig is boned by hand and seasoned with rosemary, garlic and pepper. Tradition says to eat it sliced and cold, with bread and local wine.

Rolled, herb-stuffed roast pork, sliced and served with country bread.

Porchetta e pane
Polpette al sugo

Italy's classic 1891 cookbook opens its meatball recipe by joking that everyone can make them, starting with the donkey. In Italy they are a course of their own, and spaghetti and meatballs on one plate is an Italian-American idea.

Meatballs in tomato sauce, a dish Italians eat without the spaghetti.

Polpette al sugo
Spaghetti alle vongole

The word vongola is Neapolitan, from the Latin for little shell, and Naples is the dish's best-known home. Nearly all the clams farmed in Italy are Manila clams, the same species Washingtonians dig on Puget Sound beaches.

Spaghetti and clams, a Naples classic with a Puget Sound connection.

Spaghetti alle vongole
Parmigiana di melanzane

One theory says the name has nothing to do with Parma: in Sicily the word also meant a window shutter, its slats overlapping like layers of fried eggplant in the pan. Naples and Sicily both claim the dish, and the question is still open.

Fried eggplant, tomato and cheese, layered like a shutter.

Parmigiana, pane e vino
Fettuccine ai funghi

In Rome, egg pasta much like Bologna's tagliatelle is called fettuccine, little ribbons. In the 1400s Martino da Como, cook to a cardinal in Rome, wrote a recipe for Roman macaroni: dough cut into ribbons as wide as a little finger.

Sliced mushrooms on fettuccine, the egg ribbons of Roman cooking.

Fettuccine ai funghi