When you’re presented with a dish from Naples private culinary service The Rose House, you don’t know whether to savor or simply admire it. The chefs encourage both, with their steeped-in-heritage recipes and culinary command.
Floridian entrepreneur Matthew Young and South African chef Gavin Makava founded The Rose House in 2023. Offerings range from intimate dining experiences to 300-person galas, with mobile kitchens and small armies of attendants. The chefs’ blended backgrounds and respect for global foodways set their menus apart. “Food and culture are inseparable,” Gavin says. “Our chefs—they have lived these cultures [and] immersed themselves in the places where this food comes from.”
The culinary team includes Naples’ The French and Crave Culinaire alum Luke Gustafson and a suite of South African culinarians, who honor the Rainbow Nation’s nuanced cuisines. Khanyisa “Kay” Mzamo is a master of braai (Afrikaans for grill); Cape Town-bred Jason Geduld was raised on Cape Malay food (an ancient, highly aromatic style); and South African pastry chef Lauren Van Wijk layers her motherland’s flavors with French techniques and contemporary delights.
Photography by Anna Nguyen
man preparing food display
Naples Champagne ambassador Gina Lyons and boutique Napa Valley winery Hailstone Vineyards are often tapped to bring the drinks; many ingredients come from Naples’ Third Street Farmers Market and every dish is presented with panache. “If I’m placing prawns, I’m incorporating the ocean, dabbling foam or fanning sauce. And that’s something we all do,” Gavin, who has painted since childhood, says of his team’s artistic plating.
Guests travel the world as the chefs share stories and recreate childhood dishes and recipes developed through years of international tutelage. Diners may be asked to create their own amuse-bouches from provided ingredients or be blindfolded and partnered with a seatmate to ask probing questions. “Such a simple act pushes us to be vulnerable, to mine our memories, to pay attention to the meal before us in a wholly new way,” Matt says.
Weaving diverse traditions, histories and local ingredients, The Rose House menus engage the senses through a universal language, centered on heritage, memory and shared moments around the table.
Photography by Anna Nguyen
Sushi boat on appetizer table
The culinary supergroup’s services are more akin to chefs’ tables than buffets, with personal recipes, interactive elements and artistic plating.