An extended family from Scottsdale, Arizona — parents, two adult children, their partners, and two grandkids, eight people in total — booked a full week in Argegno, on Lake Como, and knew early on they wanted the chef involved for more than just one evening. One of the grandkids manages a shellfish allergy, and rather than explaining it fresh to a different restaurant kitchen every night, the family preferred having one single chef to coordinate with for the entire week — one person who understood the allergy once and carried that understanding through every meal, rather than repeating the conversation over and over. Knowing their trip would land in July, right in the middle of the lake’s high season, the family reached out two months ahead of time — having noticed the chef’s website has a calendar visible to the public, and seeing that some dates months out were already booked was exactly what convinced them to move early rather than wait and risk finding no availability left.
What the online calendar is actually for
The chef’s website has a live calendar showing real availability, not just a general “get in touch” form.
Guests can check it on their own, before ever reaching out — no need to send a message and wait for a reply just to find out whether a given week even has openings. For a family planning an entire week around private dining, checking it before committing to specific dates isn’t just convenient — in high season, it’s often the only way to actually get the days that work.
This family did exactly that: two months out, they checked the calendar, saw which days that week already had bookings, and built their plans around what was actually open. It changed the shape of the week, but not in a way that limited them — if anything, it opened up a combination they hadn’t originally considered.
What a week of bookings around a shared allergy actually looked like
With the shellfish allergy flagged from the very first conversation, every booking that week was planned around it from the start — no separate “safe” plate at any meal, just one menu built to work for the whole table.
- One day, breakfast and lunch, back to back — two services in the same day, planned around the family’s plans to stay in and around the villa rather than head out.
- Two consecutive evenings of dinner, back to back, each with its own menu rather than a repeat of the night before.
- A further dinner after a gap day, on a date when the chef was already booked with another family earlier that afternoon — the calendar made it clear from the start that this particular day only had an evening slot open, and the family planned around it rather than around a preference for a specific date.
None of this required improvising once the week arrived. It was all mapped out in advance, against real availability, before a single date was confirmed.
How the week came together
- The calendar checked two months ahead, before any dates were proposed — giving the family a realistic picture of what was actually available during their stay, well before the trip itself was even close.
- A conversation covering the shellfish allergy and the group’s preferences, shaping every menu for the week from the outset rather than one meal at a time.
- Multiple services booked across the week — a same-day breakfast and lunch, two consecutive dinners, and a further dinner slotted around another family’s earlier booking.
- Each service planned as its own menu, so a family eating with the same chef most days of the week never felt like they were repeating themselves.
- Kitchen cleaned and reset after every single service, leaving each day exactly as it started.
Why this matters more on Lake Como specifically
July and August are the lake’s busiest months, and a private chef’s calendar fills up the same way a good restaurant’s reservation book does — sometimes weeks ahead. For a family hoping to book multiple days in a row during peak season, checking real availability before settling on plans isn’t extra caution, it’s the difference between getting the week they wanted and finding out too late that the good dates were already gone.
Good to know
- The online calendar shows real, live availability — worth checking before finalizing travel dates, especially in July and August.
- Multiple services in the same day, like breakfast followed by lunch, are possible when the schedule allows.
- Multi-day consecutive bookings are common for longer stays, with each day planned as its own menu rather than a repeat.
- Booking around a shared allergy or dietary need means the whole table eats from one menu, not a separate “safe” plate on the side.
- Works for any villa or apartment kitchen in Argegno and across Lake Como.
If you’re planning a full week on Lake Como and want the chef for more than one evening, check the online calendar early — especially in high season — and get in touch with your dates and any dietary needs so the whole week can be planned around real availability, not guesswork.