In 2019, almost 1.6 million residents of Spain and over ten million international tourists visited the island of Mallorca.

With numbers like that, it has naturally made sense for our Private Chef business based on the island to focus on the booming tourism market. Since our arrival in Mallorca in 2015, we have worked non-stop through the summer months, catering to the needs of the island’s holiday makers, helping them to mark a special family get away, a birthday, an anniversary or an intimate wedding with unforgettable food and memories to last a life time.

We relished the winter months when the pace quietened, and we had time to run our own pop up event Charlie’s Kitchen, where we could design the menus as we wanted, and finally cater for island residents and local friends.

And then 2020 happened. And how things changed. With the doors to our island shut for the near part of a year, we have had no choice but to look inwards, and what a hugely rewarding experience it has been.

For the last 12 months, our clients have been our fellow island residents. Many in the same boat, all with a mutual understanding of the enormity of how this island has been affected, and all with a new found appreciation for the moments of being with your loved ones, brought together by good food and friends, and living in the here and now.

Having the opportunity to focus on our island community, to bring moments of magic to hard times, to make new friends and share our world locally, has been a huge and deeply rewarding privilege. Staying local, being as sustainable as we can be, supporting local suppliers and businesses – are all the reasons we came to this island.

That’s not to say that when the tourists return we won’t be ready to cook them up a storm, but our foundations already feel more robust, there is more love in our hearts, and there is a much deeper appreciation of why we are here and why we do what we do.