01
Send the order
Tail number, operator, ETD, handling agent, passengers and crew, and the galley. Two lines and the ETD is enough to start; the rest can follow.
Milas–Bodrum (BJV) · general aviation terminal
Private jet catering for departures out of Milas
You are closing an open item on a trip sheet, not booking a dinner. So the short version first: one chef on the Bodrum Peninsula cooks to order, drives the food to the general aviation terminal and hands it to your handling agent. We are not a flight kitchen and we hold no airside pass.
Notice
About 24 hours for a new order; changes work closer in
Handover
Landside, at the general aviation terminal, to your handler
Priced
Per order, to one named payer — not per head
The service
We cook food to order for private aircraft leaving Milas–Bodrum (BJV) and deliver it landside to your handling agent. Cabin and crew meals written to a named galley, packed and labelled per item, with an ingredient list in English you can forward. Around 24 hours' notice for a new order. Priced per order, not per head.
Stated first
We are not a licensed flight kitchen. No airside pass, no security-sealed catering units, no bonded carts, no storage at the field. The handover happens landside, to the handler's staff. If your trip needs a supplier the handler has approved, we are not one — and better you know it now than at ETD minus one hour.
Legend
What we can do, and what we cannot
What we do
- Cook to order for the flight, from food bought in Bodrum that day — or the afternoon before for a dawn departure — not drawn from a stock list
- Write the menu to a named galley, cold by design where there is no oven
- Cabin and crew meals, with the flight deck packed separately when the operator asks
- A written ingredient and allergen list per dish, in English, sent with the confirmation so a PA can forward it unedited
- Delivery by road to the general aviation terminal, into a window set backwards from your ETD
- Handover to your handling agent's staff, in Turkish, with a mobile that is answered on the day
What we cannot do
- Deliver airside or planeside. We have no airside pass and are not claiming one
- Supply security-sealed or customs-sealed catering units, bonded trolleys or standard galley carts
- Hold aviation catering approval of any kind — no licensed flight-kitchen facility, no security clearance, no food-safety certificate. Our hygiene is a kitchen's, and we will not dress it up as an approval
- Store food at the airport before departure. We have no facility at BJV, so nothing of ours sits in a fridge there with a tail number taped to it
- Provide halal or kosher certified catering. Dietary cooking is kitchen practice here; certification is a document we do not hold
- Promise round-the-clock cover. One chef, one phone. If she is mid-service at 21:00 your call waits until it ends, and an ops desk should know that before it depends on us
- Show you a track record in aviation. This is a new line of work and we are not going to invent a list of operators
An ops desk needs the boundary before it needs the menu. The second list is why the first one is worth anything. If your trip needs anything on it, the order does not come from us — tell us what you need and we will say which list it falls on before you place it, not after.
Procedure
How an order is placed
02
We answer yes or no
If the date or the timing is beyond us we say so rather than holding it open, so you can place the order elsewhere. The answer comes when the phone is free — she may be mid-service when yours lands — and when it comes it is a decision, not a maybe.
03
Written confirmation
Items and quantities, cabin versus crew, the ingredient list per dish, the delivery window against ETD, the delivery point, the name and mobile of whoever is driving, and the single party being invoiced.
04
Cook, drive, hand over
Shopped at markets that morning, or the afternoon before for a dawn ETD. Packed, labelled, chilled in the vehicle to the door. You get a message when it is done and the name of who signed for it.
The order
What we need on it
Nine lines. Send what you have and we will chase the rest — but the first two decide whether we can take it at all.
| What we need | Why it changes the answer |
|---|---|
| Tail number and operator | Ties the order to a named aircraft. Nothing then depends on us describing the jet at the terminal door. |
| ETD and slot | Everything else is negotiable. The delivery window is built backwards from this number and nothing else. |
| Handling agent | Names who takes the handover, and which door at the terminal we are standing at. |
| Passengers and crew, counted separately | The flight deck is the easiest headcount to leave off an order. Two pilots are two more covers, and they get added at the end or not at all. |
| Galley: oven, warming drawer, chiller or none | Decides whether the order is hot food or cold food. Get this wrong and the cabin eats a reheated dish that was never meant to be reheated. |
| Flight time and destination | A two-hour hop to Europe and a seven-hour leg are different food, and they rule different ingredients out. |
| Declared allergies | Written on the order, not mentioned in passing on the phone. They go on the sheet you forward. |
| Who is invoiced | Broker, operator or principal — named at the time of order, not decided after delivery. One invoice, one payer. |
| Delivery contact | A mobile that will be answered at 05:00 if 05:00 is the delivery hour — yours as well as ours. |
Menu
Written to the aircraft, not to the chef
01
No oven — then cold by design
Not hot food that has gone cold on the way. A dish can be cooked well and still be wrong for the aircraft.
- Mezze, market vegetables and grains that improve sitting for an hour
- Cold roasted meats and whole poached fish carved to portion
- Breads, cheeses and fruit bought that morning
- Dressings and anything that weeps packed separately
02
Oven or warming drawer — then things that reheat honestly
A short list, because most dishes do not.
- Braises, baked pasta and rice dishes that were built to be reheated once
- Heating instructions on the label in English, written for cabin crew rather than for a chef
03
Food that survives a slot slip
Chosen before the slip happens, not repaired afterwards.
- Nothing that has to be eaten the moment it is packed
- No raw shellfish, no rare fish, nothing that turns in a warm vehicle
- Nothing that scents a cabin for four hours — a curry is a fine dinner and a poor flight
04
Packing and labels
The galley should not have to guess.
- Sealed containers, each labelled with contents, allergens, and cabin or crew
- Sized to the aircraft's storage, confirmed with the handler where it matters
- Nothing needs returning. The packing is built to be binned, and china has to be carried back off the aircraft by somebody
05
Crew and flight deck
Packed separately and more robustly than the cabin, because they get eaten at a different moment.
- Two pilots given different mains when the operator asks, labelled by seat
- Food that still holds if the flight deck eats an hour after the cabin
06
What we will not send onto an aircraft
Said out loud rather than quietly substituted.
- Anything that needs actual cooking in the galley
- Anything whose safety depends on a temperature we cannot control once it leaves our hands
- Anything we would not eat ourselves two hours after handover
Logistics
The road to Milas, and the slot that slips
The drive to BJV is long enough to lose this job on, and in July and August we treat it as much longer than the map says. Once the aircraft has taxied there is nothing left to fix.
The chef makes the run. It is not handed to a courier — the person who cooked the food is the person standing at the terminal door with it. We leave with a margin built in and wait in the car park, rather than leaving on time and arriving hopeful.
Because we can hold nothing at the field, the cool chain is the vehicle, and the vehicle is where the chef is. That is a limitation, and it is also why a slip is survivable: the food is not sitting somewhere we cannot reach it. Delivery lands into a window agreed against ETD — we ask for 60 to 90 minutes ahead unless the handler wants it tighter.
Early departures work. An 06:00 ETD means shopping the afternoon before, a kitchen at 03:30 and a drive in the dark. That is fine. It has to be ordered the day before rather than that night.
When the principal has already been here a week
A departure order is normally written from a headcount. If we cooked for the principal that week, it is written from the week instead: the guest who does not take dairy, the sea bass that came back, the fact that nobody touched the dessert on the second night. That only works because the same chef is on both ends of the week.
That week usually happened in a villa (home page) or on a charter (yacht and gulets), and the chef who cooked it is named on the about page, along with what this site refuses to publish. If the departure order is the only part you need, that is a perfectly normal brief on its own.
On price
Quoted per order, to one named payer
There is no per-person figure anywhere on this site, and an aviation order is exactly the case where one would be wrong: headcount, galley, flight length, time of day and the drive all move the number. Name the payer when you place the order — broker, operator or principal — and one invoice goes to that party. We do not split it across three and hope.
Send the tail number and the ETDOrder
Place an order
It goes straight to privatechefbodrum@gmail.com. Send the tail number, the ETD and the handling agent — you will get a yes or a no, not a brochure.
Notes
For the ops desk
What is the minimum notice, and how late can I change the count?
About 24 hours for a new order. That is the working figure, not a marketing one — it covers the shopping, the cooking and the drive to Milas. Headcount and menu changes work up to the evening before. On the morning of the flight we can add covers to something already being made; we cannot start a different menu. Ask about same-day if you have to, but in July and August expect a no.
Can you deliver planeside?
No planeside, no airside. We hold no aviation catering approval and no airside pass, so the handover happens landside or it does not happen. Anything that has to be sealed and loaded onto the aircraft has to come from somewhere else.
Handover is at the general aviation terminal, to whichever handler the operator has appointed. We have no partnership with any handler and will not describe one. You arrange the handling, then send us a name and a mobile.
How is the food packed, and will it work in a galley with no oven?
Tell us the galley and the menu is written to it. No oven means cold food designed to be eaten cold, not hot food that has gone cold on the apron. Everything arrives sealed and labelled per item — contents, allergens, cabin or crew — with dressings kept separate. Nothing comes back to us. If the aircraft has storage limits, tell us and the containers are sized to them.
What is the delivery window, and what if the slot slips two hours?
Delivery lands in a window agreed against your ETD, usually 60 to 90 minutes ahead, and the food stays chilled in the vehicle until the handler takes it. We plan for a two-hour slip before it happens, by choosing a menu that survives one. If a slip runs past what the food can honestly stand, we remake the perishable part, or we tell you we cannot and you take the meal off the trip sheet. We will not hand over something tired.
How do you handle a declared allergy?
The confirmation carries an ingredient list for every dish, in English, so a PA can forward it without rewriting it. We will not claim an allergen-free environment. This is one kitchen. We can keep a dish free of an ingredient and tell you precisely what else was on the bench that morning. If an allergy is severe, put it on the order and we will tell you what we cannot guarantee.
Can you supply crew meals, and plate the flight deck separately?
Yes to both. Crew go on the order as their own headcount, and their food is packed to hold, because it rarely gets eaten at the same point in the flight as the cabin's. If the operator wants the two pilots given different mains, say so on the order and they arrive labelled by seat, in their own box rather than in the cabin's.
How is this priced, and who receives the invoice?
Quoted per order. There is no per-person figure anywhere on this site, and an aviation order is exactly the case where one would be wrong: headcount, galley, flight length, time of day and the drive all move the number. Name the payer when you place the order — broker, operator or principal — and one invoice goes to that party. We do not split it across three and hope.
Why give this to a private chef rather than an aviation caterer?
Sometimes you should not, and we would say so. If the trip needs sealed units or airside loading, it does not come from us. A chef offers food bought in Bodrum that day rather than pulled from a stock list, and continuity if the principal has been in a villa or on a boat here all week. We cannot offer a list of operators we have served. This is new work and we will not invent one.