Marina Mellino, private chef in Calgary
The one to call when the table is long: ten to twenty guests, staff included
C$100 – C$225CAD a head, over 23 published menus
4.8— that is 12 ratings since 2022, unrounded, poor ones included
Cooking as Marina Mellino, working across Calgary, Alberta.
The read
Mellino prices for a crowd. Every menu she lists is written for ten to twenty guests, and the batch-cooking card at C$100 a head — the cheapest number anywhere on this sheet — is meant to fill a fridge rather than stage a dinner.
The cooking is Latin American with an Italian grandmother behind it. The Argentine asado at C$225 is the most specific menu of the four: empanadas and chorizo to start, short ribs and flank steak off the grill, and something sweet enough to end a long night.
Hosts describe her arriving with the staff and the volume a full room needs. The one poor review on her record is not about food — it is a host who wanted to shape the menu earlier than she was free to. Worth knowing if you like to plan far out.
How many
Her menus start at ten guests — this is not the sheet’s date-night option.
Cooks what
Latin American · Argentine asado · Italian · Mediterranean · Batch cooking
Rate ladder
- C$100Batch cooking12–20 portions, cooked to store
- C$154Regional menusMexican, Latin American, French, Asian, Italian
- C$162Fusion and seafoodup to 200 for the seafood feast
- C$180Wild gamewritten for Canmore and Banff
- C$225Asadothe full Argentine grill
Per guest. Drinks and travel outside Calgary sit outside these figures.
Behind the name
- Kitchens in Argentina, the United States and Canada
- Brings her own team and support staff for larger events
- Cooks tasting menus, family style, canapés and buffet formats
- Lists a dedicated wild game menu for Canmore and Banff bookings
Plates
A menu
One of 23 menus, rewritten here for length. Courses get changed for allergies and for what is in season.
Hosts
A husband’s 40th for sixteen or more. Two of them cooking, and the spread came out wide enough that nobody ate the same thing twice.
Meals across a retreat. By the end she read as part of the group rather than someone hired to be in the kitchen.
A family reunion dinner that arrived with extras nobody had asked for and everybody remembered.
Written from what each host left afterwards, in our words, with names as they signed them.
To book
Menus are settled with the cook first; nothing is locked until you both agree the card.
Compare against Nathaniel Davis from C$176, Nicolas Desinai from C$160 and Igor Dudkin from C$185.