At a glance
- Chef: Giuseppe Manzoli, Italian private chef based in Scotland.
- Venue: Brewlands Estate, Glenisla, on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park.
- The setting: an ancient estate of five-star self-catering houses, with the main lodge sleeping 16 and a wedding meadow beside the River Isla.
- Best for: fully-catered family gatherings, group stays, corporate weekends and weddings.
- What I do: cook and serve restaurant-quality meals in the house you are staying in, then clean down.
- Pricing: from £75 to £180 per person for private dinners. Group stays and weddings priced per event.
- Bookings: tailored quote within 24 hours. Phone 07414 235 378 or email [email protected].
I’m Giuseppe Manzoli, an Italian private chef based in Scotland, and Brewlands Estate in Glenisla is one of the Highland-edge venues I cook at. It is an ancient estate set in magnificent scenery on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park, a little over an hour and a half north of Edinburgh, and the houses are made for groups who want to stay together and eat well.
I bring the ingredients, the equipment and the service, and I leave the kitchen exactly as I found it. The days belong to your group, not to the cooking.
Why Brewlands Estate suits a private chef
Brewlands is a collection of five-star self-catering houses, with the main lodge sleeping sixteen across eight bedrooms and several cottages alongside it. The houses are offered self-catered, partly catered or fully catered, which is exactly where I come in. For a family gathering, a group of friends or a corporate weekend, I take over the kitchen of the house you have booked, cook every meal from scratch, and serve it at your table. There is no driving out to a restaurant in the glen, and nobody spends the holiday cooking and washing up. With hot tubs, open fires and the river close by, the estate does the rest.
Here is a private chef evening at Brewlands, the full service in the house from setting the dining table to plating the fillet of beef, filmed with Simon, the general manager of Brewlands House:
Weddings in the meadow at Brewlands
Between May and September, couples who take the lodge and the cottages can hold their wedding on the estate, in a marquee on the wedding meadow beside the crystal-clear River Isla, with up to thirty-eight resident guests. It is one of the most beautiful settings I cook in. For a wedding here I work the way I always do, building the menu around the couple and the season, cooking on site, and serving a proper sit-down meal or a relaxed sharing feast depending on the day you want.
Here is a short clip of me cooking a wedding at Brewlands:
What I cook
The menus are built around your group, but the theme is Italian technique with Scottish produce, and Glenisla is wonderful country for it. This is the edge of grouse-moor and red-deer country, so game sits naturally on the menu in season, alongside Scottish beef and lamb, river and coastal fish, and handmade pasta and bread. Everything is plated to a fine-dining standard rather than served from trays, and vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and any allergies are built into the menu from the start.
How a booking at Brewlands works
A booking starts with a call or message. We talk through your dates, the number of guests and how many meals you would like across the stay, and within 48 hours I send a proposed menu and a per-head price. On the day I arrive ahead of service, cook in the house kitchen, plate and serve, and clean down before I leave. For a multi-day stay I plan the menus across the whole visit so each evening feels different.
What it costs
Private dinners run from £75 to £180 per person depending on the number of courses, the ingredients and the headcount. Multi-day group stays and weddings are priced per event once the menu is agreed, with a tailored quote within 24 hours of your enquiry. The price covers menu design, ingredient sourcing, cooking, plating, service and the full clean-down.
Brewlands Estate is one of many Scottish venues I cook at. If you have booked a self-catering house elsewhere, see private chef for self-catering houses and lodges, or read about my wedding service.
Frequently asked questions
Do you cook in the estate’s own kitchens?
Yes. The houses at Brewlands are well equipped for self-catering, which makes them ideal for a private chef. I cook in the kitchen of whichever house you have booked, and if anything specific is missing I bring it.
Can you cater the whole stay, not just one dinner?
Yes. Many Brewlands bookings are multi-day, and I can cook across the whole visit, from breakfasts and lunches to evening dinners, planned so no two meals feel the same.
Can you cook for a wedding at Brewlands?
Yes. Weddings on the estate run from May to September on the meadow by the River Isla, for up to thirty-eight resident guests. I cook and serve the wedding meal and can also cover the night-before dinner and the morning after.
Can you handle dietary requirements?
Yes. Gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, lactose-free and allergy requirements are built into the menu from the start. Just mention them when we first speak.
How far in advance should I book?
For weddings and peak-season group stays, the earlier the better, ideally a few months ahead. Off-season private dinners can often be arranged at shorter notice.
A recent 90th birthday at the main house
Most of my evenings on this estate are spent at Wester Brewlands, one of the self-catering houses, cooking for the group staying there. This time the booking was for a milestone 90th birthday at the main house, and the family wanted a menu with a bit more occasion to it.
We started with roasted courgette rounds, each one topped with a smooth white-bean purée and a little onion chutney, finished with thyme and our own olive oil. Alongside those came warm, lightly fried fritters dusted with grated cheese, the kind of thing that disappears before it reaches the table.
Description: Roasted courgette canapés with white-bean purée and onion chutney, served at a private dinner at Brewlands Estate.
The main course was baked sole laid over slow-cooked Mediterranean vegetables, peppers, courgette and tomato, with a green-olive sauce spooned around it. It is a brighter, lighter plate than my usual Scottish-Italian comfort cooking, and it suited a summer evening with the glen in the window.
The cake was the part the room had come for. A layered meringue and sponge celebration cake, built tall, broken into shards of meringue standing up out of the top, then scattered with fresh raspberries, blueberries, dark chocolate and mint. Candles in, cut through to show the layers. Ninety years is worth a proper centrepiece.
If you are staying anywhere on the Brewlands Estate, whether that is Wester Brewlands, the main house or one of the other lodges, I can cook in the house for you, from a relaxed group supper to a full celebration menu like this one. Get in touch for a quote, and you can see the other Scottish houses I cook in on the venue directory.
Get in touch
If you are planning a stay, a celebration or a wedding at Brewlands Estate, or anywhere in Glenisla and the Angus glens, I would love to hear about it. Phone 07414 235 378, email [email protected], or use the booking form on the Check Availability page.