Three Spanish Luxury Villas With Chef

Each has its own chef and kitchen team, and each suits a different kind of group.

Mas Mateu sleeps up to 24 guests and suits events as well as large family getaways. Son Fuster sleeps up to 20, and its owner sees it as a special place for small celebrations, such as a wedding or a big birthday. Es Bec d’Aguila sleeps up to 22 and suits getaways with loved ones, intimate events and stays with children.

A Kitchen With Michelin Roots

Villa Mas Mateu is an 18th-century estate in the Empordà, inside the Les Gavarres nature reserve. It has 11 bedrooms. The stay includes a head chef, a pastry chef, a butler who is also the sommelier, wait staff, and welcome drinks and flowers.

For a typical group of 15 to 20 guests, the villa has a full team of 24 staff, and they live on the estate. The head chef, the pastry chef and the sommelier have been with the villa since 2013, and all three have backgrounds in Michelin-starred restaurants.

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Villa Mas Mateu

11 Bedrooms – 24 Guests

From EUR 71,500 per week to price on request

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Over more than a decade, the owner, Alfred Cabanes, and his staff have created 32 dining experiences, each tailored to the group. They include themed nights, from Japanese, Thai and Peruvian-Japanese to Texas-style and Argentinian barbecue and traditional Spanish tapas. Both chefs spend more than two months a year travelling to discover new aromas and flavours.

Guests can watch a chef prepare a recipe, and some take their morning coffee at the chef’s table while the team prepares breakfast.

Mallorca, by Bike to Market

Spirit of Son Fuster is a 13th-century manor house and farm, of the kind Mallorcans call a possessió, on 40 hectares at the foot of the Tramuntana mountains near Alaró, with 10 bedrooms.

The stay includes a villa manager, a night manager and a private chef who cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. There is an open bar, and the staff serve snacks and light meals at any hour, with fruit and artisanal cakes between meals.

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Spirit of Son Fuster

10 Bedrooms – 20 Guests

From EUR 66,640 per week to price on request

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“Mediterranean cuisine is our most requested, but our international chefs can cater to all requests,” says the owner, Mats Wahlström. Premium meat and fish are served in a rustic, communal style, with seasonal vegetables and salads.

Guests can cycle to the local market with the chef, choose their ingredients and cook alongside the chef back at the farm. There are tapas cooking classes and wine tastings with the chef and a wine master. A vegetable garden on the estate grows seasonal ingredients for the kitchen.

Menorca’s Garden Kitchen

Villa Es Bec d’Aguila is a 19th-century estate on a hilltop in the Menorcan countryside, on 60 hectares between Alaior and Es Migjorn, with 11 bedrooms.

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Villa Es Bec d’Aguila

11 Bedrooms – 22 Guests

From EUR 42,215 per week to price on request

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The cooks, Laura, Kaya and Gabriel, work with the estate’s farmers, Xisco and Vinicius, and draw on seasonal and local produce to make a bespoke menu for each group. From the garden come radishes, plum tomatoes, artichokes, green beans, aubergines, basil, rosemary, mint. The farm also gives the kitchen its eggs and honey. Xisco and Vinicius follow permaculture principles, favouring polycultures and perennial vegetables.

Breakfast is a buffet in the open kitchen, and lunch is often on the covered terrace by the barbecue. In the evening, drinks on a terrace at sunset come before dinner at a huge marble table under the stars. Yuliana and Javier lay the tables, serve each dish and look after the drinks.

Not sure which of the three suits your group?

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What Will the Chef Cook?

A few dishes give the clearest sense of each kitchen.

• Veal jarrete, Mas Mateu: slow-cooked for 36 hours and served on a silver platter with a Spanish demi-glace the chefs created.
• Tacos al pastor, Mas Mateu: perfected over three months in Mexico by the head chef and pastry chef for the villa’s Mexican night.
• The Chef’s Table Glass Dessert, Mas Mateu: an intricate dessert the owner compares to a work of art, with more than 40 variations.
• Lubina a la sal, Son Fuster: sea bass baked in salt and filleted in front of the guests.
• The garden breakfast, Es Bec d’Aguila: homemade bread and cakes, eggs from the estate, homemade jams and its own honey.
• Lunch on the terrace, Es Bec d’Aguila: a local speciality or grilled dish, with homemade ice cream.

Will the Menu Be Built Around You?

At all three, yes. Before arrival, Mas Mateu’s team learns each guest’s likes and dislikes and agrees a plan for the week with the group. The cooks at Es Bec d’Aguila write a bespoke menu for each group, with vegan and vegetarian dishes and alternatives for allergies on request. At Son Fuster, Mats’s team is open to off-menu requests, and a dedicated chef handles special diets.

“Every guest is unique and has their own preferences and dislikes,” Alfred says. “The most crucial aspect of a villa rental is to quickly understand each guest and deliver what they expect…”

Can You Host a Celebration?

Yes, at each of the three. At Mas Mateu, the team stages themed nights, sunset cocktails with hors d’oeuvres made to match, and a two-metre dessert display crafted in front of the guests. A DJ and a Barcelona bartender are available as extras.

Son Fuster hosts small celebrations such as weddings and big birthdays, with hotels and fincas nearby for guests who don’t fit in the villa, and its own nightclub. Es Bec d’Aguila suits intimate events, and for a smaller dinner the team can set a table on the gloriette.

Leaving Days Empty

With a chef in the house, it is tempting to plan every hour. Alfred has seen guests plan too much, then cancel many of their activities once they arrive. “They realise that being at Mas Mateu is valuable enough on its own,” he says.

At Son Fuster, Mats remembers a whole family in tears because they did not want to leave. “We relish allowing guests to focus on what is important in life – like being a family and enjoying life together – as everything is taken care of for them,” he says.

That is what the chef gives a group, more than any single dish: a week in which nobody has to decide what’s for dinner, and everyone turns up for it anyway.

If you are weighing a week like this, our team can talk the three villas through with you on a video call and put your questions to the owners.