Chef Justin Gomes — Chicago Private Chef & Founder of Buttercup

There's a version of fine dining that never makes it to a public menu. It's the food a chef makes when the reservation system is off, the dining room is gone, and the only person they're cooking for is you.

That's the food Justin Gomes has spent his career trying to put on your table.

As founder and executive chef of Buttercup Hospitality, Justin brings professional kitchen technique and the bold, layered flavors of modern Caribbean cuisine directly to private homes, intimate events, and curated dining experiences across Chicago. No fixed menu. No crowded room. Just exceptional food, built around the people at your table.

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From Professional Kitchens to Your Dining Room

Justin's path through Chicago's culinary world wasn't a straight line — it was a decade of learning what fine dining does well, and what it consistently gets wrong.

Working in restaurant kitchens taught him precision: how to source ingredients at their peak, how to build a dish in layers, how to make technique invisible so the flavor speaks. But it also revealed a consistent gap. The most thoughtful, personal cooking — the kind that accounts for who's at the table, what they love, what they can't eat, what the occasion actually means — rarely survives the constraints of a public restaurant.

Private dining became the answer. With Buttercup Hospitality, Justin took everything that works about professional kitchens and removed everything that gets in the way of a truly personal meal.

About Buttercup Hospitality

Buttercup Hospitality exists because the best food in Chicago shouldn't be locked behind a restaurant reservation.

Founded by Justin in, Buttercup offers four distinct experiences — private dining, cooking classes, pop-up dinners, and gift cards — each designed around the same philosophy: food is most powerful when it's personal.

The name reflects that ethos. Not a corporate catering company. Not a meal kit. A genuine hospitality operation where the chef is the business and every guest is the point.

Buttercup operates throughout the greater Chicago area and takes a limited number of bookings each month to ensure every experience receives Justin's full attention.