About MileHighCook

A CIA-trained chef who's spent 200+ services figuring out vacation rentals.The microsite is the niche. The operation behind it is much bigger.

MileHighCook is a private chef and luxury catering business across Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming. We cook private dinners, cater weddings, run corporate events, and — increasingly often — cook in vacation rentals. This microsite covers that last category specifically.

CIACulinary Instituteof America trained
4National publicationsF&W, Simply Recipes, BHG, EW
30+Markets servedacross 4 states
The story

From CIA to mountain-west private chef.

Steve Ingber trained at the Culinary Institute of America. After culinary school, he cooked his way through restaurant kitchens before founding MileHighCook in Denver. The business grew across Colorado, then Arizona, then Utah and Wyoming — each new market driven by guests who'd hired Steve for one occasion and wanted him for the next.

Vacation rentals were a niche that found us. A handful of guests in 2022 asked for a private chef in their VRBO. Then it was a dozen. Then we'd cooked in 50 rentals, then 100, then 200+. We learned the niche has its own rules — different kitchen every booking, host expectations, equipment that's almost always missing something. This microsite exists because the niche deserved its own playbook.

The flagship operation — weddings, corporate catering, brand activations, multi-night private home retreats — still runs out of milehighcook.net. The vacation rental work is a specialized niche of that broader practice.

Press & recognition
Food & Wine
Simply Recipes
Better Homes & Gardens
Eating Well

Steve has contributed recipes, kitchen techniques, and editorial commentary to four national food publications. All press →

What 200+ rentals taught us

Three things only repetition can teach.

01

A rental kitchen is not a small home kitchen.

Most chefs treat vacation rental work like a smaller version of private home cooking. The differences are bigger than they look. The pre-stay kitchen audit exists because guessing what's there has cost us hours of wasted prep — nobody else's, just ours, the hard way, before we built the process.

02

Host trust is the silent variable.

Hosts don't see us — but they see the kitchen we leave. "Restored to host standard" is the contract not because guests demand it but because we want to be welcomed back. Most rentals we've cooked in, the host doesn't even know a chef was there until they read the next guest's review.

03

The dinner is the trip.

Guests don't book a chef to skip dishes. They book a chef because the dinner becomes the headline of the vacation — the night everyone talks about months later. We design the experience around that fact. Casual or tasting menu, the goal is the same: the night you remember.

Behind the work

A small team. A specific operation.

MileHighCook runs lean by design. You're not booking a chef from a roster — you're booking the chef whose process is on this page. For larger services we add prep cooks and a server; the lead is consistent.

Where we cook

12 mountain markets, 4 states, one operation.

The vacation rental microsite covers 12 markets. The flagship MileHighCook business covers 30+ markets across CO, AZ, UT, and WY — weddings, corporate, private chef in homes, brand activations.

Vacation rental microsite

12 markets focused on luxury VRBO and Airbnb stays.

VailAspenPark CityJacksonBeaver CreekTellurideBreckenridgeSteamboatCrested ButteDeer ValleyTeton VillageEstes Park

Flagship MileHighCook

30+ markets across CO, AZ, UT, WY — private chef, catering, weddings, events.

Includes Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Scottsdale, Sedona, Tucson, Phoenix, Cody, Sheridan, and more. milehighcook.net →

Browse cities

Pick the market you're booking.

Each city page covers neighborhood-level kitchen reality, sourcing logistics, and host coordination specific to that market.

Vail Valley, CO

Vail

Lionshead, East Vail, Cascade Village.

Roaring Fork, CO

Aspen

Red Mountain, Castle Creek, Starwood.

Wasatch, UT

Park City

Old Town, Empire Pass, The Colony.

Jackson Hole, WY

Jackson

Wilson, Shooting Star, 3 Creek Ranch.

Plan Your Rental Dinner

Tell us about your stay

Send your rental address, dates, and guest count. We reply to every inquiry within 24 hours.