Private Provisions is the work of our family—shaped by years in restaurant kitchens, a belief in thoughtful hospitality, and a life built around feeding people.
HOSPITALITY RUNS IN THE FAMILY.
COOKING WITH A POINT OF VIEW
01 — THE CHEF BEHIND THE TABLE
Private Provisions is led by Chef Ivan Aguilar, whose career was shaped in some of New York City’s most demanding Michelin-starred kitchens, from Aureole to Andanada 141, and continued through acclaimed restaurants across the country—from James Beard finalist Barda in Detroit to Eater Restaurant of the Year El Carlos Elegante here in Dallas. In those kitchens, every detail mattered—from the seasonality of an ingredient to the way the final plate reached the table.
Private Provisions brings that same discipline to weddings, but in a different form: generous food, shared tables, and menus designed around the people gathering for them. Ivan develops each menu and personally oversees every celebration we accept.
BUILT AROUND
OUR OWN TABLE.
02 — MEET OUR FAMILY
Private Provisions is, at its heart, a family business. Ivan and Melanie built it around a simple idea: some of life's most important moments happen when people gather around a table.
Melanie leads the hospitality side of Private Provisions, while Ivan leads the kitchen. Together, they're raising their family while building the kind of hospitality company they hope will be around for a very long time—personal, thoughtful, and rooted in taking care of people.
MICHELIN-LEVEL COOKING.
WITHOUT THE MICHELIN-LEVEL PRICE.
COOKING WITH A POINT OF VIEW
SEASONALITY.
TECHNIQUE.
THOUGHTFUL SOURCING.
A POINT OF VIEW.
The lessons we took from fine dining were never about white tablecloths or formality. They were about discipline: respecting seasonality, sourcing thoughtfully, building menus with intention, and understanding that the smallest details often separate something good from something memorable.
We bring those same standards to Private Provisions. Every Journey begins with a clear culinary point of view, then evolves around the season, the setting, and the people we are cooking for. Sauces are made properly. Vegetables are treated with the same attention as the centerpiece of the table. Menus are considered as a whole, so each course belongs to the one before it and the one that follows.
What we leave behind is the pretense. This is food meant to be passed, shared, talked over, and enjoyed generously. We believe serious cooking can still feel warm and familiar—and that the technique behind a dish should never be more important than the people gathered around it.
The standards of a fine-dining kitchen. The generosity of a family table.
BUILT AROUND
OUR OWN TABLE.
LUKE.
OUR MIDDLE SON.
OUR FIRST RESTAURANT.
04— WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Named for our middle son, the restaurant opened in Greenville, Texas, as a place built around the kind of food we wanted to serve every day: made from scratch, generous, familiar, and grounded in the hospitality of a neighborhood restaurant. It gave us a home for years of restaurant experience, but also taught us something different—how much a restaurant can become part of the lives of the people it feeds.
Private Provisions grew naturally from that foundation. Guests trusted us with more than breakfast or dinner. They began asking us to cook for birthdays, family gatherings, private dinners, and eventually the celebrations that mattered most. What started around the tables at Luke’s became an opportunity to bring our cooking and hospitality beyond the restaurant.
Private Provisions is a more refined expression of that work, but it comes from the same kitchen and the same family. The menus may travel through the French countryside, an Italian table, or a Mexican hacienda, but the philosophy we learned at Luke’s remains remarkably simple:
Cook with care. Serve generously. Give people a reason to gather.