Essenza
Essenza
Italian cooking, in your home. Ten meals each week, prepared by Chef Marco Dazzan's hands and delivered fresh twice across Melbourne. Not meal prep. Not factory food. A private chef.
Not meal prep.
Not factory food.
One chef. One set of hands.
Essenza is the work of a single private chef — Marco Dazzan — cooking ten meals each week from his Melbourne kitchen and delivering them directly to a small list of households across the city.
Every plate is cooked by Marco himself. There is no production line, no team of cooks, no commissary kitchen. The flavour of one person, week after week.
Meals are cooked the day before each delivery — Monday and Wednesday morning, before 10:30. Never frozen. Never reheated for storage.
Between 425 and 500 calories. 38 to 55 grams of protein. Mostly gluten-free, low-inflammatory, and built around real Italian cooking — not "performance food" pretending to be dinner.
Name, mobile, postcode. Marco calls within two hours to confirm your suburb and walk you through next week's menu, dietary notes, and delivery window.
The day before each delivery, Marco prepares your ten meals from scratch — hand-portioned, sealed in eco-conscious packaging, refrigerated overnight.
Monday and Wednesday before 10:30 am. You unpack, refrigerate, and eat within the week. Repeat next Sunday — or pause any time.
Both plans include GST and delivery across Melbourne. Customisation for 8, 12 or 16 meals available on request.
A sample of dishes from a recent week. The menu changes every week — no Essenza client eats the same dish twice in a fortnight.
Welcome to Essenza by Private Chef Marco Dazzan, where modern Italian fine cooking meets performance-driven nutrition.
Our exclusive weekly meal subscription is designed for high-income individuals, couples, and families who value quality, clean ingredients, and time efficiency.
Unlike typical meal prep services, Essenza offers a private chef experience tailored to everyday life — ensuring each dish reflects the artistry of fine dining and is meticulously crafted to support long-term health and wellness goals.
You finish work at eight. You will not eat takeaway again. You will not spend Sunday meal-prepping. You want dinner to be already made — and to taste like it was made for you, because it was.
You train hard. You count macros. You are tired of bland chicken and rice. You want performance nutrition that tastes like food a person cooked, not food a factory packed.
Two parents. Long days. You want your family to eat well — properly well — without the cognitive load of planning, shopping, and cooking five nights a week. Marco does that for you.
Try your first week. If Marco's cooking doesn't replace whatever you would have ordered, eaten in, or made yourself — write to him personally and your first week is refunded in full. No questions, no forms.
The entire Melbourne metropolitan area is on Marco's delivery route. Standard delivery is included in the weekly price for most suburbs; for outer areas a small case-by-case delivery fee may apply, capped at $30 per delivery. When you leave your postcode, Marco confirms within two hours whether your address is on the route — and what (if anything) the fee will be.
Each meal is packed in its own individual container — one container, one main meal — using only recycled and recyclable materials. The minimal plastic we do use is eco-plastic. Transport is fully refrigerated end-to-end. Deliveries arrive twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday between 6 and 10 am, and we schedule the window around your routine. With many long-term clients we have a trusted handover arrangement, so Marco can place your meals directly into your fridge if no one is home.
Meals are cooked the day before delivery and never frozen. We recommend consuming each meal within five days of delivery for the best flavour and nutritional quality. Because Essenza delivers twice a week, your fridge is always within four days of fresh.
Yes — Essenza is a fully customised, no-lock-in service designed to fit your routine. You can pause, skip a week, change your plan or cancel at any time with 7 days' notice before your next delivery. The 7-day window lets Marco organise weekly orders, source fresh ingredients from his local farmers, and plan production around the active client list.
There is no minimum commitment and no lock-in. You'll sign a simple service agreement (we send the document for you to view before you start) which sets out the basic terms. The only ongoing requirement is the 7-day notice period for pauses, changes or cancellation; the only penalty is one week's payment if notice isn't given.
Yes — Essenza is built around dietary needs. Our point of difference in the Melbourne meal market is uncompromised ingredient quality: no GMOs, no seed oils, no nasties, no shortcuts. Most meals are naturally gluten-free and low in fat to support digestion. Pork is excluded by default unless requested, and meats are halal. Marco walks through your specific allergies, intolerances and preferences on the initial call and adapts the menu accordingly.
Two simple options. Microwave: heat for under 2 minutes — the eco-plastic lid will begin to soften past that point, so remove or replace the lid first if you need to heat for longer. Stovetop: transfer the meal into a non-stick pan over a gentle flame, add a splash of water if needed, cover with a lid, and heat for around 5 minutes. That's it.
It happens — even the best chef occasionally cooks a dish that isn't to a client's taste. We minimise this with a free initial consultation by phone or video, where Marco gets to know your favourite flavours and the things you'd rather avoid. In our experience, the first three or four deliveries are when most preferences emerge — and we adjust immediately. Cooking for someone you've never met is its own craft, and we treat it that way.
The standard cut-off is 7 days before your delivery — the same as the cancellation policy — to give Marco time to source produce from local farmers and plan production. That said, if there is capacity and ingredient availability we will often accommodate later orders. Leave your details and Marco will tell you exactly what's possible for the upcoming week.
Yes. The whole product is designed around light, nutritious, low-inflammatory food. The menu is naturally and predominantly gluten-free by design — Marco's Italian cooking techniques don't rely on wheat fillers, breadcrumbs or pasta-based shortcuts. If you have a coeliac diagnosis or strict allergy, mention it on the call and we'll confirm cross-contamination protocols.
Leave your details below. Marco will call you personally within two hours to confirm delivery and walk through next week's menu. No obligation, no second call.