My Chef Catering Named Best of Naperville for the Eighth Consecutive Year

We are proud to share that My Chef Catering has once again been named Best Caterer in Naperville, marking our eighth consecutive Best of Naperville win and our ninth win overall.

One community that has continued to support us through changing tastes, evolving celebrations, new event trends, and countless memorable moments.

My Chef earned its first Best Caterer title in 2016. After two years away from the top spot, we won again in 2019 and have been selected every year since.

That makes 2026 our ninth Best of Naperville win overall and our eighth consecutive year as Naperville’s Best Caterer.

We may be one win short of 10, but reaching this point already means more to our team than we can easily put into words.

Nine Wins and Eight Consecutive Years of Community Support

The Best of Naperville award has become a familiar part of the My Chef story. You may have seen the badge on our website, in our marketing, at community events, or alongside photos from the weddings, corporate functions, fundraisers, and family celebrations we are fortunate to serve.

But the award represents much more than a logo. It represents the people who invite us into some of the most important moments of their lives. It represents the newly engaged couple trusting us with their wedding reception. It represents the parents planning a graduation, anniversary, shower, or milestone birthday. It represents the company bringing its employees and clients together. It represents the nonprofit organizing a fundraiser and the local venue trusting our team to care for its guests.

Most importantly, it represents the members of our community who took the time to vote.

Best of Naperville is a reader-driven recognition. Naperville Magazine’s voting process uses authenticated ballots and independent third parties to collect and tabulate the results. That makes this honor especially meaningful to us: it comes directly from the clients, neighbors, guests, venue partners, and community members who have experienced our work.

You chose us—not just once, but year after year. For that, we are deeply grateful.

Events Keep Changing. Our Commitment Does Not.

Eight years is a long time in the wedding and events industry. Think about how much celebrations have changed since 2019. Wedding styles have shifted from traditional ballroom receptions to barns, private properties, gardens, museums, industrial venues, and highly personalized spaces. Couples are asking for menus that tell their stories, represent their cultures, accommodate their guests, and feel distinctly their own.

Corporate events have also evolved. Companies are looking beyond the traditional banquet and creating employee appreciation events, open houses, experiential gatherings, networking receptions, summer picnics, holiday celebrations, and thoughtful meetings that help people reconnect.

Social events have become more intentional, too. Families want milestone celebrations that feel personal rather than predictable. Hosts are mixing formal service with relaxed hospitality, pairing classic dishes with new flavors, and transforming familiar spaces with specialty linens, rentals, lighting, florals, and design elements.

Menus change. Service styles change. Décor changes. Technology changes. Expectations change. We have changed with them.

Our culinary team continues to refine menus, respond to dietary needs, explore new presentation techniques, and balance current trends with dishes guests know and love. Our event team continues to learn new venues, improve service systems, strengthen communication, and help clients navigate the many decisions involved in producing a successful event.

But while the details evolve, our central commitment remains the same:

Take care of our guests.

Serve food we are proud to put in front of guests. Arrive prepared. Communicate clearly. Pay attention to the details. Help the host feel supported. Treat every event as though it matters—because it does.

That consistency is what makes eight consecutive wins so meaningful.

Every Award Begins Long Before the Event

Guests usually see the finished experience. They see a beautifully arranged buffet, carefully plated dinner, welcoming bar, polished tablescape, or full room ready for a celebration. They see servers greeting guests, bartenders preparing drinks, and food arriving at exactly the right moment.

What they may not see are the hours of work behind it.

Every event begins with conversations, questions, proposals, revisions, timelines, floor plans, rental counts, staffing plans, production schedules, packing lists, culinary preparation, loading, transportation, setup, service, breakdown, and cleanup.

No one person creates a wedding meal. The same goes for a company picnic, gala, holiday party, memorial luncheon, fundraiser, shower, or anniversary dinner.

Each event depends on the people of My Chef:

• The event executives who listen to the client’s vision and help turn it into a workable plan
• The culinary team that prepares each menu with consistency and care
• The operations team that organizes equipment, rentals, transportation, and logistics
• The captains who lead service at the event
• The servers and bartenders who directly shape the guest experience
• The setup and breakdown teams working before the first guest arrives and after the last guest leaves
• The administrative and support staff keeping information accurate and communication moving
• The team members who train, mentor, troubleshoot, and step in wherever they are needed

This Best of Naperville award belongs to all of them.

It reflects the collective effort of a team that often works nights, weekends, holidays, early mornings, and long event days to help other people celebrate. To every member of the My Chef team: thank you. Your professionalism, resilience, creativity, and genuine care for our guests are the reasons our clients continue to remember—and recommend—My Chef.

What This Recognition Means to a Local Business

There is something particularly meaningful about being recognized in the community where we live, work, hire, collaborate, and build relationships. Naperville is home to an extraordinary small-business community. It includes independent retailers, restaurants, service providers, hospitality professionals, venues, creative partners, family businesses, and organizations that contribute to the character of the area every day.

These businesses do more than sell products or provide services. They sponsor events, support local causes, employ our neighbors, mentor young professionals, collaborate with one another, and help make Naperville a place where people want to live and celebrate.

We are proud to be part of that community.

The Best of Naperville recognition gives local businesses a chance to celebrate one another while reminding residents how many excellent organizations are operating close to home. We congratulate all of the 2026 winners and finalists and are honored to be recognized alongside so many businesses we respect.

Awards may be presented to individual companies, but a strong local business community is built together.

Our relationships with area venues, florists, rental providers, photographers, planners, entertainers, nonprofit organizations, chambers, publications, and fellow hospitality businesses make our work better. These partners challenge us, recommend us, collaborate with us, and help us create stronger experiences for our clients.

This award is a point of pride for My Chef, but it is also a celebration of the broader community that has allowed us to grow.

To Our Wedding Couples and Families: Thank You

Weddings have always held a special place in our work. A wedding reception is not simply another dinner. It is a gathering of the people who matter most to a couple, often bringing together families, traditions, cultures, and generations in one room.

Couples trust us with months—and sometimes years—of planning. Parents and family members invest time, resources, emotion, and energy into making the day meaningful. Guests arrive ready to celebrate, and every decision contributes to how the experience feels.

We never take that responsibility lightly. Thank you to the couples who selected My Chef after a venue tour, tasting, referral, wedding show, online review, or recommendation from a friend. Thank you to the parents who asked thoughtful questions, helped shape the menu, coordinated family details, and trusted our team with such an important occasion.

Thank you to the former clients who continue to tell newly engaged friends and family members about their experience with us.

Some of the most meaningful votes may have come from people whose weddings we catered years ago but who still remember the meal, the service, or the team member who helped them feel at ease. That kind of loyalty is invaluable.

To Our Corporate and Social Clients: Thank You

Our work extends well beyond weddings. Every year, we have the opportunity to serve businesses, nonprofits, schools, community groups, and families throughout Naperville and the greater Chicagoland area. You call us for executive meetings, grand openings, employee celebrations, client receptions, summer picnics, holiday parties, fundraising events, open houses, retirement celebrations, birthdays, showers, anniversaries, memorials, and countless other occasions. Some clients work with us once for a major milestone. Others call us repeatedly throughout the year. Many relationships have continued across multiple events, departments, generations, and stages of life.

A company client may later call us for a child’s wedding. A wedding couple may return for a baby shower. A family we meet at one celebration may recommend us for another. Those relationships are the foundation of our business. Thank you for continuing to bring My Chef to your tables, offices, venues, homes, and gathering spaces.

To Our Venue and Vendor Partners: Thank You

Catering is collaborative by nature. Our team works closely with venues, planners, florists, photographers, videographers, musicians, rental companies, production teams, designers, transportation providers, bakers, and many other event professionals. A successful event depends on all of those people communicating, coordinating, and respecting one another’s work.

Thank you to the venues that welcome our team and recommend My Chef to their clients.

Thank you to the planners and coordinators who include us in their timelines and trust us to execute our part of the day.

Thank you to the creative partners who transform spaces, document celebrations, entertain guests, and help each event feel distinctive.

Our industry is stronger when we work together, and we are grateful for the partnerships that continue to grow throughout Naperville and the Chicago suburbs.

One Win Away From 10—and Still Working to Earn the Next One



It would be easy to look at eight consecutive wins and view the award as something expected. We do not.

Past recognition does not prepare tomorrow’s meal. It does not set the next room, answer the next client’s questions, train the next employee, or solve the unexpected challenge at the next event. Every new celebration gives us another opportunity to earn our reputation. That is how we intend to approach the year ahead. We will continue listening to our clients. We will continue investing in our team. We will continue improving our menus, service, training, presentation, systems, and event experiences. We will continue supporting our community and collaborating with the local businesses and organizations that make Naperville special.

And yes, after confirming the official record, we now know we are one win away from 10 total Best of Naperville honors. That would be an incredible milestone. But before we look ahead, we want to appreciate this one.

Thank You, Naperville

To everyone who voted for My Chef Catering as the Best Caterer in Naperville: thank you. To everyone who hired us, recommended us, reviewed us, partnered with us, worked alongside us, or welcomed us into an important moment: thank you.

To our employees and event teams: thank you for representing My Chef with professionalism and heart. To the Naperville business community: thank you for continuing to inspire, challenge, and support us. Weddings, menus, events, tastes, and trends will continue to change. That is part of what makes this industry exciting. But after nine total wins and eight consecutive years of recognition, one thing remains constant: our gratitude for the community that continues to believe in My Chef.

We are proud to be your 2026 Best of Naperville Caterer, and we look forward to helping you celebrate what comes next.