Monrose Catering is sold to staff with the retirement of founder Richard Chesterfield
If you’ve attended Malibu civic functions over the years you’ve probably eaten food prepared by Monrose Catering, often the go-to cater for numerous city events and celebrity soirees from Malibu to Beverly Hills.
Monrose’s dapper owner, Richard Chesterfield, always impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, is well known to many in Malibu. After a successful four-decade run, Chesterfield has retired, selling his celebrity-loved catering company to a longtime chef and the familiar faces staffing the buffet line. After years of providing elegant, delectable dishes to Malibu and catering memorable events for locals, Chesterfield has decided in his mid-80s to take a step back, take insome travel time, and relax at his Malibu home.
The Liverpool, England-raised Chesterfield has been working as a restaurateur and caterer in Malibu for more than four decades and in the food business since the 1960s. He opened his first venture, a green grocer, in his hometown on Penny Lane just as The Beatles were rising to fame. His good friend, Pete Shotton, played bass in John Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen. Lennon bought a café for Shotton across from his store.
“I used to go there and see Paul and I’d see John. I have some stories,” Chesterfield said.
Fast forward many years, Chesterfield has been catering Ringo Starr’s annual birthday parties for the past decade. Later after moving to New York City without a job, the Brit was working less than 24 hours later at a restaurant in the Big Apple. He eventually landed at the world-famous Stork Club before its closure in 1965 and finally opened his first restaurant in the Hamptons.
“That is when I started really meeting, discovering very famous and very wealthy people,” he explained, and they offered him an opportunity to come to Malibu to open a restaurant.
He recalled getting off the plane at LAX wearing a London Fog coat only to see others dressed in shorts and sandals,and quickly decided to stay in a warm, sunny climate instead of New York and Liverpool’s grey and cloudy skies. Backed by some showbiz talents, Chesterfield opened a small restaurant across from Carbon Beach that was an immediate success. The place was so small he remembers having to turn away Johnny Carson and Don Rickles, who later became regulars. He eventually opened a bigger spot at Westward Beach he named Monrose, a tribute in a way to Marilyn Monroe after so many customers gifted him with original artwork of the late actress. For the past two decades, Monrose concentrated on catering parties around town. Chesterfield has catered for the biggest names in show business, including Frank Sinatra, David Foster, Barbra Streisand, the Kardashians, and too many others to mention. If he didn’tcater their parties, big talents were guests, including Dustin Hoffman, Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, and Oprah Winfrey, who Chesterfield says he once reprimanded as she was about to put a finger in a chocolate cake yet to be sliced.
Behavior at celebrations may be a bit tamer today, the retiree said, due to the invention of cellphones. Back in the day, he said, “People couldn’t keep people from misbehaving.”
Chesterfield recalled some of his favorite moments at his catered parties, including when he met a young talent, Celine Dion, at David Foster’s and an unexpected reunion between the Everly Brothers, Don and Phil, who famously had not been speaking to each other.
“One didn’t know the other was coming,” Chesterfield said. “It was just pretty amazing.”
Now that one of his chefs of 38 years has taken over the business, Malibu’s caterer said he can enjoy his retirement and a bit of travel, “but, I love Malibu. Where is there a better place? People always ask me if I’ve been on holiday and I say ‘no’ I’ve been in Malibu. We have the most beautiful little city here.”
Chesterfield said his heart “may always belong to Liverpool, even though I love my Malibu, my heart belongs here too.” With no plans to leave the area, he and his wife Donna, who many people also remember from the business, are only a “phone call away” from Monrose and the many families they’ve come to know over the years through planning life cycle events as they were woven into the fabric of our community.