Cavallo Point's new culinary team, other F&B moves

A number of hotels and management companies have appointed new leaders for their restaurants or food-and-beverage teams. Here are a few of the recent announcements from the start of 2022. 

Cavallo Point

In Sausalito, Calif., Cavallo Point has appointed three new members to its culinary team:

Mitzy Percival is the new director of food and beverage and will oversee all of the property’s dining outposts, including the Cooking School. Percival was director of banquets for Four Seasons, as well as food and beverage manager at the Grande Colonial hotel in La Jolla, Calif. 

Candace Rowan will be pastry chef for the lodge. Rowan attended the California Culinary Academy and has held roles in Nashville and San Francisco restaurants, including Buckeye Roadhouse, Wayfare Tavern, Town Hall, Kokkari and A16.

Jeff Chase joins the team as the new director of Cavallo Point Cooking School, curating a range of classes, locally inspired menus and private group events. Chase has held roles at Café Sparrow in Aptos, Calif., and Loretta Keller’s Bizou Restaurant in San Francisco. Most recently, he was part of the management team at Bon Appetit Management Co., opening kitchens for Uber and Dolby headquarters and overseeing accounts like Google, Apple and Williams Sonoma. 

Bishop’s Lodge

Bishop’s Lodge, an Auberge Resorts Collection hotel in Santa Fe, N.M., has appointed Pablo Peñalosa as executive chef. In his new role, Peñalosa will oversee all culinary outlets.

Originally from Mexico City, Peñalosa graduated from Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana and worked at El Celler de Can Roca and Martin Berasategui in Spain, then returned to Mexico City where he was a part of the opening team for the international restaurant Morimoto.

Peñalosa joins Bishop’s Lodge from Meliá Hotels International Paradisus in Los Cabos, Mexico, where he served as executive chef and ran operations during the reopening. Before that, he held several executive chef positions, which included the openings of two Four Seasons Resorts in Colombia.

The Alexandrian

In Alexandria, Va., The Alexandrian, an Autograph Collection hotel, has appointed Tomas Chavarria as the new executive chef at its King & Rye restaurant. Originally from Costa Rica, Chavarria has worked in the U.S., Mexico, the Philippines and across Central America, as well as in the kitchens of Charlie Palmer and Quentin Villers. 

Before joining King & Rye, Chavarria most recently was head chef of Crimson Resort and Spa Boracay in the Philippines. He has overseen the opening and operations of the Marriott Cancun (Mexico) Resort, JW Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa and Le Meridien Mexico City.

Chavarria’s menu at King & Rye incorporates seasonal, intentional ingredients sourced from regional farmers, makers and butchers. Looking ahead, the King & Rye team is set to relaunch Morrison House’s culinary operations in 2022 with an entirely new concept led by Chavarria.

Montage Healdsburg

The Montage Healdsburg in California has appointed Devin McDavid as its new executive pastry chef, overseeing all dessert programming and baking operations for the resort’s dining concepts, in-room dining and catering and events. 

McDavid’s career includes positions at Per Se, Fleur de Sel and SoHo House (N.Y.); French Laundry (Yountville, Calif.); Quince and Cotogna (San Francisco); Blue Hill at Stone Barns (N.Y.); The Resort of Pedregal in Los Cabos, Mexico; and, most recently, Auberge’s Chileno Bay Resorts & Residences in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 

A graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, McDavid most recently was the executive pastry chef of Auberge’s Chileno Bay Resorts & Residences in Cabo San Lucas, and his career began in Newport, R.I., as a pastry assistant at Spiced Pear. In New York, he worked at David Burke Tavern before making his way back up to Rhode Island to join Garrison Confections as an assistant chocolatier. 

Proper Hospitality

Proper Hospitality has appointed Ned Elliott as executive culinary director across its portfolio, including the Proper-branded hotels in Santa Monica, Calif.; downtown Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Austin, Texas; the Hotel June in West Los Angeles and Malibu, Calif.; and The Collective, a soft brand that includes Avalon Hotels in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs, and the Venice V Hotel in Venice Beach.

Elliott will be responsible for spearheading the overarching F&B program for all the hotel brands. He will work with established culinary partners like restaurateurs Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne’s The Lucques Group at Downtown LA Proper and MML Hospitality at its Austin outpost. He will mentor other executive chefs across the portfolio and design new concepts and implement his culinary vision across all properties.

Elliott joins Proper from Chicago where he spent the past three years as corporate executive chef at the city’s largest restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. He led all culinary operations and menu development for RPM Italian, RPM Steak, RPM Seafood, RPM Events & Catering, and Pizzeria Portofino throughout Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas. He also played a key leadership role in the opening of Aba in Austin, Texas. Prior to that, he was the owner and chef at Foreign & Domestic Restaurant in Austin, Texas for eight years. He has worked with Thomas Keller at Per Se, Terrance Brennan at Picholine, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House Hotel and Floyd Cardoz at Tabla.

Royal Uno All Inclusive Resort & Spa

In Cancun, the upcoming Royal Uno All Inclusive Resort & Spa has appointed Leonardo Daniel Trujillo Gómez as its new executive chef, and Eduardo García Ramírez as its new food-and-beverage manager. Royal Uno is scheduled to open on June 28 and is the latest development from Mexico's Royal Resorts.

Originally from the Mexican state of Chiapas, Trujillo has worked at all-inclusive resort brands in the Riviera Maya, Cancun and Playa Mujeres including Secrets and Dreams, Excellence, Azul Fives by Karisma and the Hard Rock Hotel in Puerto Vallarta. He began as a chef de partie, rising to executive sous chef and then executive chef. Most recently, Trujillo was the executive chef at Dreams Sands Cancun where he was responsible for seven specialty restaurants. 

Garcia originally is from the Mexican state of Michoacán and has held roles at  Secrets and Dreams in Playa Mujeres and the Live Aqua Boutique in Playa del Carmen. Before joining Royal Uno, he was food-and-beverage director at Zoëtry Agua in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.  

Innisbrook Resort

Salamander Hotels & Resorts has appointed William Ryan as the new executive chef at Innisbrook Resort in Tampa Bay, Fla. Ryan will oversee the resort’s restaurants and bars as well as F&B offerings for on-site meetings, catered events and special functions.

Born in Ohio and raised in Michigan, Ryan started working at a local Greek restaurant when he was 16. Throughout his career, he has served in various positions, from pastry chef to preparing high-volume meals for up to 4,000 guests.

A graduate of the New England Culinary Institute, Ryan started his professional career as a corporate chef in Vermont. He then made his way into hospitality, serving as executive chef at the Westin Hilton Head Island (S.C.) Resort & Spa, as well as the Westin St. John in the Virgin Islands. Ryan then became executive chef at Ti Kaye Resort & Spa in St. Lucia before spending the past seven years as executive chef at Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys.