A number of hotels are entering the fall season with new leaders in the kitchen.
Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., announced the appointment of Jason Adams as the new executive chef, where he will oversee resort-wide culinary operations and programming. Adams has more than 20 years of culinary experience at top five-star luxury hotels and resorts across the United States and Caribbean.
“Chef Adams has worked with prestigious properties around the world, and brings a wealth of experience from different cultures and types of cuisine to the tables of our guests. We welcome the fresh perspective his diverse background provides, and are excited to welcome him to the La Costa team,” said Gary Sims, managing director of Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. “With Adams on board, we will be expanding and enhancing Omni La Costa’s culinary offerings, while staying true to the resort’s regional, coastal cuisine.”
In his new position, Adams is spearheading the revival of Omni La Costa’s on-site beehives, which are an important resource for the Southern California resort. In support of the resort’s sustainability efforts, the beehives were originally cultivated to produce honey to be incorporated in everyday ingredients for guests including cocktails, condiments, appetizers and spa treatments. Adams is reinvigorating the beehives by cross-pollenating them with lavender, peppercorn and fennel, to infuse unique flavors into each strain. Adams is also working on a refresh of the banquet catering, creating completely new menus for the resort’s numerous indoor and outdoor events.
Prior to joining Omni La Costa, Adams served as executive chef at Four Seasons Resort Nevis, West Indies, where he was named “Caribbean Hotel Chef of the Year 2015” by The Caribbean Journal and cultivated relationships with local purveyors and fisherman for executing sustainable farm-and-sea-to-table culinary operations, including a Dive & Dine program for guests. Adams also served as executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach, Fla., The St. Regis Aspen Resort, Aspen, Colo. and The Ritz-Carlton San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort
Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort in Costa Rica welcomed Stephan Rinzsch as the new head chef of the hotel. Rinzsch will oversee all three on-site restaurants, Rio Bhongo, Ostra and Chao Pescao. He has more than 15 years of experience.
Born and raised in Berlin, he attended Landesberufsschule for hospitality in Villingen Schwenningen, and began his journey in the culinary industry in a small family-owned hotel. After 10 years of broadening his gourmet endeavors in Hyatt hotels in Germany, he took his skills and experience to the Caribbean where he was opening chef de cuisine for the Mediterranean restaurant and later executive sous chef at the Hyatt Regency Curacao. He most recently spent two and a half years as the executive sous chef at Grand Hyatt Santiago in Chile.
Hotel Wailea
Hawaii’s first and only Relais & Châteaux property, the adults-only Hotel Wailea, has a new chef de cuisine: Maui native Zach Sato brings his ingredient-driven menu to The Restaurant at Hotel Wailea, the luxury resort’s newly rebranded Relais & Châteaux culinary concept.
Sato has an enthusiasm for showcasing Hawaii’s history and culture by working with homegrown flavors and holds a strong belief in sourcing the finest available ingredients as a means of crafting exceptional cuisine. His menu for The Restaurant features seasonal, island-grown offerings with menu highlights that include local purveyors and local seafood from snapper to ahi tuna.
A graduate of San Diego Culinary Institute, Sato joined Hotel Wailea’s culinary team in the summer of 2016 after spending more than a decade working for the acclaimed Peter Merriman. In this capacity, Sato had the opportunity to lead kitchens in nearly all of Merriman’s restaurant concepts, including the craft-focused Monkeypod Kitchen.
Rosewood CordeValle
Victor Palma has been appointed executive chef of Rosewood CordeValle in San Martin, Calif. In his new role, Palma will lead the culinary team at the resort’s three dining venues: Il Vigneto, Lion’s Peak Grill and One Iron Bar.
Palma joins Rosewood CordeValle from Rosewood San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, where he was the executive chef. During his tenure at Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, Palma oversaw the acclaimed hotel’s culinary operation including its signature culinary programming and its award-winning restaurants. Prior to Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, Palma was the executive sous chef at Las Ventanas al Paraiso, a Rosewood Resort in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, where he spearheaded the creation of a new “locally sourced, nationally inspired” Mexican menu at El Restaurante.
Palma was classically trained at the Florida Culinary Institute in Boca Raton, Fla., and received additional formal training under two renowned Michelin-starred chefs, Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and Peter Rudolph at Rosewood Sand Hill in Palo Alto, Calif. He began his career at Hotel Marquis Reforma in Mexico City, soon acquiring the position of chef de partie at various hotels and restaurants in the U.S. and Mexico, including Le Cirque at Hotel Camino Real in Mexico City. Palma also held the position of chef de cuisine at El Cardenal at Hilton Mexico City Reforma (formerly Sheraton Centro Historico) before joining Rosewood Hotels & Resorts in 2006.
Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Resort & Spa
3800 Ocean, the signature restaurant of the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Resort & Spa, named Gustavo Calderon executive chef.
With more than 10 years of professional experience, Calderon most recently served as executive sous chef at The Ritz-Carlton Bahrain. There, he assisted the executive chef with the supervision of the hotel’s culinary division, which consisted of nine restaurants and 23 villas, while overseeing the hotel’s banquet operations. He successfully led a kitchen of 110 cooks and 24 sous-chefs. Calderon spent four years with Ritz-Carlton in Cancun, Naples (Fla.) and Bahrain before accepting his new position at Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island.
Calderon’s career began in Saltillo, Mexico, where his grandmother owned a small family restaurant and where he became immersed in authentic Mexican cuisine. He received his bachelor’s degree in hotel management from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico. Calderon furthered his education with a degree in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., where he was exposed to fine dining during an internship at Le Bernardin under Chef Eric Ripert.