Semir Elkaz has been named head chef of two New York City restaurants, Epistrophy and Le Fanfare. Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, he and his family moved to the United States when he was 10 years old, and his culinary career began at a neighborhood restaurant in Burlington, Vt., before he became morning sous chef at Artisan Southport in Southport Conn., his most recent position.

Ryan Ellison is the new executive chef at Seasons Restaurant & Bar in Davis, Calif. He is a veteran of northern California restaurants, having worked at the Fairmont San Jose, the Crowne Plaza San Jose-Silicon Valley, Portola Kitchen in Portola Valley, Calif., and LB Steak in San Jose.

Jenna Kinard has been named executive chef of Hotel Drover, which is slated to open in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2020. Before accepting the position, Kinard was running her own catering business in the area. She was executive chef at the Max’s Wine Dive’s now-shuttered Fort Worth location until 2017.

Andrew Litherland is the new executive chef of the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, Calif. Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, Litherland graduated from Auckland Technical Institute with degrees in food hygiene and professional cookery before beginning his career at the Ritz-Carlton, Osaka in Japan. He went on to work at other restaurants within and outside of Ritz-Carlton hotels with executive chef positions at Ritz-Carltons in Coconut Grove, Fla., and Atlanta as well as at The Hotel at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. Most recently he was executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee, in Greensboro, Ga.

Adam Measurall is the new “executive chef & B” with responsibility for the food and beverage at Leroy’s at The Kinney SLO, a new 100-room hotel in San Luis Obispo, Calif. A native of Ventura, Calif., Measurall attended culinary school at Santa Barbara City College and then worked his way up from grill cook to executive chef at Arlington Tavern in Santa Barbara, Calif. Most recently he was at Far Western Tavern in Orcutt, Calif.

Sarah Nelson, executive chef of two New York City restaurants, Beauty & Essex and The Stanton Social, is now also in charge of Vandal, also in New York, all under the auspices of Tao Group. Originally from Libertyville, Ill., she studied food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., and then attended the Cooking Hospitality Institute of Chicago. She went on to work at Meritage in Chicago, working her way up to sous chef before opening sister restaurant Fixture, where she was head chef, before moving to New York to work at Beauty & Essex.

Holly Palmer is head chef of Mii amo Cafe at the Mii amo spa in Sedona, Ariz. Most recently party chef for M Catering by Michael’s in Phoenix, she previously worked at other Phoenix-area restaurants including Roy’s, Gertrude’s at the Desert Botanical Garden, Vincent’s on Camelback and House of Tricks, as well as Phoenix Country Club.

Samantha Santiago Torres is the new executive pastry chef at LondonHouse Chicago.

Originally from Spain, Santiago Torres worked in the United Kingdom at a variety of restaurants and hotels before moving to Denver where she worked for Compass Group training intern chefs and pastry cooks. She moved to Chicago to work at LondonHouse.

Galen Zamarra, the David Bouley protégé who also was chef and owner of the critically acclaimed Mas (Farmhouse) in New York City, has now teamed up with chef-restaurateur Geoffrey Zakarian at The Lambs Club, where Zamarra is the new executive chef.

Tabitha Yeh is the executive chef of the recently opened Playboy Club in New York City.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., Yeh trained at Per Se in New York City and Noma in Copenhagen, among other places before working as a corporate chef in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Before joining Playboy Club, she had been working as a freelance consultant since 2014.

Brian Lockwood (right, next to Dmitri Magi, former chef de cuisine of Eleven Madison Park who will head up a new as-yet-unannounced project in the Make it Nice group) has been promoted from executive sous chef to executive chef of Eleven Madison Park in New York City.
Originally from Boulder, Colo., he got his start in an apprenticeship with the American Culinary Federation before moving to San Francisco at age 22 and working at Gary Danko. After a stint in Hawaii he returned to northern California and worked at The French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., before returning to Boulder as chef de cuisine of Frasca Food and Wine. He then worked at several Michelin-starred restaurant in Europe and moved to New York in 2012, where he was hired as sous chef at Eleven Madison Park. He then was chef de cuisine of sister restaurant NoMad, returning to Eleven Madison Park this year.