Chefs on the move: September 2018

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, a Dallas-based chain with more than 500 locations in 45 states, has named Phil Butler to the newly created position of research and development chef.

Butler, who has worked in restaurants since he was 13 years old, has held R&D roles at Brioche Dorée, Mimi’s Café and Pei Wei Asian Diner. He attended The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Katie Coss is the new executive chef of Husk restaurant’s Nashville location. Coss has worked for Neighborhood Dining Group, which owns Husk, for six-and-a-half years, having started at Husk’s original Charleston location. The Oklahoma native is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Matthew D’Ambrosi has been named executive chef of sister restaurants Spoonbar and Pizzando, both on Healdsburg, Calif., and he also is responsible for development of the menu at The Rooftop at Haromon Guest House, slated to open in October. Most recently he was corporate executive chef of Andale Management Group, based in San Francisco, where he oversaw the opening of Mezcalito and Valencia St. Station in that city.

Michael Galindo has been promoted from pastry cook to pastry chef of Kuro at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., where he has worked since 2015. Before that he was a pastry cook at several Miami Beach properties, including Juvia, Beachcraft and Morimoto.

Phillip Lopez, the avant-garde New Orleans chef who owned Root and Square Root in New Orleans, is the new executive chef at fine-dining landmark Galatoire’s and its sister steakhouse, Galatoire’s 33, replacing Michael Sichel, who was there for seven years.

Lopez said in a press release that he would maintain Galatoire’s Creole culinary traditions.

Benjamin Martinek has been promoted to chef de cuisine at Studio, the fine dining restaurant at the Montage Laguna Beach. He has worked at the Laguna Beach, Calif., property for the past seven years, first as a cook at Studio, then as executive sous chef at casual The Loft, and then sous chef at Studio. Prior to that, he was chef de partie at Raya at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel.

Pete Ramirez is chef de cuisine at Mersea on San Francisco’s Treasure Island. He studied at the California Culinary Academy and worked in fine dining restaurants in New York and Las Vegas before returning to San Francisco to run the banquet program at Farallon.

Tori Schumacher has been promoted to chef de cuisine at The Ordinary, Mike Lata and Adam Nemirow’s restaurant in Charleston, S.C., where he has worked since July of 2015.

Daniel Sherron has been promoted to executive chef from executive sous chef of Forbidden Root Brewery, a restaurant and brewery in Chicago. The former professional guitarist worked his way through such Chicago restaurants as MK, Green Zebra and Carriage House before joining Forbidden Root.

Martin Smetana is the new chef de cuisine of Twelve Eighty in Atlanta. Originally from the Czech Republic, he most recently was executive chef at Foundry Park Inn and Spa in Athens, Ga., and before that he was executive chef of The Carriage House in Jefferson, Ga.

Aishling Stevens, who has been executive chef of Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg, N.J., since February, is now also executive chef of its fine-dining Restaurant Latour. The New Jersey native studied commercial recreation and hotel management at East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, Pa., before spending 11 years working in Australia in the resort area of Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. After a year as a sous chef at The Walpole Arms in Itteringham, England before returning to New Jersey. She joined Crystal Springs in 2017.

Brian Sundeen, former executive chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Liguna Niguel, has transferred to the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa as its new executive chef. The southern California native studied at the French Pastry School in Chicago as well as at the Orange County School of Culinary Arts.

Daniel Weiland is executive chef at About Last Knife, a new bar and steakhouse at the Hotel Julian Millennium Park in Chicago. Most recently working the brewpub Forbidden Root in Chicago, Weiland previously worked in such Paul Kahan restaurants as Blackbird and Avec, also in Chicago.

Matt Weinstein has been named executive chef of Biltong Bar’s second location, slated to open this fall in The Shops Buckhead Atlanta. Most recently he was executive chef of One Midtown Kitchen, a Concentrics Restaurants property, and before that he was executive chef at the now-shuttered Woodfire Gill. Both of those restaurants also are in Atlanta.