Nate Appleman has joined Brian Malarkey’s restaurant group as culinary director. Most recently chief operating officer of Umami Burger, Appleman previously was vice president of culinary for airport foodservice company OTG management, and before that he spent seven years as corporate chef of Chipotle Mexican Grill, a job he took after winning the James Beard Foundation Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year when he worked at A16 in San Francisco.

Ryan Arensdorf is executive chef of the new Kimpton Cottonwood Hotel in Omaha, Neb. He joins the new property from the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg, Va., where he also was executive chef.

Arensdorf got his start in Chicago, where he studied at Kendall College and then started working at Gibson’s Bar & Steakhouse. He went on to work at Biistronomic, One Sixteblue and Café des Architectes.

Zach Chancey is overseeing breakfast at The Dining Room at the High Hampton resort in Cashiers, N.C. Most recently he was executive chef at Rye in Louisville, Ky. Previous work included stages at Estela and The Breslin in New York City.

James Daversa is the new chef de cuisine of Uchi Dallas and Uchibā, the cocktail bar upstairs. He got his start after receiving a Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) scholarship to Monroe College in New Rochelle, N.Y. He then worked at The Mark, a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant in New York City followed by Catch NYC under chef Hung Huynh. He spent four years with Catch in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, eventually becoming an executive sous chef. In 2017 he joined Uchi as sous chef and then became executive sous chef of Uchibā in 2018.

Nick Deutmeyer has been named executive chef of Harvest in Cambridge, Mass. Although he has spent the past 11 years at Post 390 in Boston, where he worked his way up to the position of executive chef, before that Deutmeyer was back at Harvest, where he started as an intern and left as a line cook.

Daniel Drexler is the new executive chef of Bouillon Marseille, the re-branded version of Marseille in New York City. Most recently chef de cuisine of Bouley at Home, David Bouley’s private-dining venue, Drexler is a native of New York’s Hudson Valley. After graduating from the local Orange Ulster Culinary Career Academy he worked at Glenmere mansion in nearby Chester, N.Y., before working at Millesime in New York under chef Laurent Manrique and then joining Bouley’s team in 2015, which also afforded him an opportunity to study under several chefs in Japan. 

April Franqueza has been named pastry chef of the High Hampton resort in Cashiers, N.C., which is slated to reopen this spring. The graduate of The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., worked at Magnolia Bakery in New York City before joining the pastry team at Blackberry Farm and Blackberry Mountain in Walland, Tenn., from which she joined the High Hampton team.

Scott Franqueza has been named executive p.m. chef of the High Hampton resort in Cashiers, N.C., which is slated to reopen this spring. He will oversee the dinner menu of the property’s Dining Room while working with his wife April Franqueza, the property’s pastry chef.

The New England native graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and worked in fine-dining kitchens including Per Se and Café Boulud in New York City and Benu, Saison and Coi in San Francisco before moving to Walland, Tenn., to work at The Barn at Blackberry Farm and Blackberry Mountain.

Stephen Gillanders is the new chef of Somerset in the Viceroy hotel in Chicago. A longtime protégé of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Gillanders has achieved local success at S.K.Y., which he is continuing to run while also overseeing Somerset.

Truman Jones is the new executive chef and food & beverage director at The Tides Inn in Irvington, Va. Most recently, Jones was executive chef of the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, Calif. Before that he was executive chef at the Lake Placid Lodge in Lake Placid, N.Y., and at the Ventana Inn & Spa in Big Sur, Calif.

Youjin Jung is the new executive chef of Hortus in New York City. Most recently sous chef at Boulud Sud, also in New York, she also worked at Del Posto in New York and also honed her skills working at restaurants in Singapore.

Grant Morgan  has been named executive of the Hotel Drover, slated to open in Fort Worth, Texas, in early 21, where he will oversee 97 West Kitchen & Bar, offering modern Texas cuisine.

Morgan has been in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 2007, most recently working for Front Burner Restaurant Group as chef of the Ranch at Las Colinas and corporate chef of Velvet Taco. Before that, he was executive chef of Dragonfly and Hotel Zaca.

Previously he worked at Le Cirque at Bellagio in Las Vegas, the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort and Spa in Beaver Creek, Colo., Sweet Basil in Vail, Colo., and Heartline Café in Sedona, Ariz.

Rhonda McCullar has been promoted to executive sous chef of Uchi Dallas and Uchibā, the cocktail bar upstairs.

A native of Ennis, Texas, McCullar worked as a sixth-grade science teacher while studying at Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts in Dallas, from which she graduated in 2012. She worked for Marriott Hotels before joining Uchi in 2015, where she helped the kitchen reduce food waste by working to incorporate unused ingredients in new dishes. Hai Hospitality, which owns Uchi, said in the announcement of her promotion that she brings unique perspective to menu development because she’s a vegetarian.

Sean McNorton is the new executive chef at Nizza in New York City. Most recently, he worked at HaSalon, the New York outpost of the Tel Aviv, Israel, restaurant. Previously in New York he was at Chefs Club and The Lamb’s Club. Before that, the native of St. Louis, Mo., was in San Francisco, where his résumé includes stints at Ragazza, Farina, Aqua and Postrío.

Samantha Sanz is the new chef de cuisine at the Sanctuary on Camelback Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Sanz started her career as a cook at the resort’s Elements restaurant. She went on to be chef de cuisine at Virtu Honest Craft and then on to Talavera at the Four Seasons Resort, both also in Scottsdale. Born in Nogales, Mexico, Sanz graduated from Scottsdale’s Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

Alon Shaya, a pioneer in modern Israeli cuisine and current operator of Saba in New Orleans and Safta in Denver, has agreed to open an as-yet-unnamed restaurant and bar in the Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences New Orleans, slated to open  next year.

The cuisine will focus on foods of the New Orleans area, with particular attention paid to local and regional seafood.

Peter Smith is the new culinary operations director of Ghostline, a multi-restaurant “chef collective” in Washington, D.C., operated by Aaron Gordon, for which different chefs order meals that are delivered by Ghostline’s staff.

Most recently, Smith worked for Neighborhood Restaurant Group in D.C., for which he developed the menu for Georgetown restaurant Sovereign. The graduate of L’Académie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Md., also spent 14 years as chef de cuisine at Vidalia in D.C. He also owned his own restaurant, PS7’s, and was the co-executive chef of Newton’s Table in Bethesda, Md.

Peter Spyropoulos is the new chef of Oniro Taverna & Lounge in Woodbury, N.Y. The New York City native grew up in Greece and returned to the United States for college, which included studies at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park,. N.Y. He had externships at Le Cirque and Bouley in New York City before becoming executive chef of fine-dining Greek seafood restaurant Estiatorio Milos. He was the opening chef of Avra Estiatorio in New York City and of Limani, another fine-dining Greek seafood restaurant in Roslyn, N.Y.

Eric Starkman is the new executive chef of Nice Matin in New York City. Most recently he was chef de cuisine of Townsend Restaurant in Philadelphia, where he previously worked with Stephen Starr restaurants Wedge & Fig, Rouge, LeCroix, Serpico and Marigold Kitchen. He also spent a year working at Alinea in Chicago.

Ian Tenzer is the new executive research & development chef of Puesto Mexican Artisan Kitchen and Bar, based in San Diego. Previously he was a sous chef at Eleven Madison Park in New York City.

Claudette Zepeda has been named executive chef of VAGA Restaurant & Bar in the Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas, in Encinitas, Calif., which is slated to open in early 2021.

Zepeda gained critical acclaim as the executive chef and partner of El Jardín in San Diego. Prior to that she was chef de cuisine of Bracero, also in San Diego. She also competed in Season 15 of Bravo TV’s Top Chef as well as Top Chef Mexico.

Fonzy de Zuniga has been promoted to executive chef of Descanso Restaurant in Costa Mesa, Calif. Originally from Mexico City and raised in Los Angeles, de Zuniga started working at the San Pedro Docks in high school cleaning fish and shucking oysters. He joined Descanso as sous chef when the restaurant opened in November of 2018.