A look at recent job changes from chefs across the country:
Zeb Stevenson has been promoted from chef de cuisine to executive chef at The Livingston Restaurant + Bar in Atlanta. Before joining The Livingston in 2009, he was executive sous chef of Spice Market Atlanta.
Stevenson replaces Gary Mennie, who is now chef at Table 1280 at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.
Josh Blakely, the former sous chef of Employees Only in New York City, is the new executive chef of Macao Trading Co., also in New York. Among the new dishes he has added are Tortilha do Macao with sautéed crab and curry aïoli; grilled prawns with garlic refrito and cashews; braised heritage pork belly with mustard greens, grapefruit and aged balsamic vinegar; and sautéed diver scallops with Malaysian curry sauce and country ham.
David Gunawan has been promoted from chef de cuisine to executive chef at West in Vancouver, British Columbia. Raised in Singapore, Gunawan started at West in 2007 as chef de partie after having worked in fine dining restaurants in Chicago, Seattle and Vancouver. He graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering before studying cooking at Kendall College in Chicago and Vancouver Community College.
Justin Simoneaux has been named executive chef of Boxing Room, which the owners of Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in San Francisco are planning to open early next year in the space formerly occupied by Citizen Cake in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood.
Most recently, Simoneaux was chef de cuisine of The Moss Room at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The native of Southern Louisiana started cooking at seafood restaurants in New Orleans at age 15. He moved to San Francisco in 2005 and enrolled in the California Culinary Academy. Simoneaux currently is working with Absinthe executive chef Adam Keough.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].