Clayton Miller is the new executive chef at Wit & Wisdom at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore. Most recently the executive chef of Trummer’s on Main in Fairfax, Va., Miller is preparing items such as Maryland blue crab deviled eggs with shallot “cracklins';” lobster pot pie with Eastern shore sweet corn, chanterelles and a buttermilk biscuit; and wood-roasted duck with crushed cherry jus, stewed leeks and Sea Island red pea gratin.
Eduardo Vuolo is the new chef at the Hotel Caesar Augustus on the Italian island of Capri. Most recently he was sous chef at La Sponda at the Hotel Le Sirenuse in nearby Positano. Vuolo likes to spend his spare time gardening, tending to his backyard herbs and olive grove.
Hector Diaz, who worked his way up the ranks to executive chef at the now-shuttered B Restaurant & Bar in Oakland, Calif., is now working across the bay as executive chef of sister restaurant B Bar SF in San Francisco, where he is serving items ranging from hanger steak with garlic potato confit and veal demiglace to a ceviche trio of octopus, salmon belly and shrimp.
Marc Anthony Bynum, the former chef of Mooburger in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a former contestant on the Food Network show Chopped, is the new executive chef at The Vinatta Project in Manhattan, where he’s making chipotle barbecue ribs with pickled watermelon, and roasted organic chicken with roasted corn, wild mushrooms, spinach and tomato confit.
Nadia Velazquez is the new pastry chef at The Signature Room in Chicago. Most recently the pastry chef at the Dupont Hotel in Washington, D.C., Velazquez, a native of Guatemala, said: “Dessert is very similar to a woman. It is well-rounded and sophisticated, always evolving … ultimately, with an edge of quirkiness.”
Pichet Ong, former pastry chef of Spice Market in New York City and owner of P*ONG and Batch, also in New York, is now the executive pastry chef of Sugar and Plumm, with two locations, in New York City and Paramus, N.J. Ong is expected to roll out new items, including a giant raspberry apple Pop Tart and a lemon blueberry crème brûlée tart.
Shaun Brian Sells is executive chef of Water Street at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, Mass., on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Most recently at the Westin St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Sells got his culinary education at Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I.
Sophie Uong is the executive chef of Picán Restaurant in Oakland, Calif. Formerly chef de cuisine of Betty Zlatchin Catering in San Francisco, Uong began her career as a floral designer before falling in love with cooking. At Picán she is cooking items such as Lake Ponchartrain blue crab profiteroles and a hoecake stack with smothered heirloom beans.
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