The latest chefs on the move

Adam Brown is executive chef of Skates on the Bay in Berkeley, Calif. The native of Pleasanton, Calif., graduated the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Most recently he was corporate executive chef of Beets Hospitality Group in Livermore, Calif., but he also has a chain restaurant background, having worked for Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.

He said he plans to use his experience with Asian cooking to influence Skates’ new raw bar menu.

Deden Putra (pictured right), former executive chef at the Jumeirah Essex House in New York City, is the new executive pastry chef at The Peninsula New York. In his new position, the Indonesia-born chef is making desserts such as a chocolate banana truffle bar and Asian pear sorbet with mascarpone ice cream, red wine reduction and yuzu meringue.

Eli Collins has been promoted from executive sous chef to executive chef of DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Daniel Boulud’s burger-and-sausage restaurant in New York City. A self-taught chef from Scranton, Pa., Collins worked his way up the ranks at several Philadelphia restaurants before joining the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel in New York City and then Boulud’s group at db Bistro Moderne. He was on the 2009 opening team of DBGB.

Collins replaces Olivier Quignon (picutred left), who is now executive chef of Bar Boulud, also in New York City, which specializes in French cuisine and charcuterie.

Michael Navarette is the chef at the Regal Beagle, a Dramshop Hospitality property in Brookline, Mass., making dishes such as grilled pork confit with apple-pear kimchi and lentils, and lamb braised in black beans with peppery greens and pumpkin seed sauce. The former sous chef of Hamersley’s Bistro in Boston studied at the New England Culinary Institute.

Michael Santoro, former executive chef of Talula’s Garden, a Stephen Starr restaurant in Philadelphia, has opened his own place in that city, The Mildred, with friend Michael Dorris, who is running the front of the house.

Santoro’s résumé includes stints at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in Bray, England, and Gilt under chef Paul Liebrandt in New York City, as well as New York tapas restaurant Boqueria. At The Mildred he’s dishing up pasta alla chitarra with cockles, bacon and beer; sheep milk ricotta gnudi with crispy kale, Parmesan crème and mushroom sauce; and bratwurst with charred onions, grapes and lovage.

Ricky Rivera (pictured right) is the new executive chef of Isla Verde Beach Resort in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A native of the New York City borough of Queens, Rivera also went to school in Puerto Rico, and in 1994 graduated from the Universidad Metropolitana in Cupey, P.R. Most recently was executive chef of the San Juan Marriott.

Todd Immel (pictured left), who developed the charcuterie program at Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison’s Star Provisions in Atlanta, is the new executive chef of sister restaurant Floataway Café. He will continue to have a consulting role at Star Provisions, however.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
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