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Chefs on the Move: Shuffles at Daniel Boulud’s New York City venues, and Ryan Poli’s new gig

Plus other new jobs at restaurants, hotels and companies around the country

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

October 4, 2021

17 Slides
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Two of Daniel Boulud’s landmark restaurants in New York City, Restaurant Daniel and Boulud Sud, have reopened with new executive chefs. Christina D’Angelo is now running the kitchen at the former, and Eddy Leroux is heading up the latter. Meanwhile Shaun Velez, who was executive pastry chef at Café Boulud, now has that job at Daniel.

Also in New York, Suyoung Park has been promoted from executive chef to head of New York operations and Daeik Kim is taking her previous position, and Linda Luo is the new executive chef of The Tavern, which was called Tavern by WS when Eli Kaimeh was the chef there.

German Villatoro has been named vice president of culinary for New York’s Backal Hospitality.

Ryan Poli, who has been consulting and doing other odd jobs since he left The Catbird Seat in Nashville at the end of 2018, is back in Nashville, now as executive chef of Bobby Hotel.

In Los Angeles, Ramon Bojorquez is the executive chef of Lumière at the new Fairmont Century Plaza hotel and Jason Moniz is executive chef of West Hollywood Hotels. In Palm Springs, Ysaac Ramirez is the new chef of 4 Saints.

David Gross is the new chef of Panzano in Denver, Dinesh Jayawardena has been promoted to regional executive chef of Radisson Blu Mall of America in Minneapolis and Jonathan Little is executive chef of Six Seven, the signature restaurant The Edgewater in Seattle. Also in Seattle, Jeffrey Hunter is the new executive sous chef of the Lotte Hotel in Seattle.

Related:Chefs on the Move: New positions at Bar Boulud, Momofuku and Hai Hospitality

Jin Lee is now running the kitchens at the Adolphus hotel in Dallas, and Rhonda McCullar is continuing to rise through the ranks of Hai Hospitality, having been promoted to chef de cuisine from executive sous chef of Uchi and Uchibā, a position she got last year.

And on Hawaii’s Big Island, Ian Scollay is executive chef of the private residential club Kohanaiki.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiar

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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