September 23, 2014 – Hyatt Carmel Highlands welcomes a new executive chef next week. Chad Minton of Hyatt’s ultra-chic Andaz 5th Avenue hotel in Manhattan has been hired to replace Matt Bolton, who moved over to the Intercontinental on Monterey’s Cannery Row in July.
“This is a magical opportunity to return to the West Coast, where I’ve worked practically my entire life,” Minton said. He’s been in New York just under two years and before that was executive chef at Ojai Valley Inn and the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey.
But the 40-year-old chef has strong ties to our area. In the 1990s, when he worked at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco under Gary Danko, he says Monterey and Carmel were his favorite get-away spots. More recently he has partnered with the Monterey Bay Aquarium through its Seafood Watch program and just last year he raced in the Sea Otter Classic mountain bike competition at Laguna Seca. He’s also worked at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco and Hyatt Regency Vancouver.
“I’ve always said that if I ever won the lottery, the Monterey Peninsula is where I’d live,” he said. “And as for being a chef here, there are probably not a lot of other places you could live with better ingredients.”
When he worked at Ojai Valley Inn, chef Chad would accompany guests to the local farmers’ market on bicycles and he supervised the hotel’s own organic vegetable garden and orchard. “I’m hoping to find a little plot of land to do that here,” he said. Minton has also filmed cooking segments for the long-running TV program California Bounty. Read the article “Chad Minton-Rebel Chef with a Cause” in our sister publication Edible Ojai here…
Minton describes his cooking as “sophisticated without being complicated” and says chef Cal Stamenov of Bernardus Lodge has been a big influence on his style. “We are going to have to raise the bar here, because when you are dealing with million dollar views the food has to measure up,” he adds.
“We are proud to welcome a chef of his stature to the Hyatt Carmel Highlands,” said GM Steve McNally. “We are fortunate to have a culinary team as passionate about their work as they are experienced and in Chef Minton, we are bringing our dining experiences to the highest levels for our guests.”
It’s not the first time Minton has worked in the kitchen at the cliff top resort. He recalls coming to Highlands Inn as a helper during one of the early editions of the Masters of Food & Wine. Now he has a different food festival to prepare for, the Gateway to Big Sur Food & Wine event that takes place at Hyatt Carmel Highlands on November 6. But this time he’ll be participating as host chef.
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
