Hawaii was fusion before fusion was cool. It’s long been a way of life on the Hawaiian Islands, which sit at the midway between East and West and showcase a truly multicultural society. “I blend a lot of styles,” said Oahu native Lyndon Honda, executive chef at Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa. “Hawaii’s been doing that fusion cuisine since the turn of the [last] century.

Putting a new twist on a historic hotel, San Antonio’s The St. Anthony Hotel is reshaping its food and beverage offering with the hiring of veteran chef John Zaner. Zaner brings more than 30 years of experience to an iconic property that is inching toward its 110-year anniversary in a city that is celebrating a tricentennial. But what is old is new again, in that the property is actually transforming itself via a journey to the past.

Sustainability is more than a passing fancy for Bruno Feldeisen, top chef at northwest Washington’s Semiahmoo Resort, Golf and Spa, it’s his culinary calling. Besides utilizing the fruits of the sea provided by Semiahmoo’s pristine setting in the Strait of Georgia north of Puget Sound, and the artisanal bounty of local farms in-season, Feldeisen is on a sustainability mission that includes critiquing the china, packaging and chemicals the resort uses.

An insatiable appetite for everything “food” is essential in the makeup of Mark Kropczynski, executive chef at San Diego’s THE US GRANT, a Luxury Collection Hotel. In fact, if you walk down to the San Diego shoreline after the kitchen of the Marriott-brand property’s Grant Grill closes you may find Kropczynski, dive light in hand, hunting for California spiny lobsters.

Satisfying the refined tastes of a worldly clientele has been a daily occurrence for Michael Goodman, executive chef of the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, a 30-year veteran of the top-shelf luxury brand in locations stretching across the globe.

The Confidante Miami Beach, part of the Unbound Collection by Hyatt and fresh off a $3.5 million meetings and events space renovation wrapped in fall 2017, has become an in-spot in mid-Miami Beach’s burgeoning food scene, and meetings groups are invited to the table. Although the 363-room retro-style Mid-Century modern hotel that sits oceanfront on famed Collins Avenue hearkens back to the glory days of 1950s Miami Beach, chef Richard Hales has brought some modern Southern flavors to bear with his Bird & Bone restaurant.

For Ryan Clark, executive chef at Tucson’s Casino Del Sol, playing a central role in fostering a burgeoning cuisine scene in the Southern Arizona city is a driving force that carries through to his work at the large casino-resort that employs him.

Matt Del Regno is Executive Chef & General Manager with the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.

Being the executive banquet chef at Pechanga Resort & Casino is a study in flexibility, from executing a chocolate and wine festival in time for Valentine’s Day to summertime chili cook-offs or catering to 1,500 hungry leathernecks for the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball, where chicken and lots and lots of sirloin are the menu items du jour for “First to Fight.”

Today’s dining customer, whether arriving in twos or as part of a large group, wants plenty of atmosphere served up with their dining experience.