Dylan Montano grew up in Southern California immersed in the restaurant industry. His father was a manager and his mother a server, and by the time he was 12 years old he was washing dishes and doing prep work in the Chart House kitchen, where his dad was a manager.
"Growing up in a restaurant, the cooks were idols for me," Montano said. "They were old school, using clarified butter, cursing at each other. As a young kid, I wanted to be like the broiler and line cooks. I also did regular kid stuff like watch cartoons, but I also loved 'Yan Can Cook' when I was 8 years old."
It is a passion that has led Montano to his latest stop as the new executive chef overseeing all food and beverage operations at the Royal Lahaina Resort on Maui's Kaanapali Beach, where in the coming year he will be tackling a rebrand of the signature restaurant into a tiki-style establishment.
Dylan Montano
Montano kept cooking through high school but also explored other interests, and enrolled at the University of California Santa Barbara to study oceanography. While he was in school, the Bacara Resort and Spa opened nearby, and Montano scored a job in the kitchen run by Remi Lauvand, a well-regarded chef who had worked in a handful of New York's Michelin-starred restaurants, including Le Cirque and Montrachet.
"He started working with me and mentoring me," Montano said. "And after a couple of months, he said: 'I don't know what you're doing in life, but you need to quit college and go to New York or San Francisco, where you can explore a culinary career. This is in your blood.'"
With one semester left to go before getting his degree, Montano dropped out, packed his truck and drove north to San Francisco.
"My parents were so for it. ... They knew how much I loved cooking and the art behind it and they were happy for me," Montano said. "I was taking a big leap to start a career, going somewhere I never had been before, but I always knew if I failed I could go back to school and finish easily."
Montano fell in with Traci Des Jardins, a James Beard Award winner who owns and operates Jardinere and several other restaurants. As a young line cook at Jardinere, he rotated among all the stations, learning everything from foie gras to pastry. After three years he took a break from the high-pressure culinary atmosphere of San Francisco and, along with a few friends, opened a 12-room surf hotel in Costa Rica with a restaurant and bar. After the 2008 recession hit, tourism took a dive, and Montano was soon back in the Bay Area. He helped lead the pasta program at the Michelin three-star restaurant Quince, and worked at Manzanita, Des Jardins' restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe.
Eventually, Montano decided to take another stab at working in a place where he could surf without a wetsuit year round.
"I was looking to get back into a tropical atmosphere, and I felt Maui was at the forefront of a food revolution with a focus on fresh local products," Montano said.
In 2013 Montano made the trip across the Pacific and opened Koa Seaside Grill on Front Street in Lahaina. The chef had set his sights on inventive fare using the freshest ingredients, but quickly found the popular tourist corridor called for a more well-worn menu approach.
"We did well, but at first we had to adjust to what the clientele was looking for," Montano said. "I wanted to be adventurous, but this was more of a spot for more traditional American fare with Hawaiian flair, where visitors can get a piece of home or someone who's just come in off the cruise ship gets their first mai tai. We were making money and it was fun, but it wasn't really where my expertise or passion was."
Montano moved on to work with Mark Ellman, who has owned restaurants on Maui since 1991 and is considered one of the original chefs crafting and promoting Hawaii regional cuisine.
"He has several restaurants and this great connection to local farmers," Montano said. "Fisherman and farmers are coming to him with the best product: 200-pound ahi or a 6-foot mahi. I said to myself, 'This guy has got something figured out.' He was making the type of food and connections I want here on the island."
Most recently, Montano served as chef de partie at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua before coming over to the Royal Lahaina.
Now holding the authority to execute his vision across an entire property, Montano said he plans to draw guests into the cooking process more using exhibition-style cooking stations, like wood-fired ovens and grills and an imu, the Hawaiian version of an underground oven.
"I like to be hands-on in the kitchen," Montano said. "I like to keep the team excited, change the menu regularly, and teach about new techniques and ingredients. Right now I'm getting to know the staff, and it's been great seeing not just what I can teach them and they want to learn, but what they have to show me. I've been working with one of the local guys who has been showing me how to work the imu better."
The hotel will also be introducing a new branch of Don the Beachcomber, the well-known tiki-style bar and restaurant first established in Los Angeles. The property owners, Hawaiian Hotels and Resorts, purchased the rights to the brand a few years ago and first installed it at another one of their properties, Royal Kona Resort.
"My philosophy is based on sourcing the most local products, and Maui is an incredible place for that," Montano said. "So I look at what products the farmers and fishermen have for us today and how can I elevate them."
Montano said they plan to do a lot with seafood, including whole roasted fish and raw fish in a variety of styles. They also will bring the bread baking in-house and are exploring purchasing whole animals to do more of their own butchery on site. Montano will also be putting his signature on the Royal Lahaina's Myths of Maui Luau, which he said would be the perfect venue for some of the whole-animal presentations he'd like to introduce with the imu.
"I want to use local techniques while incorporating things like French-style braising," Montano said. "We can use a dutch oven but still be cooking with hot rocks over here. I always ask how we can take this rustic local food and elevate the dining experience so it's traditional, interesting yet approachable."