Press Room
Chef Jason Friendy Promoted to Resort at Squaw Creek's Top Culinary Post
Efforts Highlight Fresh and Organic
OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. - AAA Four-Diamond Resort at Squaw Creek has announced that Chef Jason C. Friendy has been promoted to Executive Chef for the Destination Hotels & Resorts-managed property in Olympic Valley, California. Chef Friendy had previously served as the property's executive sous chef. Resort at Squaw Creek operates four restaurants including the signature Six Peaks Grille and Ristorante Montagna and Wine Bar. Additionally, Resort at Squaw Creek has 33,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, hosting many functions with complete banquet service, and offers in-room dining to hotel guests.
Chef Friendy brings years of training and experience to the post including past positions at The Silvertree Properties Snowmass Conference Center in Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado and a two-year term at The Peaks in Telluride Colorado. A graduate of Johnson & Wales University with a degree in Food Service Management, Chef Friendy strives to source regional and exotic wild game selections and combine them with enticing presentations. His current focus is crafting dishes at the forefront of current culinary trends using local organic farms and seafood sourced from sustainable fisheries.
Born in a small ski resort town in Pennsylvania's Poconos, Chef Friendy was raised in a Hungarian and Italian family where food was an integral part of everyday life. He has participated in a number of high profile culinary events including the Telluride Culinary Festival and Celebrity Food Tasting, Aspen Wellness Weekend (organic food festival and healthy living), and will be hosting the Best of Tahoe Chef's event in March, 2009.
Having won several awards - a silver medal for Food in Art, and being named a "Rising Star" by Wyndham International - Chef Friendy is a member of the American Culinary Federation who takes an active role in mentoring culinary students.
Resort at Squaw Creek offers ski-in-ski out access to Squaw Valley USA. Located five miles from Lake Tahoe, the resort is North Lake Tahoe's most complete luxury resort with on-property ice, skating, dog sledding, horse-drawn sleigh rides and a complete Nordic center. Additionally, the property features a full-service spa, shopping promenade, year-round pool and hot tub complex and, during the summer months, A Robert Trent Jones, Jr. Audubon certified championship golf course.
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About Resort at Squaw Creek (www.squawcreek.com)
Resort at Squaw Creek, a Destination Hotels & Resorts property, is situated at the base of Squaw Valley USA, home to the 1960 Winter Olympics. The mountainside North Lake Tahoe resort, which still sparkles from the near $55 million property-wide renovation two years ago, features 405 lavishly appointed residential-style guest rooms and suites; 33,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and 14,750 square feet of outdoor space; an exclusive on-property chair lift accessing Squaw Valley USA's world-class ski terrain; a recently renovated spa and full-service salon; a 25-meter heated pool and outdoor hot tubs; four distinct restaurants; exclusive boutique shopping; and Mountain Buddies, a fully-supervised children's activity program. Resort at Squaw Creek is a perennial AAA Four-Diamond property, and is one of the "Top 50 Ski Resorts in North America," as selected by Condé Nast Traveler.
About Destination Hotels & Resorts (www. destinationhotels.com)
Resort at Squaw Creek is one of more than 30 independent, upscale and luxury hotels, resorts and golf clubs in the United States managed by Destination Hotels & Resorts, the fourth largest independent hospitality management company in the country. The company, headquartered in suburban Denver, Colo., features a portfolio of more than 6,000 guest rooms, 11 golf courses and 13 full-service spas. Destination Hotels & Resorts properties are located in key metropolitan and resort markets including Washington, D.C., Houston, Denver, San Diego, Santa Fe, Aspen, Austin, Phoenix, Portland, Palm Springs, Maui and Lake Tahoe. The company is a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based investment, development and management firm Lowe Enterprises. For more information on the properties in the Destination Hotels & Resorts collection, please visit http://www.destinationhotels.com/.
Marc Sapoznik
High-resolution, downloadable images of the Resort at Squaw Creek and images of other properties in the Destination Hotels & Resorts collection are available by visiting www.leonardo.com/destination.
