CUISINE ~ Food & Beverage Team
Sean Buchanan, Executive Chef
Kim Lambrechts, Director of Food & Beverage
Stowe Mountain Lodge Food and Beverage Team
Sean Buchanan
Executive Chef
At a hotel and restaurant where local artisan-inspired cuisine, all-natural organic ingredients, seasonally changing menus and boundless creativity provide the basis for a unique fine dining experience, it is only fitting that Buchanan, one of Vermont's foremost advocates of local farmers, would be chosen to take the helm of the highly-coveted new Stowe Mountain Lodge kitchen.
With almost ten years of culinary experience, including a recent position as executive chef at the Middlebury Inn, a small hotel known for teaching guests about the Vermont "localvore" movement, Buchanan not only understands how to run a successful restaurant kitchen, but he has also learned the importance of advocating local cuisine. Buchanan's underlying passion and motivation for his cooking is attached to his philosophy that fresh, native ingredients produce the highest quality and most tasteful cuisine, and supporting local farmers is the responsibility of the entire food community. Buchanan left the Middlebury Inn to take on a sales & marketing role at Wood Creek Farm in Bridport, Vermont, where he dedicated his time to learning first hand about the farming industry while simultaneously encouraging restaurants within the New England area to buy local, farm-raised beef. In just eleven months, he was able to increase the farm's sales of natural beef by 500% and spread awareness throughout the region of the benefits of purchasing locally- and humanely-raised meats. This time away from the kitchen also gave Buchanan an opportunity to travel around the state on behalf of Vermont Public Television, with whom he worked to create and host "Feast in the Making," a television series dedicated to introducing viewers to the state's meat, dairy and vegetable farmers, artisan cheesemakers, and the chefs who support them.
This young crusader's accomplishments and talents have not gone unrecognized. In addition to consistently being selected by Vermont Fresh Network, a local farm advocacy group, as a chef representative for their movement, the Vermont Department of Agriculture presented Buchanan with their "Buying Local" award in both 2006 and 2007. Edible Green Mountains, the Vermont edition of the renowned national food publication, chose Buchanan to be a regular contributor to their magazine as a way to continue the dialogue between farmers and consumers. Now that Buchanan is once again stepping back into the kitchen, his talent for creating memorable cuisine using indigenous ingredients will bring fresh and inspirational tastes to Stowe Mountain Lodge, ensuring an authentic Vermont experience for diners at the area's most exquisite new resort hotel and restaurant.
Kim Lambrechts
Director of Food & Beverage
Kim Lambrechts brings an international, innovative flair and culinary finesse to the Stowe Mountain Lodge food and beverage experience, where locally-inspired artisan cuisine provides the basis for a unique fine dining adventure.
Born in Korea, and raised by a French-speaking family in Belgium, Lambrechts' introduction to the hospitality world began in Belgium at the Manior de St. Aubert and later at the Michelin starred Les Quatre Saisons restaurant at the Royal Windsor Hotel in Brussels. During these first five years of his career, he received the Master Cooks of Belgium Award, was a semi-finalist in the Minervois International Competition and was selected to participate in the Gala Dinners with the Master Chefs of Belgium.
Lambrechts maintained his presence in the restaurant industry and in 1992 moved to the United States where he became the chef at the Boston Vista Waltham, in Waltham, Massachusetts. Soon after, he moved to the kitchen of the Washington Vista Hotel in Washington, D.C. With a vast array of global restaurant experience, Lambrechts researched and implemented new ideas for an internationally eclectic menu. He then moved back to Massachusetts in 1994 to work as the executive sous chef, and later, as executive chef at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Lambrechts continued to pursue his love for international cuisine and in 1996 moved to the U.A.E. where he became the executive sous chef at the four-star Abu Dhabi Hilton resort hotel. There, he oversaw seven restaurants, a beach club, and off-premise catering. Lambrechts' culinary finesse did not go unnoticed. He was awarded a gold medal and three silver medals as well as a prize for the best live cooking team at the Salon Culinaire in Dubai. During the same year, he won a special award in excellence from the Master Chef of Belgium, Pierre Fonteyne.
Two years later, Lambrechts returned to the United States where he worked at two of Boston's well-known fine dining restaurants as executive sous chef at the Boston Harbor Hotel and executive chef at the Bay Tower Room. In 2000, Lambrechts culinary expertise brought him to Mauritius in 2000, where he was executive chef and food and beverage director at the five-star Hilton Mauritius Resort. In this role he was part of the opening team of the hotel and was involved in all aspects of planning and developing the kitchen areas as well as the front of the house departments. Then in 2002, Lambrechts moved back to Massachusetts, and in a position as executive chef of Sidney's Grille at the Hotel @ MIT, he oversaw all banquet, restaurant, and room service culinary operations. Lambrechts realized that he wanted to apply his passion for the culinary arts to the management side of the restaurant business. In pursuit of this goal, he soon became food and beverage director, and took on the responsibilities for all aspects of food and beverage operation, including the management of banquet, culinary, purchasing and a la carte dining staff.
In Fall 2005, Lambrechts joined Destination Hotels & Resorts as the director of food and beverage for the award-winning NINE ZERO hotel in Boston, and later spent time in Colorado Springs in the same position at Garden of the Gods Club, another Destination property.
In an effort to gain more international food and beverage experience, Lambrechts moved to the Maldives where he spent a year as the director of food and beverage at the Four Seasons Resort Maldives, a five-star resort where he oversaw the property's re-launch and successfully managed the resort’s three restaurants, two bars, and full-service culinary poolside and beachside operations.
Lambrechts' years of experience working behind the scenes as a chef in many of the world's finest restaurants are reflected in his new role at Stowe Mountain Lodge. His management style uniquely translates the vision and creativity of a chef while creating an operationally functional and efficient restaurant and catering team.
