A seasoned chef with more than two decades of hospitality experience in Asia and Europe has been appointed as Alma’s Italian chef de cuisine.
Italian-born Francesco Leone has joined 30-hectare family resort Alma, overlooking Long Beach on Vietnam’s Cam Ranh peninsula, to take charge of trattoria-style Italian restaurant La Casa, a highlight of the resort’s rich culinary landscape comprising 14 dining venues.
Before joining Alma, Leone was Italian chef de cuisine and corporate Italian chef for a Ho Chi Minh City-based F&B company.
He was an Italian culinary advisor for various hotels, resorts and restaurants in Cebu, Boracay and Manila in the Philippines, Italian chef de cuisine for Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, Italian specialty chef, chef patron and executive sous chef at Movenpick Resort & Spa Boracay, and a sous chef at The Foreign Merchant’s Club in Pampanga in the Philippines.
Leone started his career as a demi chef de partie in 2002 at Atahotels Tanka Village Resort and Golf Hotel in Sardinia and in Madonna di Campiglio before working as a senior chef de partie for various employers in Milan and Rome. He then moved to Asia in 2011, first working in Singapore as chef de cuisine at Pasta Fresca da Salvatore before moving to the Philippines to work as executive chef for Aria Cucina Italiana in Aklan. He has also studied a Bachelor of Arts majoring in restaurant and culinary management at IPSSAR Molfetta in Italy.
Alma’s executive assistant manager Ingo Stöneberg said Leone brought rich experience from Italy and Asia to his role overseeing the resort’s authentic Italian cuisine, as well as excellent interpersonal skills interacting with diners and strong leadership and training to benefit his team.
To contact Alma or to make a booking, please email [email protected] or call +84 258 399 1666
About Alma
Situated on Vietnam’s emerging Cam Ranh peninsula fronting Long Beach, Alma resort commands some 30 hectares of inspiring ground. Emblematic of Vietnam’s maturation as a destination, the bold and spacious integrated resort offers 580 oversized suites and pavilions that all afford sweeping vistas of the ocean, including contemporary three bedroom oceanfront pavilions each totalling 224sqm with a living room, four bathrooms and a private pool. Alma features a broad spectrum of restaurants helmed by top chefs, a food court with an array of local and international cuisine, as well as a sports bar, pool bar and beach bar. Other highlights include 12 swimming pools cascading down to the beach, a waterpark, 13-treatment room spa, 70-seat cinema, convention centre, amphitheater, science museum, gymnasium and yoga room, 18-hole mini golf course, a youth centre with virtual reality games, a kid’s club, water sports centre and even an ‘Alma Mart’ mini supermarket.
