Executive Culinary Team

The Bench

Chef de Cuisine - Yousef Ghalaini

A native of Lebanon, Chef Ghalaini experienced an immersion into the culture of food at a young age with lively family meals and early service lessons at his grandfather’s bakery. With an education from the Culinary Institute of America at the Greystone campus in Napa Valley, Chef Ghalaini began his career at the Michelin-rated REDD restaurant under Richard Reddington, where he executed the celebrity chef’s style of California French cuisine with a focus on stellar food and wine pairings.

In January 2010, Chef Ghalaini re-energized Bespoke in New Haven, Conn., generating praise from local media as well as the regional food section of the New York Times. Other experiences for Chef Ghalaini include opening Go Fish restaurant in St. Helena, Calif., working for Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa and opening Steak 954 at the W Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He comes to Pebble Beach Resorts most recently from Imperial No. Nine at the Mondrian SoHo Hotel in New York City.

At The Bench, Chef Ghalaini utilizes a range of seasonal options as well as local ingredients from Monterey Bay and the Salinas Valley to create a robust, but healthy and sustainable menu for guests. Using the innovative technique of wood-roasting and open-flame cooking, his recipes include a wide-range of international style from Asian to Middle Eastern, Italian to Latin American.