Our Staff

The Marmotte Mountain team are all hand-picked by Jon and are chosen not only for their extensive professional experience but also for their passion for the mountains. Our chefs are fully qualified and have worked in some of the top fine dining and world class restaurants. Our team for 2017/18 winter season will include:

Sam Mathews

Sam is a young and passionate chef from Australia. He has worked in a variety of restaurants which have specialised in many different cuisines, giving Sam a great balance to his dishes. Cooking for people brings Sam joy, and he tries to transfer that happiness into his food for his guests to enjoy.

Sam started his chef career in the New South Wales coastal city of Newcastle, completing his apprenticeship in some of the finest local restaurants.  With the desire and eagerness for greater challenges and more experience, Sam moved to Melbourne where he worked for celebrity Australian chef Raymond Capoldi at the well renowned ‘Hare and Grace’ restaurant. Raymond’s unique approach for creating food opened up a complete new world for Sam as he continued refining his cuisine techniques.

Sam then met well respected Melbourne chef, Dylan Roberts. Sam joined Dylan at ‘St Jude’s Cellars’ restaurant in Melbourne.  Specialising in French cuisine with a touch of asian influence, Dylan and Sam formed a strong reputation within Melbourne’s food scene. Sam then followed Dylan to his next restaurant project, the ‘Claremont Tonic’. This restaurant specialised in ‘Asian Fine Dining’.  This new assignment continued to build on Sam’s experience whilst his passion and love for cooking continued to grow.

For the past 3 years, Sam has found a new passion for the mountains.  As a result, he has spent the past three Australian winter seasons enjoying his role as head chef of a restaurant in a luxury ski lodge in Thredbo, New South Wales.

Between winter seasons, Sam has also spent some time in other high end kitchens, including the Michelin Star restaurant 21212 in Edinburgh, luxury villa’s in St Tropez and private catering on boats in France.

We look forward to welcoming Sam back to the Marmotte Mountain for his 4th consecutive winter, where he will continue to dazzle our lucky guests on a weekly basis.

James Fielding

James is a young, creative and enthusiastic Australian chef from the south east coast of New South Wales, Australia. James began his chef training in award winning restaurant ‘Tyler’s Kitchen’, where passion for local and unique ingredients drove him to visit farms and even forage for the best produce. After finishing his apprenticeship, James set out into the world, determined and eager to gain experience and cook the very best food possible. This attitude landed James a job at the award winning ‘Bear Foot Bistro’ in Whistler BC Canada, where he worked his way through the ranks. After James’s time in Canada, he set his sights on the fine dining scene in Sydney. James worked at the ‘Sydney Opera House’ under well known French chef Guillaume Brahimi. In his time with Guillaume, the restaurant was once again awarded 3 hats – the highest rating possible in Australia. James, still eager for more experience then relocated to Japan for his next challenge. James worked under Kamimura Son, a Japanese chef who was awarded a Michelin Star for his fusion of French techniques and local Japanese produce. James was one of only 3 chefs in this restaurant so he gained unrivalled experience in all aspects in delivering exceptional high quality unique dishes.

Last summer and again in the spring, James was recruited to work on a private luxury sail boat whereby he created 28 different dishes in 28 days on board – check the following link for more details – James on sail boat.

This will be James’ 4th consecutive season in Chamonix and for Marmotte Mountain. James’ had the pressure of cooking for many repeat clients over the past few years and he stood up to this challenge with great pride and vigour to not only match the high standards set previously by Marmotte Mountain chefs, but often even surpassing expectations. Welcome back Jimmy.

Max Pringle

Swapping the green countryside of Somerset, United Kingdom for the majestic peaks of Mont Blanc, Max finds himself returning to Marmotte Mountain & Chamonix for his 4th consecutive winter season. Sasha Matkevich’s restaurant, ‘The Green‘ in Sherborne, Dorset is where Max has spent alot of his time, learning, growing and creating.

Previous to Marmotte Mountain Max was head chef for three years at the ‘Devonshire Arms Hotel‘. An award winning restaurant in Long Sutton Somerset.

Since arriving to Chamonix 3 years ago, Max has fallen in love with the mountains and the local and seasonal produce it provides. Max is passionate about foraging for local ingredients, particularly mushrooms, wood sorrel, wild garlic and yarrow. Much of Max’s inspiration comes from these products and is shown throughout his seasonal menus.

Daniel Leshkin

Daniels career in the kitchen began 9 years ago. Starting with chef Alexander Fedin at Estonian Restaurant, ‘Bordoo’ located in the ’Three Sisters Hotel’ in Tallinn. Chef Alexander was a true admirer of french cuisine. During Daniels time at this restaurant he had the pleasure of serving meals to the King of Spain and Queen Elizabeth II.
Labelled as one of the top restaurants in Estonia, Daniels passion and enthusiasm for creating food was discovered.

Venturing further, Daniels next step was the restaurant ‘Stenhus’ at one of the leading hotels in the world, ‘Schlossle’, also located in Tallinn, Estonia. Working with popular chef, Tonis Siigur, Daniels love for French cuisine.

After 2.5 years of experience In Estonia, Daniel was responsible for a small French cafe and bakery in Tallinn, where he created his own small menu every week.

According to Daniel, the biggest experience he has gained was after arriving to Oslo, Norway in 2011. Daniel began Working at ‘Onda’ restaurant with executive chef Jonathan Howell (1 Michelin star). ‘Onda’ would prepare top quality, fine dining cuisine daily with 200 seats. ‘Onda’ restaurant has given Daniel the greatest experience, in organisation, tasting, cooking, working with a team and creating. Nowadays, ‘Onda’ is now known as ‘Ling Ling’.

After 3 years in Norway, Daniel was promoted to Head Chef Assistant at a traditional Norwegian restaurant with a French twist. Here they used only local and unique ingredients (except for a big collection of French cheeses ofcourse) for the best production.

Daniel helped to manage opening a cafe, where the cuisine was more middle eastern fusion mixed with the European cuisine. For Daniel, this turned to be a great experience cooking with spices and flavours.

Daniel is always searching, for new combinations, new flavours, creating tastes from different cuisines and evolving. From Daniels words the main thing in the kitchen is organisation and balance.

Now is the beginning of a new story for Daniel, joining the team at Marmotte Mountain, with a wide outlook on flavours and cuisines, he will be sure to conquer our guests with delicious dishes.

Josh Tyler

Currrently in discussion with head chef of former ‘one hat’ restaurant ‘Tyler’s Pantry’ in Australia. After running this very successful ‘one hat’ restaurant for many years, Josh has decided to take a breather before moving onto his next main project – check the following link for more details on Josh – Josh on River Cottage.

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