GUATEMALA – AUGUST 2016: Casa Palopó, a private home turned luxury boutique hotel overlooking Lake Atitlán, welcomes back Mario André Miralles Alcazar as Executive Chef of the hotel’s in-house restaurant – 6.8 Palopó.
Executive Chef Alcazar will be in charge of the administrative decisions for the restaurant and the hotel’s F&B program, as well as the creation of new recipes and concept for the menus at 6.8 Palopó and the hotel’s events program. An expert in the hospitality industry, he will also take on the responsibility of training the waitstaff to perfect the overall guest dining experience.
Picking up where he left off, Chef Alcazar began his career at Casa Palopó under the ownership of Billy Bickford, who turned the property into a boutique hotel. Eager to garner more experience as a private chef, he went on to work for Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac, American actors Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend, and Grammy Award winner Emilio Estefan. During this time, he perfected the art of personalization, and mastered the skill of satisfying specific dietary needs and palates for every individual’s own preference.
Most recently, Chef Alcazar was at Hotel Camino Real in Managua, Nicaragua, where he was Executive Chef.
“I am pleased to return to Casa Palopó with some refreshing, new ideas, techniques and approaches that I’ve gained in my experience abroad, and applying techniques to take the restaurant’s menu to new heights,” said Chef Mario.
Casa Palopó is perched on the shore of Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan highlands, offering an exclusive, high-end getaway for sophisticated travelers who value a rich dose of culture with their vacation experience. Guests of the boutique hotel’s in-house restaurant, 6.8 Palopó, can enjoy an al fresco dining experience on the veranda from where they can admire small boats making their way across the lake, and in the evenings, sit quietly alongside colorful candelabras and twinkling lights from Mayan towns that line the shore.
Casa Palopó is the first in Guatemala to become an official member of the esteemed Relais & Châteaux – an exclusive collection of 518 of the finest luxury hotels and gourmet restaurants around the world that set the standard for excellence in hospitality.
