Culinary Team

With his trademark enthusiasm, Cuevas leads a winning team of chefs, sommeliers, servers and fromagier’s. Striving to actively involve guests in their dining experience is a hallmark of Cuevas’ epicurean style – from highlighting artisanal ingredients on the menu to pouring hard-to-find boutique wines to serving rare cheeses with the perfect accompaniments from the interactive cheese gallery. “My passion has always been to take familiar and/or unfamiliar ingredients and introduce them to my staff. With the help of my team we take our creations to our guests in a way that is imaginative but more importantly, memorable and consistent.” says Cuevas.

His approach to cooking is unique, fun and adventuresome; always with integrity. Cuevas favors simple food with bold flavors. With an admitted sweet tooth, he loves to combine sweet and savory nuances in many of his dishes, such as Pan-Seared Local White Sea Bass with Roasted Peppers, Crispy Artichokes and Whipped Mustard Oil; Braised Natural Vintage Short Ribs with Charred Romaine, Cheddar and Braising Jus and his signature 28-Day Dry-Aged Coffee-Crusted New York Strip with Fourme d’Ambert Cheese, Wild Arugula and Bourbon-Caramel Sauce.

Prior to The Loft, Cuevas was an integral part of the opening team for Montage Laguna Beach’s signature restaurant, Studio. “It was a wonderful opportunity to essentially help establish a brand – and develop a restaurant from the ground up,” Cuevas says. “Opening Montage Beverly Hills is another incredible opportunity,” he continues. “Beverly Hills and Los Angeles arguably have some of the finest restaurants anywhere and I’m thrilled that our team will have a chance to become a major part of this incredible dining scene.”

Cuevas has been a guest chef at The James Beard House in New York the last two years, Macy’s Herald Square and the Conde Nast Café. Cuevas has been a featured chef at Orange County’s Culinary Masters for the last four years and was featured on travel correspondent Peter Greenberg’s show on Fox 6 News.

An avid photographer, surfer and golfer, Cuevas has two sons and one daughter..

“Originally trained as an actor,” Ruskell says, “I turned to the culinary arts when 'I grew weary of being a starving artist.'" I wanted to cultivate my artistic bent, and pastry-making fulfilled that need.” These days his specialty is not “Macbeth,” but “The Montage,” a sinful chocolate and caramel dome filled with luscious liquid caramel.

Previously a baking instructor and chef at the New England Culinary Institute, Ruskell was also the owner/operator of Pastry Maxine, a pastry shop in Scottsdale, AZ. During his tenure in Phoenix, he spent 8 years at The Phoenician as its chef patissier, accruing numerous awards and accolades.

His career as a patissier officially began at the Hotel Gray d'Albion in Cannes, France where he worked in the pastry kitchen of Le Royal Gray Restaurant. Other pastry positions have taken him to New York City, Maine and Vermont.

Ruskell has been featured on The Food Network many times, including most recently for the “Disney Celebration” and “Cirque du Soleil” cake challenges where he came in first place in October and March 2008 respectively. Ruskell has appeared in Pastry Art & Design, Chocolatier, Bon Appétit, Food Arts, Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Orange Coast, Phoenix and Phoenix Home & Garden magazines. His recipes have been included in The Orange County Register (2007), onbaking: a textbook of baking and pastry fundamentals (2005) and The Good Cookie (2003).

Ruskell’s team won first prize for his colorful “beehive” sugar showpiece at the 2005 National Pastry Competition. His award-winning line-up also includes: a crunch cake featured in Grand Finales: The Art of The Plated Dessert; and two other creations in Grand Finales: A Modernist View. In addition, he has earned silver and gold medals in the Patisfrance U.S. Pastry Competition. He has been a guest artist chef at Manele Bay Hotel in Lana’i and at The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, as well as a guest instructor at The Stratford Chefs School in Ontario. Ruskell was also the first guest pastry chef to be a guest artist aboard the Silverseas Cruise line in the fall of 2006.

Ruskell holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, and is a graduate of The French Culinary Institute, New York City.

Dave's drive for knowledge has continued to prompt him to expand his understanding of wine and has stimulated his desire to understand more. "Every day, I can talk about wine until the sun comes up!" he laughs. Recently, he and a group of friends shared a chocolate tasting, pairing one Italian dessert wine with 25 types of chocolate to see what combinations worked best.

Dave has grown from the Beverage Educator Instructor at Montage Laguna Beach to the Beverage Educator Instructor at Montage Beverly Hills. He received his introductory certificate for Court of Master Sommeliers in 2003 and his Certified certificate in 2006, while sitting for Advanced in 2009. Dave was the lead Sommelier at Muse, Montage Beverly Hills’ signature fine-dining restaurant and has recently created a new position with his promotion as the Wine and Beverage Program Manager.

Despite Dave's focus on wine, he is equally passionate about traveling and exploring other cultures, sampling native dishes and beverages, and participating in a plethora of adventure sports throughout the world. He has eaten alligator in Australia, sampled Pisco Sours in Chile, gone skydiving from helicopters in several countries, jumped off natural cliffs into small pools of water, rappelled under waterfalls, and river rafted in Chile and Australia. Of course, he's also enjoyed the more tame sports of snowboarding and skim boarding! "There's always time to fit in a bit of personal fun and balance," he explains with a smile.

Additionally, he is also the two-time Regional Champion of the Best Young Sommelier Competition. After stints with Le Cirque and Osteria del Circo Restaurants in both New York and Las Vegas, Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Chinois, and opening 55° Wine+Design in Las Vegas, Mark has moved to Los Angeles to open Montage Beverly Hills and help write the five different wine lists throughout the property. With an unpretentious, enthusiastic approach while still maintaining the highest standards of service to the guests at Montage Beverly Hills, Mark is considered “prototype” Sommelier in the modern restaurant industry.