New Director, Chefs at Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa

Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay announced appointments to key service positions today.

Edward “Kahau” Manzo has been named director of food and beverage, while Matthew Naula is the new executive chef and Jayson Malla the chef de cuisine, both at Rays on the Bay.

Manzo is a Maui High graduate with food service degrees from Maui Community College and Western Culinary Institute, and is formerly the executive chef at Bella Italia in Port Angeles, Wash. Manzo returned to Hawaii in 1997 and served as director of food and beverage and executive chef at the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas in Princeville, Kauai.

Naula was born and raised on Oahu and started his career while in high school as a breakfast cook at Zippy’s. He attended the Gros Bonnett Culinary Academy and the food services program at Kapiolani Community College. He was later executive chef at Oahu’s Mr. Ojisan restaurant.

Malla, also born and raised on Oahu, began his culinary career at the Kahala Resort in Honolulu, and then at the famed Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia and the Rosewood Hotel and Spa in Menlo Park, Calif. Malla returned to Oahu in 2010 and has worked at the Trump International Hotel Waikiki and most recently at Aulani Disney Resort and Spa.

Sheraton General Manager Matthew Grauso said in a release from the resort that Rays on the Bay’s focus on locally-sourced ingredients, combined with these chefs’ talents, will “transform the usual into the extraordinary” for guests at the restaurant.