Sam Phelan still remembers the first time he stepped into a professional kitchen. He was 13 years old, tagging along with his older brother, Hutch, who worked as a sous chef at a country club. By the end of the day, he was hooked.
More than two decades later, he’s overseeing the kitchens at Deer Valley Resort as its newest executive chef.
The appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Deer Valley as the resort continues its largest expansion in history, with new on-mountain culinary facilities at Park Peak Lodge and East Village Lodge planned to open by the 2027-28 season.
But for Phelan, the promotion is as much about preserving what guests already love as it is about leaving his own mark.
“I’m not going to mess with the Deer Valley cookies. I’m not going to touch the carrot cake, the turkey chili,” he said with a laugh. “I really care about Deer Valley. I really care about the teams, the legacy, and I care about what’s coming as well.”
Raised in Mountain Brook, Alabama, he began cooking professionally at age 15 in a neighborhood pizzeria before deciding to leave Alabama to attend the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont.
“I took a big risk to leave the South and go somewhere completely different,” he said. “It was kind of scary … but really exciting.”
Through the program, he completed an internship at the Icarus restaurant in Boston. Then, after finishing school, he landed another internship during the opening of Stone Mountain Lodge at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont. It was there that he first experienced skiing and resort hospitality.
“I got a fair taste of a ski resort and working in a big hotel ski resort, getting to ski a little bit and work, and I think that’s where I decided hotels and resorts were what I wanted to do,” he said. “I’ve worked in small restaurants, family-owned restaurants. As fun as they were, I liked the structure that hotels and resorts offered. They offered a little bit more stability, too.”
He finally moved west for a role at Stanly Ranch, Auberge Collection in Napa Valley, where he worked at the property’s fine-dining restaurant serving 60 guests a night. There he met a Chilean chef who became both a mentor and, ultimately, the reason he moved to Utah three years later.
His mentor relocated to Park City and, just a few days later, called Phelan with an offer.
“‘I need you out here. Can you get out here in a week?'” Phelan recalled. “I said, ‘Sure, can.’ So I packed up my truck and drove 10 hours to Park City, not knowing much about Park City other than it’s a ski town.”
He then became chef de cuisine at Apex at Montage Deer Valley, eventually working his way into a sous chef position before moving to Waldorf Astoria Park City and later a resort in Midway.
In the summer of 2022, he was recruited to Deer Valley as executive chef of Silver Lake Lodge, working under then-resort executive chef Peter Menteer before being promoted to resort executive sous chef in 2024.
During that role, Phelan oversaw culinary operations while mentoring and teaching other chefs, which he described as “all the best parts of my job.” That won’t change with his new position, he said.
“(We have a) world-class team, and we want them to get excited and try stuff. I want them to come up with ideas and play with the food and try it out, get them some ownership, and so that they have something to be proud of when their item gets put on the menu,” he said. “That’s what’s important about being a good culinary leader, is giving them the space to experiment and try and either succeed or fail, because I think that’s how we grow.”
As a prominent ski resort, Phelan said, Deer Valley naturally draws talented chefs from around the world, some seasonal, but many stay long term. It’s a melting pot of cultures in the kitchen, which not only shows up on resort menus but also creates a unique environment for the staff.
Phelan said diners may notice smaller changes that reflect his own culinary style — clean, ingredient-driven cooking informed by Asian, Southern and European influences.
“I love simplicity. Simplicity is best,” he said. “I like being versatile. I like experimenting, I like playing with foods and flavors and trying new things with my team. … I’m still testing and always evolving. That’s the great thing about being a chef. I don’t like to settle for one thing or at a certain level. I want to keep creating.”
He also plans to continue expanding Deer Valley’s outdoor and live-fire cooking program, which has become a personal favorite, especially with the five weekends of Fire & Flavor Festival starting this Saturday.
“We’ll keep cooking outside because I’ve learned to love outdoor cooking and live-fire cooking,” he said. “Those things are growing near and dear to my heart, and I think we’re going to keep doing it.”
The festival, back for its second summer, will have a different guest chef each of the five weekends, like Sarah Glover and Matilda, with Phelan’s own team designing a few options for attendees to sample. For the first weekend, Phelan plans to showcase a few flavors from his Alabama roots, including a smoked chicken with white barbecue sauce and pimento cheese.
He credits former executive chef Menteer, whose departure created the opening, with helping prepare him for the role.
“It’s been a fun time working with the people here, getting to know the history, getting to know the outlets. Working with Peter was fantastic, Phelan said. “I am bummed that Peter’s gone, but at the same time, I wish him the best in his career. He’s got a cool opportunity to create something with the company he’s going to, and I hope he crushes it, because he will.”