Lewis Butler, executive chef at Hilton’s Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, has been heading up prominent kitchens in Orange County for years. His culinary history includes more than a decade of overseeing the culinary program at the former Center Club in Costa Mesa, the spot that is now The Park Club.
We met prior to that gig, almost 20 years ago when he was executive chef at the Surf & Sand Resort in Laguna Beach. It was there that I asked him to teach me how to make his irresistible mixed greens with butternut squash dressing that was sprinkled with chorizo dust. I used the cherished recipe in a Thanksgiving story that I was writing…