Chef Alberto Vazquez, a native of Santa Barbara, California, became inspired by the culinary arts by working alongside his parents at an early age. His mother, an avid cook, taught him how to select the freshest ingredients for the family recipes and showed him basic culinary techniques, such as roasting and sautéing.

His father, a chef at Santa Barbara's landmark Harry's Plaza Cafe, helped him hone his skills by taking him along to work at age 15. Each night, Alberto would dazzle diners with his culinary show staged from within the cafe's exhibition kitchen. This proved to be great training for the aspiring chef whose talents took him across the United States with Registry Hotels as part of a strategic culinary team, as well as behind the kitchen door of Shutters on the Beach, a five-star property located in Santa Monica, California.

Chef Vazquez most recently spent six years at the exclusive Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, as executive chef before his appointment as Culinary Director for Westlake Village Inn where he oversees all gastronomic operations for the 17-acre property, including the inn's signature restaurant Mediterraneo.