Alex Stanislaw & Sea House Restaurant, Napili Kai Resort

Born on Long Island and raised in upstate New York, Alex Stanislaw always gravitated to his grandmother’s kitchen which he found comfortable and intriguing.  The lessons he learned then have stayed with him today: “She was the original slow cook, and my first real chef”.  

In the early 70s he studied political philosophy and cinematography at Syracuse University. In 1974 he moved to Virginia Beach, and an offer to cook at a Southern Country Club was too irresistible to turn down.  He found out he really did love to cook, so in 1978 he applied and was immediately accepted to the CIA.  Upon graduating in 1980, he was recruited by the Rockefeller’s Rock Resort for a culinary position at their Kapalua Bay Hotel on Maui where he worked his way up the culinary ladder and stayed for three years. In 1984, he became the executive chef at Erik’s Seafood Grotto.

Seven years later, in 1991, he was recruited to be part of the opening team of the Plantation House Restaurant at Kapalua. In 1995, the Great Chefs television team showed up to tape Chef Alex at the Plantation House for the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of Hawaii series (Chef Stanislaw is in episodes 14 and 26).

In the fall of 2015, Chef Alex Stanislaw left the Plantation House to become the executive chef of the award-winning beachfront Sea House Restaurant on Napili Bay, adjacent to Kapalua Bay, which is where he began his career on Maui.   Chef Alex stated earlier this year, 2016, that he “thinks he’s come full circle”.