Chef Viegas began his culinary career at the Claremont Resort & Spa in Berkeley as a food runner at the pool café. One summer afternoon, when the kitchen found itself short-staffed during a busy service, Justin stepped in to help plate dishes during the rush. In that moment, he fell in love.

His culinary foundation was shaped in luxury hospitality, including his tenure as Executive Sous Chef at the Sofitel San Francisco Bay, where he led banquet operations and managed high-volume dining. Throughout his career, he has held executive leadership roles overseeing multiple properties and culinary teams, including serving as Executive Chef for SoDelicious Management Group. 

Chef Viegas brings over twenty years of professional culinary and leadership experience to Ellore, where he assumed the role of Executive Chef in October 2025. 

What is your overall philosophy for the culinary program at Ellore?

The overall philosophy is to continue to move the culinary program forward – by that I mean incorporating resident feedback and suggestions to drive how the menus are developed and how cooking techniques are used. We are in our first year – we’ve had a lot of firsts, so I  wholeheartedly ask residents for their feedback. It’s not just the kitchen staff and the front of the house staff that make up Ellore’s culinary program; it includes the residents.  

What kind of fare are you creating for residents?

We are so much more than what some people might envision when they think of senior living dining. We are a freestanding, fine-dining restaurant within a senior living community. We offer restaurant-quality food. We incorporate current trends; we lean into farm-to-table and we use organic vegetables, lettuce, and herbs. We receive fresh deliveries daily. 

What are a few of the residents’ favorite dishes?

They love the lamb shank. A favorite dinner is our short rib ravioli – we do a nice roasted garlic sauce to go with that and then some spinach. So it sounds heavy, but we make it in a light dish way.

Creme brulee is also up there. The fun thing about creme brulee is that there are residents who love it so much, but they don’t want a whole dessert. So we started to make these mini creme brulees – a speciality for our residents who only want a bite or two for dessert.

Chef Justin’s Cabernet-braised Beef Short Ribs Recipe.

In addition to your high-end menu, you’ve had residents request some surprising items, tell us about that. 

We have Steakhouse Saturdays where we do filet mignon, and we have a pasta with scallops and lobster. But there are residents who just want comfort food – one resident just wanted a hot dog on the menu. So we have fun with that. For Superbowl–we’re directly across from Levi’s Stadium–we did a stadium menu with a Levi’s Stadium all-beef hot dog. We had nachos, we had spinach dip, burgers. And the residents could order from a server and have their meal delivered anywhere in the community. A lot of our residents were in the theater where the game was on, so that was fun. 

What are you looking forward to – what’s coming up?

I’m really excited about our Easter menu. We’re going to do a standard hotel brunch. We’ll have a carving station, an omelet station, seafood. We’ll do oysters and crab claws and shrimp. We’ll have a breakfast area with greek yogurt and pastries. And then of course, the hot food – we’ll do cheese blends and a crab cake Benedict, and a sea bass with a saffron sauce. We’ll also have a dessert station in the piano bar. 

My goal is for the residents to realize they can stay here, in their home, for special occasions, holidays, Easter brunch. That they can trust we’ll be on the same plane – both in quality and presentation – as any fine hotel. 

We want our residents to be proud to have their families dine here, instead of their families taking them out to other restaurants for special occasions. And I think we’ve achieved that. 

Dine with Us

If you’d like to experience Ellore’s culinary offerings for yourself, we’d be thrilled to host you for a complimentary meal and tour.