The James Beard Awards are something like the Academy Awards of the restaurant world.
But despite the elite service, food and beverage programs in all of our fancy fine-dining casino restaurants on the Strip, Las Vegas is consistently ignored by this prestigious culinary acknowledgment — and it’s even rarer for an off-Strip restaurant or chef to be recognized. This year, two locals have been nominated as semifinalists — Lotus of Siam for Outstanding Wine Program and Sheridan Su for Best Chef: West.
For Su, who operates two locations of Hainan chicken shop Flock & Fowl and the Fat Choy diner at the Eureka Casino, it was an unexpected honor.
“Somebody somewhere must have said something really good about some guy in Vegas,” he posted on Instagram.