4 Las Vegas chefs among James Beard Award semifinalists

Las Vegas Review-Journal

5 years ago

Dan Krohmer, chef/owner of Other Mama, at Fergusons Downtown where he is planning to renovate t ... — Dan Krohmer, chef/owner of Other Mama, at Fergusons Downtown where he is planning to renovate the motel into two new restaurants on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Benjamin Hager Review-Journal) @BenjaminHphoto

Chef Nicole Brisson of Locale is shown at La Strega at 3555 South Town Center Drive on Monday, May 13, 2019. (Review-Journal file photo)

Four Las Vegas chefs are semifinalists for this year’s James Beard Foundation awards, each receiving a nod in the Best Chef Southwest category.

Perhaps more indicative of the state of the local food scene, however, is the fact that three of those four operate off-Strip restaurants.

Nicole Brisson of Locale, Dan Krohmer of Other Mama, and James Trees of Esther’s Kitchen join Mott 32’s Alan Ji and 16 others in the division, which covers Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Nevada. (Trees and Krohmer both operate multiple restaurants in the valley, but the semifinalist list released on the foundation’s website is restaurant-specific.) The list will be narrowed to a group of finalists on March 25, with the winners set to be announced at the 2020 James Beard Awards Gala on May 4 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter and Instagram.