JBF Moves Nevada into Best Chef West

It just got a little tougher for Las Vegas chefs to win a Best Chef award from the James Beard Foundation. Today the foundation announced that it redistricted Nevada into the new "Best Chef West" category (formerly the Best Chef Pacific category) along with California and Hawaii. Now chefs here will compete against San Francisco and Los Angeles restaurants.

The JBFA created the Best Chef West due to changes in the neighboring Southwest region, which is where Nevada was formerly categorized. Nevada was moved to reflect the population growth in the Southwest since the regions were last reformatted in 2005. Now, the Southwest region includes Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Texas and Oklahoma, and nine of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.

Las Vegas’ last win came in 2011 when Saipin Chutima of Lotus of Siam tied for the Best Chef Southwest award. This year, Las Vegas was completely shut out of the short list of nominees in the Best Chef Southwest category.
· JBFA Redistricts Best Chef Regions: Adds PR, Moves NV [~EN~]
· All Coverage of the JBF Awards [~ELV~]