Chef Sarah Thompson on historic James Beard win: ‘We can do this’
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Stream the full conversation with Sarah Thompson on the Extra Serving podcast above.
Sarah Thompson’s career developed in fine-dining kitchens run by strong female leaders, a rarity even today.
“I didn’t seek it out at all. It was all by chance, and I feel very fortunate that that was how I came up,” Thompson said when discussing her time at New York City restaurants like Cosme and Marea.
When Thompson moved to Las Vegas, she found a much more male-dominated industry. When it was time to build her team at her fine-dining Mexican restaurant Casa Playa at the Wynn Las Vegas, she found female chefs sought her out.
“It wasn’t even intentional when I was putting together this restaurant,” she told Nation’s Restaurant News. “We just had a lot of female leaders come to me and a lot of really talented cooks who really wanted to grow and be represented. We’ve built a team of 50% women.”
Since she arrived in Las Vegas in 2020, she has seen an evolution in the dining industry there. And she’s thrilled to be a part of it with her historic James Beard Best Chef Southwest win. She was the first Las Vegas-based chef to win in 15 years and the first female chef from a Las Vegas Strip restaurant to earn the distinction.
“I’m really proud of Casa Playa,” she said. “It’s something that I built from the ground up. We have a ton of very young, ambitious cooks on my team and chefs. And after Las Vegas had not been recognized for 15 years, having us up there and showing all of these young culinary professionals that this can happen. We can do this, we can achieve this, we can be up there with the best chefs, the best restaurants. It’s amazing.”
