Restaurant Marron’s Eric Sakai Wins Food & Wine’s People’s Best New Chef NW

A week and a half after Westward’s Chef Zoi Antonitsas was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs of 2015, Erik Sakai of the year-old Restaurant Marron just clenched the magazine’s title for People’s Best New Chef for the Northwest and Pacific region. Sakai beat out nine other regional nominees for the honor, which goes to "talented innovators who have run their own kitchens for five years or fewer," according to the Food & Wine website.

Previously of Belltown’s Some Random Bar and the Michelin-starred Rubicon and Acquerello in San Francisco, Sakai started Restaurant Marron last June with his wife, Zarina. Though well known for their impressively adventurous menu, Sakai is surprised by the award and "really grateful for the support I received from everyone."

Food & Wine calls Sakai’s New American cuisine "luxurious, smartly creative and delicious," and chose his "quintessential dish" as the roasted moulard duck breast with fish sauce and maple. Currently at Restaurant Marron, where the menu changes frequently, the chef says he’s a big fan of the egg noodles with braised pig’s head, fermented black bean, shaoxing wine and parmigiano reggiano; stop by for some and to say congratulations.