For the first time in nearly 20 years, Hawaii won a James Beard Award. At a ceremony held earlier this month, Robynne Maii of Fete won Best Chef for the Northwest & Pacific region. She had been one of two Hawaii chef finalists in the category — the other was chef Sheldon Simeon at Tin Roof on Maui.<\/p>\n
Maii is the first winner from Hawaii since 2003 and the first woman of Hawaiian ancestry to receive the honor.<\/p>\n
“I want to thank all of our guests for supporting us and cheering us on and everything and thank our kick-ass chef de cuisine,” Maii said in her acceptance speech. “I left industry because I didn’t feel that I would make it, so I did something else for a long time. Then we decided to go back into industry six years later, and we opened this restaurant called Fete, which is our baby with my husband, Chuck.”<\/p>\n
A New American restaurant located in Honolulu’s Chinatown, Fete opened in 2016. The restaurant’s signature dishes are fried chicken and Korean chicken sandwich.<\/p>\n