Cristie Norman, lead sommelier of Delilah at Wynn Las Vegas, and Casa Playa Executive Chef Sarah Thompson recently received James Beard Foundation Award Semifinalist nods for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service and Best Chef Southwest, respectively. Wynn Stories sits down with these exemplary culinary professionals to learn about their professional passions, inspiration, and winning philosophies.
Get to Know Delilah Lead Sommelier Cristie Norman
“I had no idea why I was getting so many phone calls at 7 a.m.,” Cristie Norman says of finding out about her JBFA announcement. “I’m not sure who nominated me, but I am very grateful.” The Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service is a new category. The criteria outline that the candidate has set high standards, demonstrated creativity and consistency in excellence, innovation, and hospitality, is making efforts to create a sustainable work culture, and has served as an exceptional example or mentor for other beverage professionals.
Norman ticks all these boxes. She became a sommelier when she was just 21 years old. While working at the legendary Spago Beverly Hills, she founded the LA Somm Community, a group of over 300 sommeliers from San Diego to Santa Barbara. She has mentored over 200 sommeliers/wine professionals, created the “Online Wine Course for Beginners,” and was named Wine Enthusiast’s “Wine Educator of the Year” and “40 Under 40 Tastemakers” of 2020. She is also the co-founder and president of the United Sommeliers Foundation (USF), which has distributed nearly $2 million in financial assistance for wine professionals in need due to circumstances beyond their control. Recently, Wine Enthusiast Magazine named her “Social Visionary of the Year,” and she now hosts a blind tasting group for Wynn employees and invites master sommeliers to mentor the team.
Norman does all this before showing up for work every day to manage five somms and a list of more than 800 rare and prestigious bottles in one of the most successful restaurants in Las Vegas.
During the pandemic, several colleagues and friends aligned her with Brian Weitzman, Wynn Las Vegas executive director of wine, as he was hiring a sommelier for the resort’s new restaurant, Delilah. While at first, Norman didn’t think a move to Vegas was in the cards for her because she was so busy with her Foundation, the fantastic opportunity to join Wynn, and with the idea of Delilah being a perfect fit, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. “I moved my entire life, never having seen the restaurant, and when I walked in, I almost started crying. It was the most beautiful space I’d ever been in. Every day I walk in, I still think it’s the most beautiful restaurant,” she says.
The blank canvas and the levels between Delilah’s nightlife aspect and the culinary and fine and rare wine dynamic attracted her to the role. “We will have a six-liter of Ace of Spades going out at the same time as a six-liter of Mouton Rothschild; that’s what Delilah is; it’s a place with great music, amazing entertainment where you can enjoy incredible fine wine.” Weitzman compiled a base wine list for Delilah’s opening for Norman to work off. She soon realized that the Las Vegas customer’s thirst for wine fine was real. She returned to him and said, “I need more expensive stuff. The Grand Cru Burgundy, first-growth Bordeaux—they were selling. This week, I brought in a ’61 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, one of the most iconic vintages of the century. Sometimes, I don’t even get to put it on the wine list because it’s already sold. That’s just the reality of what we’re doing. It’s wild. Every seven days, we’re reprinting the wine list. We’re adding 25 to 30 different wines.”
EXPERIENCE DELILAH AT WYNN LAS VEGAS
Get to Know Casa Playa Executive Chef Sarah Thompson
Upon returning from a trip of a lifetime to Japan, Sarah Thompson found out about her James Beard Foundation Award nomination for Best Chef, Southwest. “Just being recognized is something that many chefs aspire to,” she says. “We’re putting out the best food we can do. We continue developing the menu, fostering a good work environment and encouraging growth amongst our cooks and chefs. We’ve built a unique environment here at Casa Playa that I’m proud of.” This is a “pinch-me-is-it-real-moment” for Thompson, who says she didn’t even think accolade like this was in the cards for her when she moved out to Vegas five years ago.
Her artistry and innovation have set a new standard in the city’s dining scene. Thompson’s menu is an authentic presentation of California and Baja seafood and produce woven together with a robust masa program. Thompson attended the Culinary Institute of America and then worked in several New York City kitchens, such as being a line cook at Marea, a sous chef at Alder, and holding the position of corporate sous chef with Andrew Carmellini’s NoHo Hospitality Group. Then, Daniela Soto-Innes recruited Thompson to the highly awarded restaurant Cosme. She had never cooked Mexican food before but went into it with an open mind, training and working alongside some of the best Mexican chefs in the world.
When the Cosme team embarked on opening a Mexican restaurant at Wynn, she took the chance and relocated, not knowing anything about the city or having any expectations. Later, Thomspon was offered the opportunity to help transform that restaurant into a new concept, opening Casa Playa in 2021 as the executive chef, a social fine-dining restaurant focusing on coastal Mexican cuisine inside Encore Las Vegas.
The menu creation centers on the culture, cuisine and dining Thompson experienced while traveling and eating around coastal Mexico. Casa Playa takes guests on a culinary journey, with dishes ranging from fresh seafood to large-format feasts. As a hyper-regional coastal Mexican restaurant, the menu emphasizes local seafood. Casa Playa’s fish is sourced from the Pacific coast; produce is procured from 50 of the best farms across southwest Nevada, California, and Arizona; and Thompson sources corn, chiles, and agave from small producers in Mexico. This ensures quality and contributes to the well-being of small farms in Mexico, aligning with Casa Playa’s commitment to community support.
“There are many people in my kitchen from all over the world: Latin America, Mexico, Asia, and, you know, we all come together magically. Sometimes, two people are at a station, and they don’t even speak a common language, but somehow, we still find ways to communicate.” In 2023, Casa Playa hosted a Friends of James Beard Benefit Dinner, and in 2024, Wynn hosted the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards—where Thompson hosted a dinner—and its own Revelry Food Festival.
“We get the best ingredients, we get the best produce, we get the best team members. We spend a lot of time training and teaching. And because of that, we continue to make amazing food.” Soon, she will be anonymously audited for the vote that may or may not make her a finalist. “All of these little details we’ve been focusing on for the last six months are coming into practice,” Thompson says. “The restaurant is progressing. There’s so much momentum behind it.”
JBFA finalists will be announced on April 2, and the 35th annual JBF Awards will be presented on June 16 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.