First Nepalese Beard finalist

Suresh Sundas of Tapori in Washington is a 2026 James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, the first Nepalese-born chef to reach finalist status. (wtop.com) (jamesbeard.org) The James Beard Foundation announced its 2026 Restaurant and Chef Award nominees on March 31, and winners are set to be revealed June 15 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (jamesbeard.org) Sundas is in the Mid-Atlantic field for Tapori, his H Street Northeast restaurant, in a category that spans chefs from Virginia through New Jersey. Eater DC reported he is D.C.’s only 2026 finalist in that category. (jamesbeard.org) (dc.eater.com) The finalist nod lands a year after Tapori opened near Union Station with Indian and Nepalese street food, including dosas, pani puri, momos, and thukpa. Axios described it as a sibling to Daru, the team’s earlier H Street hit. (axios.com) (blog.resy.com) Washingtonian’s 2026 list of the city’s 100 very best restaurants said Tapori’s menu points to regions of India and to Nepal, where Sundas was born. The magazine highlighted dishes including Wagyu momo dumplings and grilled salmon kebab. (washingtonian.com) Sundas told WTOP he learned to cook at home in southeastern Nepal, making family meals when he was 11 after his mother went to work. He said she taught him lentil rice, fried rice, and momo dumplings. (wtop.com) He moved to the United States at 24 and started at a 7-Eleven in Northern Virginia, according to WTOP. After cooking chicken curry for roommates, he said a guest urged him to find restaurant work instead. (wtop.com) Sundas later worked at Rasika in Washington’s West End, where he met the partners behind Daru and Tapori. WTOP said the group opened Daru in 2021 and Tapori in 2025. (wtop.com) In the same interview, Sundas said he had spent years in the United States before he had even heard of the James Beard Awards. He called the finalist honor “out of expectation” and said it carries “responsibility to the community.” (wtop.com) His food also draws a line between Nepalese and Indian cooking. Sundas told WTOP that Nepalese chicken curry often uses a thinner, watery sauce called jhol, while Indian versions tend to use a thicker gravy. (wtop.com) For now, the milestone is both local and national: D.C.’s only Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic finalist this year is a chef who started in a convenience store and built two H Street restaurants around the food he grew up eating. (dc.eater.com) (wtop.com)