- File: Ben DeFlorio ©️ Seven Days
- Nisachon "Rung" Morgan in 2015
The awards ceremony was held in Chicago on June 13. Morgan bested four other chefs — three from Portland, Maine, and one from Boston — in the category covering Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Morgan and her husband, Steve Morgan, a former New England Culinary Institute instructor, opened Saap in 2014. It shares a historic Victorian house at 50 Randolph Avenue with the White River Craft Center.
Rung Morgan comes originally from the Isan region of northeast Thailand bordering Laos and Cambodia. In a 2015 Seven Days review of Saap, Hannah Palmer Egan wrote of the region, “It's a place where the food is spicy and the flavors bold, where fresh fruits and vegetables make merry with delicately spiced meats, pungent herbs and sauces, and lots of sticky rice.”
Related Saap, Vermont's First Isan Thai Restaurant, Digs Deep
Saap, Vermont's First Isan Thai Restaurant, Digs Deep
Restaurant Reviews
- Daria Bishop ©️ Seven Days
- Isan-style grilled pork sausage, sai-krok
As previously reported by Seven Days, the James Beard Foundation paused its annual awards in 2020 and 2021 "in order to take time for self-reflection around who and where we are as an organization," according to its website. In August 2020, it announced an audit of the awards' policies and procedures to "remove systemic bias" and "increase the diversity of the pool of candidates," among other goals.
Jordan Barry contributed reporting.
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