For those who know Elizabeth Blau, IFMA’s (International Foodservice Manufacturers Assoc.) Silver Plate awardee in the Hotel & Lodging category, she was a top candidate to win the Gold Plate. Not that the competition wasn’t formidable, but just as Pacino was a favorite when copping best actor for Scent of a Woman, so, too, was it likely that Blau, who greatly transformed the Las Vegas restaurant landscape from an all-you-can-stomach buffeteria to a world-class culinary mecca, would nail top honors.

Presented Monday, May 21, at IFMA’s annual Gold and Silver Plate banquet during the NRA show, the award is, arguably, the most prestigious in the industry. And as Blau (president, Elizabeth Blau & Associates, Las Vegas) likes to point out, this is the only one where you are selected by a jury of your peers made up of past Silver and Gold plate winners and editors of the national business foodservice press who evaluate nominees based not on local or regional biases but on criteria of excellence that include creativity, accomplishment, leadership, mentoring and outstanding service to community.

A force not to be ignored in shaping the ever-changing face of the world of foodservice, she has an eerie sense of knowing where a trend is gestating and manages to stay one step ahead of the delivery.

It was not easy to create the string of celebrity-styled restaurants at Bellagio and later at the Wynn (see Nov/Dec 2005 HF&BE). “I had the good fortune of working on the most incredible projects with the most incredible team of F&B people. Everyone was as much a part of the award as I was,” says Blau. “Steve and Elaine Wynn gave me the opportunity to create and work with an amazing staff: Kevin Steussi, Grant McPherson, and Steve Weitman—to name just a few.”

No one has to tell her what the award is about and why she got it. But we remind her of what Pier 4’s Tony Athanas said when asked about the countless number of awards he had won: “You’re only as good as your last meal.”

Blau likes that. “It doesn’t matter how many Gold Plates you win,” she says. “If we don’t continue to bring to our work the highest level of integrity, passion and drive, a Gold Plate doesn’t mean much.”