James Beard nominee Suresh Sundas reimagines South Asian flavors

Chef Suresh Sundas’s path to national recognition didn’t begin in a professional kitchen, but in a small home in rural Nepal, where he learned to cook out of necessity. After immigrating to the United States in 2007 and briefly working at a 7-Eleven, Sundas worked his way into restaurant kitchens, eventually landing at the acclaimed Rasika West End in Washington, D.C.,—where he met beverage director Dante Datta, an Indian American whose parents immigrated to the United States from West Bengal. What began as a shared workplace connection evolved into a creative partnership, and in 2021, the two opened Daru, a restaurant in the district that blends Sundas’s South Asian perspective with Datta’s cocktail expertise into something distinctly their own.

In the years since, Daru has quickly earned national attention, landing on The New York Times’ list of top restaurants and consistently earning Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition, a distinction awarded to restaurants that offer exceptional food at a good value. The pair would also go on to open Tapori in 2025, a restaurant influenced by South Asian street food. Now, with Sundas being named a 2026 James Beard Award finalist in the category of Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic—the first Nepali chef to receive the honor—the duo finds themselves at a new milestone ahead of the awards ceremony on June 15.

In this conversation, Sundas and Datta reflect on the journey from immigrant beginnings to industry recognition and making history. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Daniel Anderson: I’d love to first get to know more about your background—where you grew up and where your passion for cooking came from.
Suresh Sundas: I was born and raised in Nepal. I was raised by a single mom in a remote village. When she went to work, I had to cook for us—even when I was about 11 years old. I would cook rice, prepare vegetables, clean dishes, everything. At that time, usually only women handled cooking and household work, but in our family, it was just my mom and me, so I did it all. That’s really where my passion started. I worked in a hotel starting when I was around 15 or 16 years old, while I was still in high school. It was a local hotel where I grew up. Then I came to the United States when I was 24.

DA: When you moved to the U.S., you didn’t immediately enter the restaurant industry, you were working at 7-Eleven. What do you remember about that time?
SS: I wanted to work in a nice restaurant or a hotel—something like that. But most of my friends were working at 7-Eleven. When I contacted one of my friends who lived in Virginia, he told me there weren’t many job options and suggested I work at 7-Eleven. So I started my career there. At the same time, I was always looking for somewhere I could do what I really wanted to do. After about 11 months, I was able to find a job at an Indian restaurant. That was very different from Nepal—Indian and South Indian cooking were completely different, but I learned a lot.

DA: Was there a dish early in your career that really changed the way you thought about food?
SS: Yes. When I was working at an Indian restaurant called Mayuri, there was a South Indian chef who made an incredible biryani. The fragrance, the texture of the rice, the caramelized onions, it was amazing. That dish made me more curious about Indian cuisine and how all those elements of spices, rice, and meat come together. 

DA: You’ve worked with some incredible chefs. Is there one mentor who really shaped you?
SS: Chef Manish from Rasika. I was part of the opening team at the West End location, and he became a very important mentor for me. Even now, he still gives me advice. One thing I remember is when he encouraged me to think creatively about desserts—like combining rice pudding and halwa, a cold dessert and a hot dessert, which are very different. He showed me how to layer and present them in a new way. That kind of thinking really stayed with me.

DA: When did you start thinking about opening your own restaurant?
SS: I always thought that one day I wanted to open my own restaurant, but I didn’t know when that was going to happen, and I didn’t want to do it too early—otherwise it could go badly. When I was working at Rasika, I saw the vibe of the restaurant and what it was like working with a great chef. Those were really strong learning experiences, and my confidence level went up a lot. At the same time, I met Dante. He was a bar manager at Rasika West End—and I talked to him about it. I said, “I work in the kitchen, I know this much, you know that much, so let’s work together and start talking about it.” We started coming up with ideas and making a plan, but it was a long process. It took almost five years.

DA: Dante, what did those early conversations look like when you were developing Daru?
Dante Datta: We were looking to combine our two backgrounds. Mine was in bars, and I had just left running Columbia Room (in Washington, D.C.). We wanted to bring the same level of quality and attention to detail you’d associate with something like Columbia Room—almost like a fine dining level of cocktails—but place it in a neighborhood environment. A space where people who have roots here, who have lived here a long time, and also new families moving in could all feel comfortable.

Originally, it was going to be a 40-seat cocktail bar that we planned to open in May 2020. The idea was small plates, tandoor-driven food from Suresh’s expertise, and cocktails to go along with it. But obviously, May 2020 didn’t happen. So we pushed everything back about a year and a half. During that time, we spent a lot of time talking to people in the neighborhood and just continuing to taste and think about food. We started realizing we needed to shift the focus. We weren’t sure what was going to happen with bars—whether they would fully come back—so we pivoted toward making it more of a neighborhood restaurant with a stronger food focus.

In terms of differentiation, I don’t know that we were ever setting out to be different just for the sake of it. It was more about evolving what was already happening and what we were seeing in the progression of Indian and South Asian cuisine, and building something that felt natural to us rather than forced. Suresh being from Nepal brought in that layer of Nepalese influence, which was really exciting and not something you saw very often in D.C. at the time. So I think the idea of standing out happened pretty naturally.

DA: Chef, how did you start to find your own culinary voice within that?
SS: I’ve worked in Indian restaurants my whole life, right? I’m from Nepal, so whenever I cook Indian dishes, it’s still rooted in those Indian flavors, but it also becomes unique in its own way. I remember talking to Manish about this, and he told me, “What you’re doing—that’s your uniqueness. That uniqueness is coming from you,” which I thought was really meaningful. I understand what authentic Indian food is, but when I cook it in my own way, it naturally becomes something a little different from what people usually expect. And that’s what I realized about myself. That’s what I discovered.

As a chef, I’m also able to bring in dishes I grew up eating like momos (dumplings), chola, even the spices like timur (Nepalese peppercorn) and hog plum powder. I use those as well in my cooking.

DA: What is your creation process for your dishes?
SS: We often talk about “Indian-ness” at Daru—what that means, and how it doesn’t have borders. It’s about being able to play with flavors freely. For example, we have a chicken tikka taco. It’s tandoori chicken with sliced, caramelized onions, and we use phulka, which is Indian roti. I thought, why not turn that into a taco? With dal, we take a creamy, smoky lentil base, and then I started thinking about adding cheese. I was experimenting with different cheeses and found burrata really interesting. It has a great texture, especially when paired with lentils and bread. I realized it creates a really unique and rich combination. Even with something like palak paneer lasagna, we take palak paneer, which is a very classic dish that every Indian restaurant has, and present it in a different way. We layer spinach and cheese, almost like a lasagna. It’s the same familiar flavors, just reimagined in a different form.

For me, it’s always about thinking: how can I take the same ingredients and present them a little differently? I have access to so many ingredients here, so why not use them? I’m always thinking in that way, how to evolve familiar food into something new, while still keeping its roots.

DA: What does it mean to you to receive this James Beard Foundation nomination and recognition?
SS: It means a lot to me, honestly. I was very surprised and very happy to be a James Beard nominee. When I think about it, I imagine our food, South Asian cuisine, and what we’re doing at Daru and Tapori, it really feels like we’re contributing to the community. That means a lot to me. We’re just working hard and doing our best to keep pushing it forward.

DD: I think what Suresh is saying is really humbling. From what we’ve talked about, there’s a lot of tradition and history we’re trying to honor and represent. And running a restaurant while also representing a culture and its history is always a delicate balance. For us, it’s really about doing our best to represent this part of the world that means so much to both of us—where we have roots and a real connection. And I think for Suresh especially, it’s always been about staying true to the roots of the food. That’s something he’s always done. There’s a comfort in it, but also a constant effort to keep it evolving and interesting, while still honoring the traditions and the people who’ve been cooking these dishes for generations.