Fleur de Sel chef in line for award

Laurent and Patricia Zirotti are the owners of Fleur de Sel restaurant in the bistro section of the Highlands Day Spa in Post Falls. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

Laurent Zirotti, chef and owner of Fleur de Sel in Post Falls, is the only chef from this region in the running for a 2017 James Beard Award.

Semifinalists were announced Wednesday. Zirotti is a semifinalist in the Best Chef Northwest category. He represents one of 20 chefs in the category. Seattle and Portland have the most chefs in the category – Seattle with seven and Portland with six. Other chefs come from Boise; Red Lodge, Montana; Jackson, Wyoming; and Denali National Park, Alaska. Those locations each have one semifinalist.

Zirotti – along with wife Patricia – own Fleur de Sel, a French bistro set along a golf course, as well as Fleur de Sel Artisan Creperie on the Lower South Hill/ Adriana Janovich , SR. More here.