Jackson Hotel Chef Picked For $1 Million Competition On CBS

When Chef Malyna Si was starting out in the restaurant industry, she joined the back of the house to avoid interacting with people. 

But the thoughtful chef who loves a culinary adventure more than interacting with people is definitely not back of the house anymore.

One of Jackson’s newest chefs on the scene, Si is about to make a huge splash on network television. 

She’s joining an all-star cast of other James Beard and Michelin-starred chefs on Padma Lakshmi’s celebrity chef competition "America’s Culinary Cup," where she will vie for a shot at winning a grand prize of $1 million.

Episodes are set to begin airing March 4 on CBS, starting with a 90-minute season premiere that will pit some of the best chefs anywhere against each other.

Si told Cowboy State Daily she’s learning to deal with newfound celebrity now that commercials for the competition have begun running on television.

“They televised the commercial during the Grammys, during different football games, so it’s been hitting a lot of viewers,” she said. “And people are kind of stopping me now. A couple people have stopped me in the hotel and even the grocery store.”

All of them want to know the same thing. 

Did she win the million?

That’s something she's forbidden to tell. All she can do is smile slyly and suggest they tune in for the show when it begins running.

What she can say, however, is that Lakshmi hand-picked all the chefs for the show, and every single one has credentials like Michelin stars or James Beard awards to their name.

Florida’s Only Female Michelin Star Chef

At the time, Si was recruited to Wyoming, she said she was the only female chef leading a Michelin-starred restaurant in Florida, where she was head of Four Seasons Orlando’s restaurant, Capa. 

“I joined Capa in January of 2018, and I started as a cook,” she said. “And I worked my way up. I became the supervisor and then the sous chef. After I was a sous chef, I became the executive chef of the restaurant.”

It was during her first year as the executive chef that Capa received its first Michelin star, something she credits to the boss she replaced, who was a mentor.

“He taught me a lot of things,” Si said. “And I worked directly with him for five years before he departed; really just doing my best, working 16-hour days, six, seven days a week, and putting everything I had into the restaurant.”

Si didn’t have a sous chef for the first couple of years, which meant she was filling her old role as well as the new one, which made the job extra demanding.

“Capa is not your typical Michelin restaurant,” Si said. “For a Michelin restaurant, we’re very high volume.”

A typical Michelin star restaurant might do between 20 to 80 “covers” for dinner each night, which is chef-lingo for customers. At Capa’s, however, there were 400 a night. 

Since coming to Wyoming, Si has continued making a name for herself, being a James Beard semifinalist in the Best Chef Mountain category in 2024.

Capa still has many of the dishes that Si created on its menu, including the Iberico Pluma, sourced from the Iberian region of Spain where they raise a special breed of pigs that are considered the wagyu of pork.

“The pluma is a specific cut that comes from the Iberian ham, and it’s like right behind the shoulder,” Si said. “It looks like a feather and it’s very, very marbled, so it’s very rich. 

"We paired that with a traditional Romesco sauce and a Valencian orange compote as well.” 

Romesco is a smoky, nutty sauce from Catalonia, Spain, traditionally made from roasted tomatoes, garlic, and nuts, along with olive oil, vinegar, and some bread for thickening.

Why She’s In Wyoming

Si arrived in Jackson about 18 months ago to lead the culinary team at Hotel Jackson, which has expanded its operations, adding new luxury suites as well as a 2,000-square-foot rooftop bar and lounge alongside its existing hotel that includes the popular Lebanese-influenced restaurant Figs. 

Si’s first order of business as the new executive chef in town was to push for sourcing unique ingredients.

“There’s like a saying that goes something like, ‘Who can reorganize the Sysco ingredients the best?’" Si said. “Because that’s what everyone has, right? Everybody is pulling from the same pile. 

"And it takes someone who is highly motivated to chase these new ingredients down.”

Si had been told sourcing unique ingredients locally would be difficult. It is, after all, the Mountain West. But she was determined and refused to give up on the idea, no matter how difficult it might be.

“I went to all the ranches and farms that I could possibly go to,” she recalled. “I was spending all of my days off sourcing different ingredients regionally, trying to get as many local products as I could.”

Ultimately, it wasn’t as difficult as she’d been told it would be.

“Distributors want to be in Jackson,” she said. “They want to showcase their product. There’s a very specific clientele in Jackson that they really want to break into the market, but they haven’t had a person willing to do it. 

"And I’m that person. I’m willing to do that. If you’re willing to send it to me, I’m willing to sell it, and I’m willing to be the liaison between the farmer, the rancher and the consumer.”

Sourcing locally allows her to bring more than just good, fresh flavors to her dishes. It allows her to weave meaning into the meal.

“I want to be a storyteller,” she said. “These people put so much effort into their ranches and farms, and it’s my responsibility to kind of share that story with the consumer. 

Otherwise, you’re just eating another dish. You have no idea where it came from, who made it, and so on.”

Self-Taught Chef, Classically Trained Artist

Si is something of an unlikely chef. She didn’t grow up wanting to be in the kitchen and didn’t go to culinary school. She went to art school instead.

She has, however, always been surrounded by good food.

“My mom is Vietnamese and Laotian, and she was always cooking Southeast Asian cuisine,” Si said. “And my father’s Cambodian, so I was always around home-cooked meals. My parents never, ever, ever — not once — ever bought me fast food or anything like that. They always packed my lunch.”

That lunchbox always had “weird” things in it, Si added, chuckling at the memory. 

“At the time, you don’t always appreciate those things,” she said. “But as I got older, I was like, ‘Man, mom and dad really exposed me to a lot of different cultures and cuisines.'”

Si took a restaurant job while she was in college studying art and fell in love with the culinary industry instead. 

“I really love transforming ingredients from beginning to end,” she said. “It’s like instant gratification. And then you see the guests eating your food and you get to see their reactions and they’re smiling and nodding, enjoying their food. That is what I do this for.”

Si still loves art, though.

“My degree is in sculpture,” she said. “So, in my free time — which is almost never — I do Buddhist sculptures.”

Si’s goal while she’s in Jackson is to put the mountain town on the map for foodies. The town is well-known for outdoor recreation, and it has a few really great restaurants. But too many of them are trying to be all things to all people so they can cater to tourists. 

“I can get pasta, Asian food, falafel, and everything from one restaurant,” she said. “But when one restaurant tries to do all those things, they never do those things well.”

The restaurants Si is managing for Hotel Jackson will each have specific and distinct concepts, with the most premium ingredients. 

Si wants to hear people say they’re going to Jackson for the best steakhouse in America, and that skiing is just an afterthought. 

The Challenge

Filming for America’s Culinary Cup was a whirlwind that happened over a two-month period, making for some extremely long days.

“We were filming 16-hour days,” Si said. “And we were leaving very, very early in the morning to go to the set, and then we were returning very, very late, six days a week.”

It wasn’t only challenging physically. It was also mentally challenging in a way this Michelin-starred chef doesn’t normally face.

“There’s so much mental strain,” she said. “There are things that coffee can get you through, but there’s nothing that can get you through like the uncertainty of it all and the questioning of yourself.”

That was true even for dishes Si has made hundreds of times.

“It’s not because anyone else is questioning you or like you’re comparing yourself,” she said. “It’s just you’re in your own mind. You’re like, ‘Man, am I making the right decisions?’”

That was all self-inflicted stress, Si added, not anything that happened due to the underhanded tactics so often seen on other reality show competitions.

“This was such a supportive cast, and we’re all still in touch,” she said. “We talk to each other almost every day, and we were, like, helping each other through challenges.”

The best thing about the show from Si’s point of view, win or lose, is the chance to talk about her Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese roots.

“I’m really excited to share my story and my heritage,” she said. “There are a few dishes I make that are either Cambodian or Laotian, and I’m so excited for people to see that and be exposed to that and start asking questions like, ‘Where can we find a Cambodian restaurant and who do we know that’s Cambodian and how can I access this food?’”

It’s even possible, Si added, that some Cambodian options will eventually find their way into the cuisine at Hotel Jackson, where she is on a personal mission to shake up Wyoming’s culinary scene in as many delicious ways as possible.

"America’s Culinary Cup” premieres at 7:30 p.m. March 4 on CBS and Paramount+, airing directly after “Survivor 50."

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.