Elizabeth Blau

Elizabeth Blau is recognized for the impact of her leadership, innovation and philanthropy over a nearly four-decade career. Blau is widely credited with transforming Las Vegas into a world-class culinary destination. Today, she is known for helping shape the global dining scene by bringing award-winning chefs and restaurateurs to international real estate mixed-use projects as well as luxury resort developments.

In 2002, she founded Blau + Associates, expanding it into one of the leading restaurant development and consulting companies. Along with her husband, chef Kim Canteenwalla, she operates successful signature restaurants, including Honey Salt in Las Vegas and Vancouver, Buddy’s V’s Ristorante on the Las Vegas Strip, Crown Block Restaurant at the Reunion Tower in Dallas and a portfolio of acclaimed restaurants at Parq Vancouver Resort & Casino.

Recipient of the 2022 Cornell Hospitality Innovator award, Blau serves the global hospitality community through advisory and board roles for organizations such as École Hôtelière de Lausanne, the Cornell School of Hotel Administration (her alma mater), trustee emeritus of the Culinary Institute of America and global advisory board member emeritus at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In 2020, she co-founded the non-profit Women’s Hospitality Initiative to develop and implement programs for women to achieve leadership positions in the restaurant industry. During the pandemic, Blau co-created Delivering with Dignity, a program that has delivered over 750,000 chef-prepared nutritious meals to the food-insecure community.