Kathleen Thomas
Hakkasan Group | Las Vegas
October 2019
After working in the Las Vegas service industry for many years at resorts like the Bellagio and Cosmopolitan, Kathleen Thomas was offered her first sommelier role at the Aria in Las Vegas in 2012. In 2016, she joined the Hakkasan Group as a sommelier for their Las Vegas restaurant but quickly rose up the ranks and was promoted to national training manager for wine. Thomas is often traveling throughout her territory in the United States (and Mexico) to give on-site training to the staff at Hakkasan’s many restaurants and nightclubs.
In early 2019, she was a finalist in the Somms Under Fire competition, a national food and wine pairing challenge that requires an intense qualification exam and impressive professional experience in the industry. The audience chose Thomas as “Fan Favorite Sommelier,” winning her a week long educational trip to study the wines of South Africa. Her peers refer to her as “The Wine Goddess” and she usually carries a small saber in case there is a bottle of Champagne that needs to be opened. She has received advanced sommelier certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers and has taught classes at the Los Angeles campus of the Institute of Culinary Education. She has twice competed in the Somm Slam and is always a fan favorite.
