If you happen to be a fan of fine French cuisine, two of the hottest young local chefs are uniting their talents for one night only this week. Tayden Poha-Ellamar, formerly of Le Cirque and L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and current chef at Braseria by Edo, will be hosting at the acclaimed new off-Strip restaurant and teaming with Tyler Vorce, formerly of The French Laundry and currently gearing up to open his own Lilli restaurant in the Chinatown district in August after a long and successful local pop-up.

There will be two seatings of their French Connection collaboration on June 28, so grab your reservation asap (braseriabyedo.com). Poha-Ellamar says once he met Vorce and realized they had a similar approach to the classic cuisine, a special dinner just made sense. “It’s going to be a fun night of cooking,” he says.

To get your appetite going, after canapés are served, Vorce’s first course will be cured albacore tuna with Mission figs and black pepper mignonette, followed by Poha-Ellamar’s seared scallop with Kaluga caviar, crispy rice cake, buttered leek and red bell pepper sauce. You’re probably thinking what we’re thinking: sacré bleu!

We’re especially excited for it—and for return visits to Braseria to see how the menu evolves—because we’ve also been fans of Poha-Ellamar’s father’s cooking. Roy Ellamar was the first Las Vegas chef to have his name on a restaurant in a Strip resort, the ingredient-driven Harvest at Bellagio.

“Growing up, I was always in kitchens, and after school I’d wait for him at the restaurant back home in Hawaii,” Poha-Ellamar says. “I always gravitated toward food, but when I started high school, both my dad and my mom’s dad were chefs, and both of them told me not to pursue it.”

But after exploring other educational options—including construction and electrical engineering—he found himself drawn to the kitchen once again and enrolled in culinary school in Hawaii, “against their wishes, but after a while, they were happy I found some kind of path,” Poha-Ellamar says.

We’re just happy that path brought this talented rising star to Las Vegas. Here’s the rest of our chat:

How did this French Connection collaboration come together?

One of our owners at Braseria, Roberto [Liendo], went for dinner at the Lilli pop-up and met Tyler, and he asked if he could do a pop-up with us. I knew what he was doing there and got to meet him shortly after, and we’ve done a couple of events and run into each other. Then getting to taste some of his food, it was similar to what I like to do. So we just met up and talked about what we’re trying to do, what courses each of us wanted to take and different ideas we had. It’s going to be a fun night, me and Tyler and our right hands [chef assistants] cooking together.

Braseria is still pretty new but getting rave reviews. Are you getting the reaction and feedback you hoped for?

I think so. I go out a lot to check on tables and people seem generally happy. In the beginning I think there was some confusion … We are French but also influenced by Spanish cuisine. I don’t know if some people were expecting something [different] if they went to Anima, maybe expecting us to do the same thing on this side of town. But prior to this, I was at L’Atelier where Mr. Robuchon spearheaded the whole thing of French influenced by Spanish. So this is sort of the next chapter for me, after what was started there.

Your dad just started a new gig with the rooftop restaurant Aya at Graton Resort and Casino in Sonoma County. How did you end up following him to Las Vegas?

I went to culinary school and stayed in Hawaii a bit, but I knew I wanted to move because it’s hard to find any kind of cooking work where I’m from. It’s a small town and there’s nothing really cutting-edge happening.

I came out to visit my dad one summer and ended up staging at a bunch of restaurants here, and the following year I wanted to do the same thing. I got my first job at Sage at Aria, and the whole kitchen team there was so seasoned—most of them had been sous chefs or executive chefs before, and they were all working as cooks on the line. If you surround yourself with people who are better than you, you learn quickly. From there I went to Le Cirque, where I first started doing French food, and then I went to Robuchon and ended up as chef de cuisine when it reopened after the pandemic. After that, the L’Atelier exec chef [position] opened up.

Both you and your father worked at Robuchon at different times, but did you two ever work together in a restaurant?

Not in a restaurant, but I’ve helped him with numerous pop-ups and events.

You’ve already accomplished so much and are helping lead one of the most interesting restaurant groups in Vegas right now. Where do you see your career going next, maybe years from now?

I ask myself that every day [Laughs]. This whole kind of career,  you set an idea for what you want to accomplish, and I’ve ended up doing a lot of things that weren’t on the checklist to lead me to where I’m at now. Do as much planning as you want, but it takes you where it takes you.

FRENCH CONNECTION COLLABORATION DINNER June 28, 5 & 7:30 p.m., $125. Braseria by Edo, braseriabyedo.com.