ORANGE BEACH, AL – If you’re going to dream, dream big.

Bill Briand, executive chef at Fisher’s at Orange Beach Marina did just that when he decided to make the move to Orange Beach three years ago.

“It was one of my goals when I decided I was going to move on and be a chef myself and start a restaurant and run it,” Briand said. “Before the restaurant was done and we were down at the office with a huge dry-erase board with our goals of what we were going to do, that was the first thing up on the board. They thought I was crazy.”

Briand’s dream goal was to be named to the list of the James Beard Foundation’s list of Bes Chefs. On Feb. 17 Briand got word he one of 20 semifinalists up for the Best Chef award in the South Region.

Also from Alabama Rob McDaniel is from Spring House in Alexander City and David Bancroft is from Acre in Auburn were also nominated.

Briand will find out on Tuesday if he made the final five headed to Chicago on May 2 for the 2016 James Beard Awards Gala, hosted by Carla Hall, will take place at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

He didn’t know the list had been released and got a congratulatory call from friend Justin Devillier of La Petite Grocery in New Orleans. Devillier also made the semifinal list.

“I was part of a team that won two of the James Beard awards so I guess that’s kind of why it was on my radar,” Briand said. “Our goal was to win it because I’d been part of a team that had one before. It’s just awesome if you can get there. A lot of guys are on the list for three or four years before they win.

“We’re really excited. It’s a true team effort from the guy who cleans the bathrooms to the guy who washes the dishes, every one of them are a part of this win.”

The nomination, Briand said, is based on a variety of factors and it’s impossible to put an emphasis on a single one.

“The judges get on the internet, they look at your website, they look at reviews, they look at articles,” he said. “The voters are past winners, a lot of different writers from Garden and Gun, Southern Living. There’s a bunch of voters from the SFA, Southern Foodways Alliance, those guys are the ones that vote.

“They don’t technically send somebody down here to taste the food, but most of these guys have eaten our food. A lot of the chefs have already been down here and done our chef dinners. It can’t hurt.”

Briand worked with chefs Emeril Lagasse and Donald Link for a combined 18 years, mostly in New Orleans. He helped open Cochon, a staple of the New Orleans restaurant scene.

An acquaintance from those days, Johnny Fisher, gave him a call to head up a restaurant here.

At first Fisher was thinking of the outdoor restaurant, The Gulf, at Perdido Pass, but then he was presented with an opportunity at Orange Beach Marina and immediately called Briand with a change of plans.

“He comes up with some wild stuff you don’t think will work but it always does,” Briand said of Fisher. “He opened up the House of Blues way back in the day and that’s how we got connected. He actually hired me to be the chef at The Gulf.”

A little while after that Fisher was asked by owners of Orange Beach Marina to look at their two restaurants, both of which weren’t operating at the time. He saw it and a light went off.

One of the first people he called was Briand.

“Probably three weeks before I was to get packing and move up here he called and said ‘man I need you to jump in the car and come up here,” Briand said with a laugh. “’I’m walking through a restaurant and I might be interested in moving in that direction.’

“I came up here and we walked around this restaurant. They were like you can have your fine dining restaurant and also one for the masses, for the beach crowd and kids downstairs.”

Now the pair operates Fisher’s Dockside downstairs for the beach-going, family fun crowd and Fisher’s at Orange Beach Marina upstairs with table cloths, snazzy décor and Briand’s creations coming out of the kitchen.

And three years later that top goal from the dry-erase board is close to becoming a reality.

“It’s a true team effort from the guy who cleans the bathrooms to the guy who washes the dishes,” Briand said. “Every one of them are a part of this win.”