TO SAY HE WAS SURPRISED by the announcement at the end of March would be an understatement. Aaron Tekulve was up for a James Beard Award — a finalist in the regional category for Best Chef, along with four more chefs from Washington, Oregon and Alaska, with the winner to be named at a red-carpet ceremony in Chicago on June 15. “It’s very surreal,” says the chef and owner of Seattle’s Surrell. When they got the news, his daughter instigated a celebratory family dance party. In seven years, he’d gone from being Seattle magazine’s best pop-up to a brick-and-mortar Beard nominee. Surrell is one of Seattle’s most high-end restaurants — serving a $225 tasting menu with up to a dozen courses, plus a $150 five-course version, in the intimate setting of a 123-year-old house on Madison Street. Here, Tekulve seeks to “define modern Pacific Northwest cuisine,” with each course introduced by a staffer’s explanation of ingredients and their local provenance, accompanied by an all-Washington-state wine list.…