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Tags: Chefs / Restaurants / Julian Serrano / Picasso / Sage / Rick Moonen / Lotus of Siam / Joel Robuchon / Restaurant Charlie / → All Tags
10 Vegas Restaurants and Chefs Are Named James Beard Semifinalists
Julian Serrano, second from right, named Outstanding Chef.
The James Beard Foundation Awards Restaurant and Chef Award Semifinalists were announced last week and Las Vegas cleaned house with ten contenders for these prestigious awards:
Outstanding Chef
Julian Serrano, Picasso at Bellagio
Rising Star Chef of the Year
Vanessa Garcia, Restaurant Charlie at the Palazzo
Best New Restaurant
Sage at Aria Resort & Casino
Outstanding Pastry Chef
Kamel Guechida, Joël Robuchon at
MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Outstanding Wine Service
Picasso at Bellagio
Tags: Restaurants / Todd English / Openings / PUB / Chefs / → All Tags
Todd English Goes on Nightline, P.U.B. Remains Unopened
We mentioned earlier this week that Todd English is a very, very busy man. Well, he shows no sign of letting up, even if it means delaying the opening of his newest restaurant.
English been doing the full-court press on himself and his restaurants, with his latest score happening on ABC's Nightline.
Airing tonight, the special talks about the chef's special connection with love and food. He reveals that he loves "this English chef I love who sucks her finger when she's tasting something, and I think that's so sexy." Er. Ok.
Meanwhile, the PUB at Aria remains unopened. A reservations expert at Aria said they weren't sure when it would open but hopefully sometime next week. Yes, "hopefully."
Tags: Photo Gallery / Aria / Restaurants / Chefs / CityCenter / Michael Mina / Sirio Maccioni / Julian Serrano / Shawn McClain / Masayoshi Takayama / Jean-Georges Vongerichten / Jean-Philippe Maury / Todd English / → All Tags
Inside Aria's Culinary Funhouse
CHEF ORGY!
As we've been telling you for quite some time, the restaurants at Aria Resort and Casino are going to require some serious stomach training.
During the CityCenter Grand Opening madness, we were able to sample bites at each of the restaurants as well as admire the restaurant spaces. Since we will probably roll out individual restaurant reviews throughout the year, we're only going to concern you today with photos of the restaurants.
We've broken it down into two parts: Upstairs and Downstairs.
The Upstairs restaurants, placed near the Viva Elvis theater on the Promenade, include: Sirio, Michael Mina's American Fish, Jean-Georges Steakhouse and The Buffet.
The Downstairs restaurants include: Blossom and Lemongrass off the casino floor; Sage, Julian Serrano, Bar Masa and the forthcoming Todd English gastropub off the lobby and registration; Jean-Philippe Patisserie and the casual Cafe Vettro near the back entrance of Aria.
For some reason (probably: vodka cranberries) we didn't snap a picture of the Cafe. D'oh. Sorry for that. We'll get right on it. For now, enjoy the food porn and chef orgy.
Note: There are even more eateries than the ones we photographed here but these are the ones with the big chef names behind 'em.
Tags: Top Chef / Chefs / → All Tags
Top Chef Heads To Napa To Finish Off The Culinary Gamble
Last night, Top Chef officially crossed the line from prime time entertainment to nail-biting stressfest.
A lot has changed since Top Chef last filmed in Vegas. Jen’s hair got all sorts of curly (looks like Philadelphia’s end-of-summer humidity had its way with her). Kevin’s sweet little redhead seemed to lose a few hairs in the hiatus. Bryan got accessorized (note to Bryan: no one, and I mean no one dons big, oversized golf umbrellas on the west coast).
And Michael, well, not much changed with him, except he’s seamlessly stepped into the role of the resident jerkface since Mike I. got the heave ho.
The episode starts with everyone sitting at a train stop in Napa Valley, when low and behold, Napa’s finest mobile tourist trap pulls into the station – The Napa Valley Wine Train. Out walks Padma rocking some severe bangs and a baby bump (will we ever know who knocked her up?) and guest judge and owner of Napa restaurant, Bottega, Michael Chiarello.
Tags: Top Chef / M Resort / Chefs / Date a Top Chef / → All Tags
If You Can't Watch Top Chef, Play 'Date a Top Chef'
Wah. We were totally crushed that there wasn’t a new episode of Top Chef Las Vegas last night and wish the marketing minds at Bravo TV had said something like, “See you in two weeks” after last week’s episode. A little head’s up would’ve been nice, since we schedule our social schedule around this Wednesday night ritual.
Just to be sure, we logged onto Bravo.com to confirm that our crappy cable TV provider, Comcast wasn’t fooling us, and found this titillating "Date a Top Chef" feature on the site’s landing page. Always up for a Cosmopolitan-esque quiz, we were ready to click our way through a few easy questions to a culinary match made in, umm…The M Resort. Nope – no such thing.
Tags: Top Chef / M Resort / Chefs / Sandy Valley Ranch / → All Tags
Cowboy Cookout with The Top Chef Crew
We we
re kinda non-plussed by Top Chef Episode 6, “Camping.” The usually opinionated/bossy Jennifer kept a low-profile. Mike I. wasn’t his usual obnoxious self. There really wasn’t any drama. Period.
About the only emotional aspect of the show came from Ashley
The episode started with her calling her older brother, whose wife gave birth the night before and she was teary because she couldn't be with them. Later in the show, she reveals that she grew up in a very poor family in the middle of the woods with her single mother. Turn out, those circumstances helped in with the cooking challenge. So we like it when Ashley gets real, instead of angry. But on with the recap.
The main culinary component of the High Stakes Quickfire Challenge was determined via text – contenders included rattlesnake, cactus or kangaroo with cactus taking the lead. The remaining 12 contestants had 45 minutes to prepare their dishes at The M Resort's Top Chef kitchen, with the winner taking home $15,000 but no immunity. Chef Tim Love, a tried and true Texan man, was the guest judge.
Tags: Top Chef / M Resort / Chefs / Todd English / Olives / Bellagio / → All Tags
Quit Yer Crying on Top Chef: It's a Cooking Show, Fer Crissakes
Let’s get right down to it. It’s only week two of Top Chef Las Vegas and we’re already rolling out eyes at the gambling themed gimmicks and unabashed promotion of The M Resort. Yeah, we get it. It’s a nice resort and the host hotel for Season 6, but fer crissakes, pretty please stop shoving it down our throats.
So, last night’s episode wasn’t exactly one for the memory books, aside from Ashley’s minor meltdown surrounding the Bachelor/Bachelorette party Elimination Challenge with special guest judge Todd English the celeb chef behind Olives at Bellagio.
But back to Ashley. She’s a lesbian. Big deal. But, she (rightfully) has strong opinions about the legal definition of matrimony. There’s a time and place to express such personal beliefs, and we’re kinda thinking she should’ve shut up and cooked at this juncture of the episode (not to be insensitive or non-PC, but seriously).
Anyway, it was a predictable battle of the sexes where after a quick likes/dislikes Q&A with the to be betrothed, the guys cooked for the bachelorettes and the gals cooked for the bachelors.
Tags: Openings / Palazzo / Sportsbooks / Restaurants / Emeril Lagasse / Lagasse Stadium / Chefs / → All Tags
Emeril Lagasse is Turning the Palazzo Sportsbook Into Lagasse's Stadium
Last month when we hit up the Palazzo Las Vegas for the Hardbat Classic, we actually spent some time chillin' in the Palazzo's Sportsbook and Grill, which used to be called by another name--40/40, a sports bar/nightclub from rapper Jay-Z.
The food being passed around that night was done by chef Emeril Lagasse who has a Delmonico Steakhouse and a Table 10 restaurant inside the Venetian/Palazzo complex. But little did we know that the food we were noshing on would be part of the new menu inside the revamped sportsbook. Just in time for the football season, The Palazzo has announced the sportsbook will now be known as Lagasse's Stadium.
Tags: Top Chef / Vegas on Film / Padma Lakshmi / Tom Colicchio / Chefs / Restaurants / → All Tags
The 'Steaks' Are High for Top Chef Las Vegas
The countdown is on for the Season Six premiere of Top Chef: Las Vegas. We’re setting our Tivo to Bravo TV on Wednesday, August 19th, 9 p.m. ET/PT for all the tasty Sin City fun and to see if any of our Stalking Top Chef sightings ever panned out.
Just in case there's a few of you out there who aren't familiar with Top Chef, here’s how it works: Week after week, "cheftestants" show off their culinary chops over a progression of quickfire tests and elimination challenges. Losing chefs are whittled down and told to pack up their knives and go home.
Last man (or woman) standing will receive some serious swag: $100,000 furnished by the makers of the Glad family of products, $100,000 of merch provided by Macy's, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the Annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and will earn the title of "Top Chef."
Tags: Chefs / Celeb Chefs / Restaurants / Anthony Amoroso / Zach Allen / Isaac Carter / Marco Proceddu / Joel Robuchon / Andre Rochat / → All Tags
Six Las Vegas Chefs You Should Know About, According to The Daily Fork
Despite the prominence that slot machines and roulette wheels play in Las Vegas, this glitzy city in the middle of the desert has always been about marquee names like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Wayne Newton, Tom Jones, and yes, even Celine Dion. The feel-good family entertainment era that Vegas was trying to push a decade ago came to a screeching halt once the resorts decided they really didn’t want screaming kids in strollers in their casinos. (And um, we have to agree.)
Since then, Las Vegas has raised its standards of sophistication to a new, higher bar, treating high rollers and regular visitors alike to rooms and suites tricked out with high-tech amenities, a dizzying array of nightlife and entertainment options and unabashedly upscale dining experiences.
Culinary stars like Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Alain Ducasse and Charlie Palmer have descended upon the desert and have opened their own restaurants in Las Vegas, leading us to believe that no other city on Earth has more outposts of celebrated chefs (ok, New York and Paris aside.)
Sin City has now become one of the world’s hottest restaurant towns – coupling celebrity chefs and casinos is a tourist-attracting marriage made in capitalist heaven.
Tags: Restaurants / Chefs / Celeb Chefs / Openings / Nancy Silverton / Mario Batali / Joseph Bastianich / → All Tags
Chef Nancy Silverton Heading To Sin City With Nancy's Luncheonette
We hear whispers in this NY Times article of yet another culinary venture coming to Vegas via the Italian Batali/Bastianich tag team. Tentatively titled, Nancy’s Luncheonette, the Osteria Mozza spin-off, will be housed in the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino.
Chef Mario Batali and his partner, Joseph Bastianich, have already staked success at the Venetian with B&B Ristorante (mmm…mint love letters with spicy lamb sausage) and Enoteca San Marco (styled after NYC’s Otto). The powerhouse has also taken on The Palazzo with Carnevino Italian Steakhouse.
The Nancy in question is Nancy Silverton, who was the force behind Los Angeles's La Brea Bakery and its adajcent restaurant, Campanile. Also, La Brea Bakery bread is found seemingly in grocery stores everywhere in the U.S. as well as in 17 countries worldwide. In 2006, her eagerly anticipated Pizzeria Mozza opened in Los Angeles, followed by Osteria Mozza--both of which have been huge hits on the LA dining scene.
We’re a sucker for her crispy pig trotters, mozzarella bar (hello, burrata with bacon, marinated escarole and carmelized shallots!), and ricotta gnudi with chanterelle mushrooms, so we can’t wait for a Sin City incarnation. The new space will be called Nancy's Luncheonette, not to be confused with a restaurant of the same name in Coxsackie, New York. No word on where inside the Venetian this will be located.
Got news, tips, and gossip about the culinary scene in Vegas? We wanna hear about it!
