VegasChatter

Tags: Vegas Uncork'd / Chefs / Garden of the Gods / Bobby Flay / Rick Moonen / Hubert Keller / Pierre Gagnaire / rmseafood / Three Square / Encore / Palazzo / → All Tags

We Got Totally Uncork'd This Weekend

This weekend we took in the annual smorgasbord of food, booze, more food, and celebrity chefs that is Vegas Uncork’d. We discovered new dishes and revisited old food favorites all while mingling with friends also both old and new.

As we finish digesting our third Rick Moonen moondog, we highlight five of our favorite moments from the weekend:

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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

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Tags: Top Chef / Mandalay Bay / Rick Moonen / rmseafood / → All Tags

Restaurant Wars Whittles Top Chefs Down

Our regular Top Chef recapper, Globetrotting Gourmet, is in port in Alaska and is having some connection issues. She cabled in her Top Chef report which we're pasting below. Ok, so maybe it wasn't a cable but rather just regular old email instead but cable sounded fancier.

Yay for Restaurant Wars, the most anticipated episode in every Top Chef season. We also think we've figured out some Top Chef secret, in that they seem to pan to and pay extra attention to whomever is getting the ax at the beginning of the episode. We don't want to spoil who it was this week, but if you watch the first six minutes and last six minutes of the past few episodes, you'll see what we mean.

The episode rolls right into a Quickfire Challenge with guest judge, "champion of conscious cooking," and chef/owner rm seafood, Rick Moonen. In this episode, cooks must manage all matters of a restaurant, including serving, cooking and hosting. This Quickfire Challenge is a test of teamwork, the first ever Top Chef Tag Team Cook-Off. Here's how it works: the chefs pulled knives, with Jennifer pulling one marked "First Choice" and Michael pulling "Second Choice." Every other knife was blank. The two picked teams were Team Jen: Kevin, Mike I., Laurine and Team Michael: Bryan, Eli, Robin.

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