[imagebrowser id=929]
…and Saffron’s mad about ELV.
This stuff (saffron – the rare, expensive, hard to cultivate stigma of the crocus plant) turns the out-of-this-world paellas at Jaleo their distinctive color, adds a deep, haunting muskiness to the flavor of this dish, and makes a lot more sense in Spanish cooking than these lyrics ever did in this song.
Quite rightly.
[imagebrowser id=930]
With (from l to r) Dan Rossi, Vita Shanley, and Scott Conant in the kitchen (and Antonello Paganuzzi running the front of the house), how could things get much hotter (or better) at Scarpetta?
ELV and his staff don’t think they can…and also think this place will quickly take its position the popular pantheon of pedigreed pasta perfection posited amongst our pactolian pantisocracy.
Or something like that.
FYI: Rossi formerly was top toque at David Burke; Shanley last dazzled us at SW Steakhouse before departing for colder climes, and Paganuzzi was the front of the house master who opened Le Cirque and Circo in the Bellagio way back when. A stronger team — who know the Vegas market as well as any operators in The Cosmopolitan — would be hard to find.
SCARPETTA
In The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino
3708 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.698.7960
[nggallery id=927]
ELV has been in The Cosmo every day since it opened. Unfortunately, even though we’ve been plowing our way through almost every venue (with many a spectacular result), we’ve been unable to secure a seat at José Andrés’ multi-cultural mecca for curious, bi-continental cuisine-ists.
So you’ll just have to settle for some groovy snaps of China Poblano‘s über-cool design until we can tell you how it tastes.