Category: Celebrity Chef Hell

ARIA Hotel Announces Celebrity Chef Lineup

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST……

Undaunted by the latest….er…uh… economic downturn, CityCenter, the joint venture between MGM-Mirage and a bunch of really rich dudes from Dubai, has announced the first lineup of chefs and restaurants to go into ARIA — the largest of the uber-swanky hotels being constructed there. ARIA will have over 4,000 rooms on 61 floors, and plans to have the following lineup of super swanky chefs and restaurants in its environs (these are, for the most part, as interesting a lineup as we could hope for in our already celebrity-drenched food scene):

Making his Las Vegas debut, Chef Masayoshi Takayama, Chef/owner of Masa and Bar Masa in New York, and a chef who has set the standard for greatness in Japanese cuisine (at least in America), will open Bar Masa, a restaurant divided into two different spaces offering different styles of service and cuisine. In the more casual space, guests will be invited to order from an a la carte menu featuring Chef Masa’s style of modern Japanese cuisine, much like Bar Masa in the Time Warner Center in New York — the only Masa that ELV and mere mortals can afford. The second space, Shaboo, will provide guests with an exclusive (read: much more expensive) dining experience. In spite of the expense, and in spite of the fact that Chef Masa is now franchising himself, ELV is most excited about his coming to the High Mojave Desert.

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And we hear Rachel Ray will judge the next Bocuse d’Or…

Emeril Gets 10-Book Deal From HarperCollins (Crain’s New York Business)

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., which owns the rights to the Emeril Lagasse franchise of books, television shows, and kitchen products, on Thursday announced a 10-book deal between the celebrity chef and publisher HarperCollins. Under the multi-year agreement, Mr. Lagasse is set to release his first book — with a focus on indoor and outdoor grilling — in May 2009. NYP: Said MSLO chairman Charles Koppelman, “I think it will generate a boatload of money.”

Au revoir Alain Ducasse; we hardly knew you

ELV POSTS CORRECTION…

This post raised some hackles, so in the interest of the journalistic integrity for which ELV is known, we must report that the MGM-Mirage officially denies that Alain Ducasse is no longer involved with MIX (although his capacity, we have been told, is solely as a “consultant chef”). Sylvain Portay has told us directly that he is still works at and with the restaurant on Ducasse’s behalf, and we have confirmed this. Our sources stand by their information that Ducasse is (or soon will be) no longer associated with the restaurant. ELV regrets whatever errors were made.

ELV questions exactly when and how Ducasse “consults” on anything there. ELV imagines Ducasse’s average “consultation” goes something like this:

(Telephone rings….)

General Manager of MIX: “Hello, MIX Restaurant in THE Hotel in the Mandalay Bay, may we help you?”

Alain Ducasse: “Thees eez Alain Ducasse.”

GM: “Who?”

AD: “My name eez Alain Ducasse, I am zee most famous and acclaimed French Chef in zee world.”

GM: “I’m sorry Mr. Du….CAT…did you say it was…….?”

AD: “DuCASSE…you pathetic piece of rancid Albanian headcheese! I am zee ne plus ultra de la cuisine Francais!! Zee Michelin men bow before me and kiss zee hem of my garment….”

GM: “I’m sorry Mr. DuKane….but I’ve been here three years and we’ve never met. Would you like a reservation or a table with us this evening?”

AD: “No, I would like my check tout suite!”

GM: “Oh, that Alain Ducasse. It’s in the mail.”

(Click)

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THE ORIGINAL POST:

Alain Ducasse has been bought out of his contract with the China Grill Group and the MGM-Mirage Corp. and will no longer be associated with MIX in the Mandalay Bay. Thus, the world’s most Michelin-starred chef now leaves a town he barely came to in the first place. ELV remembers Ducasse appearing at the opening of MIX six years ago, and for hardly a moment since.* Plans for the restaurant — that received a Michelin star last year — are uncertain.

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