Category: Chefs

He was a great chef as chefs go, and as chefs go, he went.

You heard it here first: Adam Sobel has officially departed Bradley Ogden. Todd Williams, formerly sous chef under Bryan Ogden, has taken over as top toque. Bryan Ogden continues to be associated with BO, but only in a capacity as consultant chef. Meaning: he flies in once a month to check on things….kinda like his dad.

Alfred Portale, the man behind the venerable Gotham Bar and Grill in New York, and the popularizer of vertical food (an idea whose time has toppled) has signed on with the Fontainbleau Hotel project to bring an outpost of GB&G to Vegas.

Larry Forgione is hard at work at the restaurant soon to be formerly known as Tableau in the Wynn. He is slowly revamping Mark LoRusso’s menu and making it an updated version of his venerable An American Place in St. Louis; a place that was formerly Forgione’s signature restaurant of the same name in Gotham – only without any vertical food. Got that?

Continue reading “He was a great chef as chefs go, and as chefs go, he went.”

LAVO – the restaurant as “Bathhouse”

Just when we thought The Palazzo couldn’t get anymore overstocked with swanky, over-designed and overpriced restaurants, comes the announcement that the Tao restaurant/nightclub group will open LAVO – described as a Restaurant/Bathhouse/Nightclub – there in August.

At last view, which was….uh….this past Saturday night, the existing ones that have opened their doors (Table 10, Carnevino, Morel’s, Dos Caminos, Mainland, CUT, Dal Toro, Restaurant Charlie/Bar Charlie et al), are hardly turning them away. Meaning: any party of 4 (and multiple parties of 4) could’ve walked into any of The Palazzo restaurants on a weekend evening and would’ve been seated immediately and received a “thank you very much for coming” from every member of the staff.

Despite reports of strife between the Palazzo and Tao teams (a lawsuit was filed, Shellie Adelson and his henchmen tried to have this Tao beached, bad faith allegations were exchanged), all appears to have been settled. Translation: the Tao boys get to open as planned, and Adelson takes another hit from the press and the courts.

So where will the customers be coming from? Well, it’s a fair bet none of them will be going there for the cuisine of Ludovic Lefebvre. This former top toque at L’Orangerie and Bastide in LaLaLand is one of the most talented chefs on the planet. His small plates menu of Spanish, French and Italian cuisine – served in a space that derives its inspiration from “…the bathhouses of ancient Mediterranean culture…” will no doubt be the equivalent of Yo Yo Ma playing “Turkey in the Straw.”

And why would such a creative, acclaimed chef relegate himself to serving 1,000+ idiotic poseurs a night? You tell me and we’ll both know.*

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* Perhaps he’s been Tourondel’ed to the dark side – named for the ultra-talented Laurent Tourondel – one of the greatest chefs in America – who now devotes those talents to building an empire of superior steakhouses and burger joints.

KLAS TV Channel 8 (CBS) – Restaurant of the Week – RAKU Japanese Charcoal Grill

RAKU is so good it’s scary. Fresh, pristine, pure Japanese robatayaki cooking like Las Vegas has never seen, and fast becoming a foodie mecca like we’ve never had off the Strip.

Uber-seafood chef Paul Bartolotta told me he’s been twelve (12!) times in two months and still isn’t tired of it.

We (Food Man, #2 Son of Food Man, and The Food Gal) went last night and tried three desserts (after some pickled Bonito guts, beef liver, cold soba noodles et al), and found the melting chocolate cake to be possibly the best in town – ditto the watermelon grantinee (called sorbet on the menu).

Chef/owner Mitsuo Endo told us (through his interpreter – the adorable Risa) that he originally came here to cook in a restaurant in, of all places, Anthem – that bastion of bad taste in Henderson.* Anthem’s loss was the rest of the town’s gain.

And for the first time on TV, watch the world’s greatest restaurant critic** eat a pig’s ear on a morning news show.***

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* As in: houses (ginormous), cars (nothing but SUV’s), traffic (unbearable) and good restaurants (non-existent)

** Self-proclaimed

*** YouTube here I come.