Category: Chefs

You heard it here first….Gagnaire and Brennan coming to Vegas

Shhhhhh…Don’t tell anyone (let’s just keep this a secret between ourselves shall we?), but two mega-fabulouso chefs are coming to Las Vegas.

Pierre Gagnaire is close to (or has) inked a contract with MGM-Mirage’s CityCenter to open an outpost in the Mandarin Oriental slated to open there next year. Gagnaire is the chef-owner of his eponymous, Michelin 3-star restaurant on the Rue Balzac in Gay* Paree. He also runs outposts in Tokyo and Hong Kong where late last year he fed us the most expensive lunch we’ve ever had atop the Mandarin Oriental in that amazing city….a place where the name just seems to fit a bit better, wouldn’t you agree?

Terrance Brennan of Picholine and Artisanal fame (two of our faves in NYC), will be coming to the Echelon project – probably the Shangri-La.** Brennan has been instrumental in the resurgence of artisanal cheeses in America, and Picholine (as in olive), his Michelin-starred restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan has been a foodie mecca since the mid-90’s.

In honor of these announcements, this might be a good time to explicate on what makes Gagnaire’s food so fabulous. Click here for my article – written for www.JohnMariani.com – on my meal at Pierre TT (don’t ask me what that funky TT means – a “P”? Pi? A pie? – but’s it’s on all the matchbooks) in Hong Kong. The article is also Part Three of a travelogue I did on my memorable meals in that strange and wonderful city.

Click here and here for Parts One and Two of Eating Hong Kong.

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* As in: excited with merriment and delight

** All prophesies made by ELV come with the Easterbrook Guaruntee: All predictions true or your money back!

Burgers Turn Chic – So Sayeth the New York Times

It must get tiring at the New York Times, always following in ELV’s footsteps. But two days after my sandwich rant, comes not one but two articles in The Paper Of Record about the humble hamburger.

And just when we thought America’s greatest contribution to the food world had taken more hits than Lindsay Lohan on a weekend bender, the Times claims that the American burger is all the rage in Gay* Paree. If you can ignore the mention of Alain Ducasse’s shrimp and squid “burger,” you’ll find the Gallic flouishes to our culinary invention pretty tasty.

In the article, French chefs extol the virtues of hamburgers; one going so far as to call them “…the architecture of taste par excellence,” while expats Daniel Boulud and Laurent Tourondel** laugh when told that they helped the hamburger conquer Paris – admittedly something not that difficult to do.***

Sliding right beside it on the pages of the Times, is this explanation (known to ELV decades ago) about the evolution of the slider, and how every top chef in Manhattan is now on the White Castle bandwagon…..because “…the slider’s appeal is undeniable.” Duh!

Fun Food Fact #1: Vegas was way ahead of New York on this food fad too – because places as diverse as FIX, Simon, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, STACK, Burger Bar, Sierra Gold and Guy Savoy et al have been serving up mini-burgers for years. Fun Food Fact #2: yours truly once ate 22 White Castles in a mano a mano eating contest with a guy who outweighed me by 90 lbs (His name was Pete Schuler and he’s a Public Defender in Louisville, Ky). He ate 24 of the suckers, but I won the symbolic prize by not puking them up as he did.****

Regardless, it’s nice to be lending a hand to those fine folks in New York, and ELV just wants the Food Editors of the NYTimes to know that we will always be here in the High Mojave Desert to show them the way.

And as long as we’re obssessing on New York, hamburgers, and Alan “The Hitman” Richman, you can go here to read about his five favorite burgers in the Big Apple.

One is compelled to ask: When will this summer love-fest of great minds grading grandiose burgers come to an end? Answer: After my next post! Stay tuned.

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* As in: mirthful and joyous

** Two Franco-American faves

*** See: Wars, World I and II

**** Thus was his pyrrhic victory as empty as his stomach.

MARCHE BACCHUS is Decadent, Diabolical and Delicious.

The staff at ELV has never been good at math. That’s why charts and graphs like this one usually frighten and confuse us:

Wine – Vintage – Strip Restaurant Price – MB Restaurant Price

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2007 $75.00 $38.99
Caymus Conundrum 2006 $70.00 $36.99
Dalla Valle Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 $550.00 $204.99
Duckhorn Merlot 2005 $120.00 $65.99
Philippe de Rothschild Rojo Chile 2004 $60.00 $23.99
Finca Luzon Merlot, Jumilla 2003 $30.00 $18.99
Gaja Barbaresco Costa Russi 2000 $795.00 $390.99
George “Nuptial Vineyard” Pinot Noir 2005 $225.00 $89.99
Harlan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 $950.00 $634.99
Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 $110.00 $58.99
Joseph Phelps Insignia 2004 $405.00 $229.99
Row Eleven Pinot Noir 2006 $56.00 $26.99
Shafer “Red Shoulder” Chardonnay 2004 $110.00 $59.99
Stanley Lambert August Shiraz 2004 $59.00 $26.99
Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label NV $110.00 $60.99
Williams & Selyem Pinot Noir 2005 $175.00 $82.99

But even our numeracy-deficient brains can detect a bargain when we see one. And it doesn’t take a mathematical genius like this to decipher that serious wine drinkers (or casual wine drinkers, or first time wine drinkers) can’t do better than the prices at Marche Bacchus. I would even submit that the “Strip” prices quoted above are unduly modest, and that you can easily spend more on those bottles of wine at certain restaurants up and down LVBlvd. So.

Continue reading “MARCHE BACCHUS is Decadent, Diabolical and Delicious.”