Crazy Canadians and Fraidy-Cat Asians Anticipate Vegas Uncork’d

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Crazy Canadian acrobats and slightly-frightened Asians are beginning to go b0nkers over this year’s Vegas Uncork’d by Bon Appetit.

Perhaps because they know a certain event — Culinary Conversations with a certain someone and his co-authors — will be both stimulating and delicious.

Topics will include:

> The ins and outs of restaurant criticism;

> What’s hot (and what’s not) on the Vegas restaurant scene;

> Who’s hot (and who’s jumped the shark) in our humble burg;

> The food fights behind EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50 Essential Restaurants;

> Insider tips on how to tackle the Vegas eating scene when money is no object (and when it is), and finally;

> Critiquing the critics, i.e. how to judge them, what to look for in a good one…and their dirty little secrets/tricks of the trade.

Be there for the delicious dish, but please remember to turn your cellphones off…lest you feel compelled to uncontrollably chat in pidgin Chinese whilst reminding your relatives there’s only 44 days to go!

Eataly for Everyone: HOW ITALIAN FOOD CONQUERED THE WORLD

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How do you go from being an obscurity, to a novelty, to a stereotype, to king of the world? It wasn’t easy, but, in the case of the cuisines of Italy, it did happen relatively quickly (50 years, give or take a decade), and the road it traveled makes for some mighty delicious reading in John Mariani’s How Italian Food Conquered The World (Palgrave MacMillan 2011).

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JALEO is Happenin’

ELV note: This article appears in today’s Las Vegas Weekly, and you can access the original by clicking on the title below.

In Jose Andres’ hands, small plates get big treatment

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One need look no further than the crowds at Jaleo in the Cosmopolitan any night of the week to see that this casual, small-plates, share-and-share-alike restaurant has captured the zeitgeist of how people are eating out these days. Traditional three-course meals might still have their place, but communal dining, Spanish-style, is about as hot as it gets, and no chef is hotter that José Andrés. Which means no restaurant in Vegas is busier right now than Jaleo (HA-lay-o = merriment and/or festivity in Spanish).

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