Category: Interviews

Grace Bascos On New York Radio

And speaking of attractive food writers….Las Vegas freelancer Grace (The Filipino Flash) Bascos was interviewed on WOR Radio in New York this week — by Arthur (Mr. Buffet ) Frommer, and his daughter Pauline. He was more interested in asking about the cost of everything, but Bascos, does an admirable job of mentioning our town’s multitude of culinary offerings — from L’Atelier to the Aureole wine tower to the small bites at RAKU to the boring buffets Arthur was obsessing on. Here’s the link to her interview. Scroll down the right side of the page to the “Travel” segments of the program, and listen in.

Way to go Bascos!

GIORGIO RISTORANTE…and Piero Selvaggio

When Piero Selvaggio first opened Valentino in Santa Monica in 1972, he will tell you he knew very little about Italian food and absolutely nothing about Italian wine. By the time he and Chef Luciano Pellegrini opened Valentino in The Venetian nine years ago, ELV (and many others) will tell you he was widely considered the best Italian restaurateur in America, and that probably no one, outside of Italy, knows more about Italian wine.

Selvaggio’s personal and professional pilgrimage began on the southeastern coast of Sicily. He and his family moved to Brooklyn in 1963, and six years later, he was a very young man with a lot of ambition and no prospects. So where did he head? Well, to Las Vegas of course! Yes, even in 1969 it seems Vegas was the land of plenty for expatriates and nomads looking to make their mark on the world. As the French would say: plus la change, plus la meme chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same).

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Larry Forgione Makes Vegas An American Place

He calls himself one of the Dirty Dozen — along with Jimmy Schmidt, Jeremiah Tower, Jonathan Waxman, Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, Paul Prudhomme, Mark Miller, Bradley Ogden, Charley Trotter, Michel Richard, and last but not least Jean-Louis Palladin — chefs who forever changed America’s eating habits. In no small way, every time you pick up some fresh ginger root or raddichio at the supermarket, you owe a quiet ‘thank you’ to this group.

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