Eat This Now – Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad at SAGE

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Everyone who knows ELV knows he hates beets.

Because they taste like dirt.

Unless they’re pickled.

In which case they taste like pickled dirt.

Another reason we hate beets is because they’re actually quite pretty and look like they might actually taste a lot better than they do.

So beets both lie to you and taste nasty…in other words, they’re a double whammy of awfulness. Sort of the American Idol and Jersey Shore of edible eats.

But chefs love beets.

And they really love beets this time of year.

They love them because they are cheap and plentiful.

And they’re cheap and plentiful because they taste like dirt.

But you know what? Being a critic and all, we feel a certain moral obligation to constantly try whatever hideous beet concoction chefs are throwing at us. As a result, we order beets all the time. Even though we hate them.

And it was by following this moral obligation that we encountered Shawn McClain’s very beet-y but beauteous salad at SAGE some time ago.

And we actually like it.

Sort of.

Just thought you’d like to know.

One Cool Cake for One Cool Dude

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Jackie Gaughan, Downtown Vegas Icon, celebrated his 90th birthday on October 24th, but ELV’s staff has been so busy with its usual sybaritic pursuits that we forgot to officially wish him a happy one….and post these snaps of one über-cool cake (made by the Luxor pastry chefs as a tribute to him and his operation of the El Cortez hotel since 1963).

Some fun facts about the El Cortez:

> It is the only hotel and casino in Vegas never to have changed its facade (as in: get a facelift).

> It had 59 rooms when it opened.

> When it opened in 1941, it was considered to be too far out of town to be profitable.

> The hotel’s signage is also original.

> Between the months of October and May, it has the best Florida stone crabs in town…at the best price. (Fridays and Saturdays only)

El Cortez
Address 600 East Fremont Street
Las Vegas, Nevada 89101
Opening date 1941
Theme Ranch
No. of rooms 364
Total gaming space 45,300 sq ft (4,210 m2)
Casino type Land-Based
Owner Jackie Gaughan
Previous names none
Years renovated 1963, 1980, 2006, 2008
Website www.elcortezh

One über-cool cake befits one über-cool dude…so Jackie, these two are for YOU!

A Day with Joel, Guy, a Hottie and a Hare

Life is so brief that we should not glance either too far backwards or forwards…therefore study how to fix our happiness in our glass and on our plate – Grimod de la Reyniere

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It’s no secret that ELV is an inveterate Francophile. Since the days of Thomas Jefferson, it has been French food, French restaurants, and most especially French chefs who have led America out of its uncouth culinary youth and into the promised land of good eating. China may be the greatest of all world cuisines, but it is French technique and savoir faire that have been most responsible for Americans eating well.

Because of this, as just about every food fan in Vegas knows, we’ve been in sauté/cassoulet/à votre santé heaven over the last five years — ever since Joël (as in Robuchon) and Guy (as in Savoy) planted their flags on our soil. And if you’ll forgive us a bit of local pride, neither New York nor Chicago nor L.A. nor ‘Frisco has seduced these luminaries (along with paisans Pierre Gagnaire and Alain Ducasse), the way our humble burg has.

It’s all about money of course — 38 million mouths are more tempting than the cut-throat, small bore Manhattan restaurant scene, or San Francisco’s provincial one — but because the crème de la crème are here and not there, the baseline for great cooking in the High Mojave has been forever raised and spoiled us for anything that doesn’t measure up.

To such thoughts did ELV’s mind wander as he appeared at the Fox 5 studios to watch Robuchon give his first Las Vegas TV interview (and one of the few interviews he’s ever done in America) recently. Besides kibbitzing with him, and James Beard Southwest Chef of the Year Claude Le Tohic, and G.M. Emmanuel Cornet, we got to hang with Fox 5’s foxy Rachel Smith:

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(KVVU’s resident foodie), and hear Joël compliment our book and thank us for being such big supporters of Vegas’ French Foodie Revolution. To which we could only reply de rien, Mon. Robuchon.

From hobnobbing with JR, it was only a short stroll over to Restaurant Guy Savoy for its autumn menu, featuring lièvre à la royale (wild hare fit for a king). Waverly Root defines this hare-raising dish as a creation from the Limousin (Central Plateau) area of France. It is a dish so famous that in the eighteenth century, a special terrine/earthenware dish was invented for it. (If you’ve ever seen those oval-shaped, rabbit-covered terrines in Williams-Sonoma, you get the idea.) Root says: “Its chief distinction was its stuffing, into which went the liver, heart and lungs of the hare, hashed up together; cooked with goose foie gras; fat pork; bread crumbs soaked in bouillon; chopped onions previously cooked in butter, chopped truffles and parsley; a little garlic and hare’s blood.”

That blood (and those lungs, heart and liver), give this dish a wild, gamy funk that is one of the most unique in gastronomy. It is not for the faint of heart…or hare…but is one of those essential dishes to try if you ever want to establish your gourmet bona fides, or cross swords, or stubby fingers with the likes of Reyniere. Super-somm Phil Park matched it perfectly with a La Chappelle (no relation to Dave) de la Mission Haut-Brion (’99) — that, like that wabbit, had a finish so long we’re still tasting it.

ELV left a $95 tip on his comped meal that would’ve been a Benjamin if he hadn’t needed an Abe for the valet.

RESTAURANT GUY SAVOY

In Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino

3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.731.7286

www.guysavoy.com