Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CULINARY ADVENTURE: Famous Faces

New book shares stories, recipes from city's top chefs

Chef Andre Rochat's restaurant empire has grown from Andre's French Restaurant downtown to Andre's at Monte Carlo, Mistral at the Las Vegas Hilton and Alize at the Palms. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Chef Wolfgang Puck is credited with kicking off the celebrity chef interest in Las Vegas as a fine dining destination. COURTESY PHOTO Michael and Wendy Jordan enjoy success with their Rosemary's Restaurant on West Sahara Avenue. Photo by Jeff Scheid. "Personal Favorites, The Chefs of Las Vegas" is by Heidi Knapp Rinella.

A culinary tour of Las Vegas does not have to be laden with calories. You can meet up with top chefs and sample some of their recipes in "Personal Favorites, The Chefs of Las Vegas," by Heidi Knapp Rinella, the Review-Journal's restaurant critic and food columnist.

The book is published by Stephens Press, which is owned by the Review-Journal's parent company, Stephens Media Group. It is a comprehensive look at the infusion of cooking talent into Las Vegas that began in 1992, when celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck staked his claim by opening Spago at the Forum Shops at Caesars.

In the decade-plus that followed, an array of chefs set up shop. Twelve of them are included in the book, such as Tom Colicchio of Craftsteak, Todd English of Olives and Julian Serrano of Picasso.

"I just tried to mix it up," Rinella says of the chefs selected. "It's people who had made their names here and people who had made their names elsewhere." Two female chefs are included -- Cindy Hutson of Ortanique and Wendy Jordan, who with her husband Michael owns Rosemary's Restaurant. A range of cuisines, also, are represented.

"Personal Favorites" opens with Andre Rochat, who many believe introduced gourmet cooking to Las Vegas when he opened Andre's French Restaurant on South Sixth Street in 1980, well before the wave that Puck launched.

Rochat faced a challenge: to educate a nongourmet audience. "When I opened this place in 1980," he told the author, "I had the largest wine list in town. People would come and have highballs with dinner." Today, Rochat has three other Las Vegas restaurants: Andre's at Monte Carlo, Alize at the Palms and Mistral at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Rosemary's Restaurant is another example of chefs who chose Las Vegas as the place to build their reputations. The Jordans opened Rosemary's in 1999, thanks to a single loyal but powerful diner who knew Michael from his previous work with Emeril Lagasse. The diner had connections to help them get bank financing. Within eight months of opening, the Jordans were able to expand Rosemary's.

The chef biographies contain surprises -- Rochat and Marc Poidevin both served in the French military; Jay Hamada danced on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

The recipes contain surprises, too.

"Not until I was in the proofing stages did this strike me, that the recipes they chose are indicative of their personalities," Rinella says. "Maybe the more flamboyant ones have more flamboyant recipes. The more pragmatic ones realized they needed to do this for a home cook."

The author cites Todd English as one of the more pragmatic chefs, and his recipes are reflective of that. For simplicity of style, she names Hutson -- whom Rinella points out, had to be dragged "almost kicking and screaming" into the culinary world, from her previous and satisfying occupation as a fishing guide operating out of Miami.

For a specific example of a recipe surprise, Rinella points to an idea from chef Michael Mina, whose Las Vegas restaurants are Nobhill, Michael Mina Bellagio and Seablue. The book offers a Mina menu of seared scallops with watercress salad and white corn pudding. The genius of the pudding is that it is purely corn juice, with no additives. "The corn will inherently thicken. It's just corn juice that's been heated," she notes.

Rinella, 48, a Henderson resident who has been a journalist for more than 25 years, also is the author of four other books, all travel-related titles that deal with Las Vegas and Nevada.

But food is a longtime interest of hers. She credits her parents for fostering an "adventurous spirit with their ... willingness to try offbeat foods well before it was fashionable," she writes in the book acknowledgements.

"That was still the Chef Boyardee era, basically. People didn't try unusual foods," she says.

"Personal Favorites" does not give an exhaustive roster of Las Vegas chefs because so many are continuing to locate in Las Vegas, Rinella is the first to admit. Among those she would like to include in a future volume are Lagasse, who has restaurants at the MGM Grand and The Venetian; Alain Ducasse, whose Mix is at Mandalay Bay; Bobby Flay of the Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace; and Thomas Keller of Bouchon at The Venetian.

A book signing for "Personal Favorites" is set from noon to 3 p.m. Jan. 22 at Sur La Table in Desert Passage, 3663 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

Here is a recipe from Todd English that is included the book.

HALIBUT WITH

ARTICHOKE CRUST

For artichoke crust:

6 fresh, frozen or canned artichoke bottoms

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

3 garlic cloves

1/4 cup nonfat buttermilk or yogurt

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons plain bread crumbs

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For halibut:

4 halibut fillets, 6 ounces each

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

12 baby artichokes or 2 tablespoons bread crumbs (baby artichokes must be thinly sliced through the heart)

To make the artichoke crust, place the artichoke bottoms, thyme, garlic, buttermilk or yogurt, mustard, bread crumbs, salt and pepper in food processor fitted with steel blade, and process until smooth.

For the halibut, sprinkle the fillets with salt and pepper. Divide artichoke crust mix into 4 portions and place dollops on the top side only (nonskin side) of the halibut fillets. Pat down to form a crust. Cover artichoke crust with artichoke slices or remaining bread crumbs.

Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add fillets, skin side down. Cook until skin is crispy, about 2 minutes. Transfer to oven (prewarmed to 350 degrees) and bake until halibut is rare, about 10 minutes.

Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

-- Recipe from Todd English of Olives