Chef creates healthy menu

Inside the clubhouse of the DragonRidge County Club located in the master-planned community of MacDonald Highlands, there are three private restaurants and a public banquet facility that are making changes to their meals and menus.

"I am pleased to announce that DragonRidge is the first and only company to have all of our restaurants go completely organic in its food preparation," said Rich MacDonald, developer of MacDonald Highlands.

"We have wanted to accomplish this for some time and our chef has put it all together with terrific menus for our members."

The culinary program is directed by executive chef Pete Ghione who has a background as an executive chef for Harrah's Entertainment for the Rio All-Suite Hotel and assistant executive chef for Caesars Palace. Ghione was also a Silver Medalist with Team Las Vegas in the 2004 Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany.

At DragonRidge Country Club, Ghione has made a commitment to its members to use all natural and organic foods on his menus in all venues at the club.

By offering meals made with all natural and organic ingredients, those dining at the club can reduce and eliminate the amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides ingested on a daily basis enabling the body to detoxify from the years of consumption of conventionally grown and raised foods.

Chef Ghione is also focusing his efforts to reduce the club's footprint on the environment.

From farm to landfills, the food service industry creates 31 percent of the worlds' greenhouse gases, which includes the machines used to farm the fields, the chemical facilities that manufacture plastic cups and fertilizers as well as the emissions from boats, planes and trucks used to transport food.

The answer to help with these problems for MacDonald Highlands is to use local produce, bio-degradable alternatives and the chef's dream -- building an on-site greenhouse to grow his own vegetables with its own organic compost, reducing the amount of waste going to local landfills, the need for the production of chemicals and reducing transportation pollution.

Ghione has teamed up with Elite MedSpa to take the benefits of eating healthy ingredients to a higher level.

Elite MedSpa nutritionist, Christina Afentoulis, has worked with Ghione to create a low-glycemic platform to aid in weight loss and a balanced cuisine.

DragonRidge Country Club is a private, 18-hole golf course with its fairways, greens and tee boxes sculpted and carved by famed designers Jay Moorish and David Druzisky who placed the golf course back into the canyons.

The clubhouse, built of stone and glass, features a gourmet steak house with views of the Las Vegas Strip, two mixed grills and lounges, The Grand Highlands Ballroom, a new 14,000-square-foot fitness center, swimming pool, children's pool and extensive golf pro shop.

Soon to be home at DragonRidge is Nevada's only Jack Nicklaus Academy of Golf. Scheduled to open this spring, the academy is the leading provider of golf instruction in the world. Private golf membership to DragonRidge Country Club is limited.

For information about the clubhouse and the community, call DragonRidge Country Club at 614-4444.