From TV anchor to chef, Lorraine Blanco Moss lives a dream
Lorraine Blanco Moss is living a dream: leaping from TV anchor to working in star chef Jose Andres’ kitchen within one year.
The improbable journey began with a question from her husband, sports-talk host Mitch Moss.
“When Mitch had the opportunity to come back to Vegas and work as the lead host at ESPN 1100, he asked me what I would do if money was not an object and I could do anything?
“I didn’t hesitate, ‘I’d go to culinary school, become a chef,’ ” she said.
Her husband’s response: “Then we should look into culinary school.”
Starting in the fall of 2013, she jumped from the pressure cooker world of television to the frying pan.
After relocating from the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, she enrolled in the College of Southern Nevada to pursue the culinary arts.
By February, she landed her first job as a cook at Gallagher’s Steakhouse at New York-New York. She worked with seafood, salads and desserts.
In August, she was hired as a cook at Andres’ Bazaar Meat at SLS Las Vegas, the former Sahara hotel-casino.
She was assigned to the raw meat bar, “where we specialize in tartars, carpaccios and charcuterie, especially Jamon Iberico de bellota, the finest ham in the world.”
Blanco Moss, who had worked as a weekend anchor at KVVU-TV, Channel 5, from 2003 to 2009, said she had enjoyed cooking from an early age while growing up in a multiracial family (Portuguese, Filipino and Spanish).
“I love the science of food, exploring cultures throught international recipes, and I’m a Food Network junkie.”
She added, “It gives me goosebumps when people get that look and make that sound when you make something delicious. Now I get to tell my story with food.”
Frankly, she got burned out on the news business after doing it for a decade.
“I just got tired of the upsetting stories, standing on the side of the road near body bags, investigating missing children and watching family homes burn to the ground,” she said.
Her new world is “so much better than entering someone’s life in his or her worst moment and doing little to make the situation any better; that’s how I felt in the news business.”
Her big break came when someone at CSN mentioned Bazaar Meat was hiring “right when I was looking to move. I applied online and got a call right back.”
It was a great fit, she said, because she wanted to cook at a restaurant that cared about responsible farming and fishing.
“I wanted to grow as a chef under someone who believes in developing his cooks and someone who cares about the world.
“That is Jose Andres took the core, and I am so blessed and grateful for this opportunity especially so early in my cooking career.”
Her two favorite celebrity sightings, so far: seeing baseball star Derek Jeter and chef Ferran Adria (“a genius in modernist cuisine”) enjoying the restaurant.
“It’s an open kitchen, and I could see (Jeter’s) reaction to our dishes. He stayed until we closed so I think he had a good time.”
Adria is “one of the most influential chefs alive, and I got to cook for him. I remember thinking, I started culinary school less than a year ago, and now I’m cooking for Ferran Adria.”
JOE GUERCIO R.I.P.
Joe Guercio, who was Elvis Presley’s musical director and conductor during his Las Vegas years, died Sunday in Nashville, Tenn., his friends confirmed. Guercio was musical director for the International Hotel in Las Vegas when Presley hired him in 1970. He remained in that position until Presley’s death in 1977. He was also musical director for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. It was Guercio’s recommendation that Presley begin his shows with the “Theme from 2001 — A Space Odyssey (Sprach Zarathustra).”
SIGHTINGS
At UFC 182 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden: Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Chuck Liddell, Shane Victorino, Eric Stonestreet, Tori Spelling, Steven Seagal, DJ Avicii, Chuck Zito and RJ Mitte. …
John Legend and his wife, supermodel Chrissy Teigen, dining at Bazaar Meat at SLS before his performance at Foxtail nightclub. At the end of Legend’s concert, Teigen joined the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to Legend, who turned 36 on Dec. 28. …
Didi Conn, who played Frenchie in the movie, “Grease,” reuniting with Olivia Newton-John on stage at the Flamingo on Saturday. Conn wore a “Pink Ladies” jacket during the “Summer Nights” duet that received a standing ovation. …
Floyd Mayweather Jr., with friends at Tao nightclub on Saturday.
THE PUNCH LINE
“A guy in Pennsylvania was arrested because he was drunk in his golf cart going from bar to bar. So they arrested him. I said: ‘Wait a minute. Isn’t that golf?’ ” — David Letterman
Norm Clarke’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more at normclarke.com. Follow @Norm_Clarke on Twitter.