Cheftimony Episode 011 – A Return to the Desert
Congratulations on finding your way to the final episode of Season 1 of the Cheftimony podcast! Soon the whole of the Season 1 will be available on iTunes and elsewhere, so please stay in touch here and on Instagram and Facebook, and you’ll know where and when you can download any episode you like.
Episode 011 brings you two interviews from Las Vegas, Nevada. The first is with my friend Matthew Fleisher, Pastry Chef at the incredible Picasso restaurant in the Bellagio Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Bellagio is the 1998 mega-resort opened on property formerly occupied by the classic Dunes Hotel and Casino. The Bellagio cost $1.6 billion to build, making it the most expensive hotel in the world at the time. The resort’s arrival continued an important shift in Las Vegas. Starting with the Mirage property that had opened almost a decade earlier, the Vegas Strip began to focus very thoughtfully on things other than gambling. New offerings included very good food - legitimately world-class food, which was a definite change from the Vegas of old.
When it opened, the Bellagio included – and still does, 20 years later – the delicious and beautiful Picasso. To helm the kitchen at Picasso, the resort brought Chef Julian Serrano to Las Vegas from San Francisco, where he was the long-serving Executive Chef at that city’s famed Masa’s Wine Bar & Kitchen. At Picasso in the Bellagio, Chef Serrano and his team have for twenty years combined Spanish influences with French cuisine and they serve it in a truly impressive setting, a gorgeous room adorned with original works of Picasso.
I’ve been lucky enough to be in the kitchen at Picasso twice, and that space impresses. I’ve been even more lucky to spend time in that kitchen learning from Matt Fleisher. Matt has been at Picasso almost as long as it’s been around, and he’s the man behind the team that puts out the restaurant’s consistently amazing desserts. As you’ll hear in our interview, Matt got his start in the culinary world (after time as a diamond courier!) with a Canadian company called Earl’s. But soon on in his career, Matt found himself in Las Vegas, and very soon in the pastry world at Picasso. And it’s at Picasso that Matt puts his heart and many, MANY hours into his work. But for all his time in one of the top restaurants in Las Vegas and indeed the whole of the US, Matt is also very down to earth, as you can tell from his answer to my question about good places to eat in Las Vegas…!
After my talk with Matt, I moved from the Strip to Downtown Las Vegas to meet up with another friend, Scott Roeben. Scott is the founder of Vital Vegas which includes the Vital Vegas Podcast, the Vital Vegas Blog and the very informative Vital Vegas twitter account. All of Scott’s content is fun, it’s intentionally smart-ass, and it’s a reliable source for the latest on Las Vegas, including the city’s culinary scene. Scott, smart-ass notwithstanding, is also a very friendly and helpful guy who really took the time to answer my questions about podcasting and to encourage me to get started.
Scott and I met up at the Four Queens casino on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, so you’re going to hear the glorious sound of slot machines in the background. In fact, Scott was gambling throughout our interview, playing the popular Wheel of Fortune slot machine.After our interview, Scott and I did some simultaneous gambling on two machines he refers to collectively as Old Faithful. To hear how THAT went, head on over to Episode 91 of the Vital Vegas podcast. Scott recorded the whole amusing event. Beyond the topics of gambling and whether Las Vegas remains a value proposition for travelers, Scott pointed me to some great places to eat.
Downtown, you’ll want to look into Pizza Rock, Therapy, Carson Kitchen, Wana Taco (for, interestingly, the “best hotdog downtown”) and – if you want a place where the waiter has prepared the table-side salad close to a quarter MILLION times, the legendary Hugo’s Cellar. On the Strip, Scott likes STK at The Cosmopolitan and Cleo at SLS. Just off the Strip, Scott pointed me to the budget-friendly Ellis Island Casino for its BBQ. Making sure to cover as much of Sin City as possible, Scott even had a pick for the Arts District (between Downtown and the Strip), the relative newcomer, Esther’s Kitchen. And for true Las Vegas insider tips, Scott also shares locations for free (well, “free”) cookies on the Las Vegas Strip and – I kid you not - the best hamburger at a Nevada brothel.
Season 2 of the Cheftimony podcast is coming up soon. For now, though, it’s time to get back to Vegas!