The recipe for celebrity chef culture is equal parts food, spectacle, excess, hype and fun. So it’s no surprise that Las Vegas is where celebrity chefs will gather for Bon Appetit’s food festival, Vegas Uncork’d (May 8-11).
Food Network luminary Giada De Laurentiis, ready to open her first-ever restaurant at the new Cromwell luxury boutique hotel/casino, will cook during Uncork’d alongside Bobby Flay at Caesars Palace’s Mesa Grill on May 8. Flay himself has added another restaurant to Vegas with the recent opening of Bobby’s Burger Palace in The Shops at Crystals.
Uncork’d will mark Daniel Boulud’s Vegas return with an event at his new DB Brasserie in the Venetian earlier in the day. And things could get raucous as revelers close out a night of culinary shenanigans at the Burgers, Beer and Boozy Shakes afterparty inside Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s new B&B Burger & Beer also at the Venetian. On Friday, events include a baking demo from “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro, who recently teamed up with local restaurant powerhouse Elizabeth Blau to open up Buddy V’s Ristorante at the Grand Canal Shoppes.
Uncork’d is just a preview of a delicious Vegas summer ahead. Here’s a taste of what to expect.
Eat
Vegas’ new hotness kicks off at Monte Carlo’s Yusho from veteran Chicago chef Matthias Merges. Here, Japanese street food meets refined cooking in dishes from yakitori duck breast to grilled shrimp ramen to charred eggplant buns and twice-fried chicken. The Rose. Rabbit. Lie. supper club at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is where you can indulge in large-format cocktail flasks and rare champagnes while eating crispy oysters Rockefeller and short rib stroganoff as you take in a cabaret show. Resilient rock star chef Kerry Simon, not letting his wheelchair-bound battle with multiple system atrophy slow him down, will serve short-rib sliders and “Devil’s Eggs” with pancetta and caviar at his new Carson Kitchen downtown. Wynn Las Vegas’ renovations of Italian seafood palace Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare and Chinese fine-dining destination Wing Lei have freshened up the look of two of the Strip’s finest restaurants.
See and play
Britney Spears does it again and again at her new residency at Planet Hollywood while Bruno Mars’ extended Cosmopolitan engagement includes May and August dates. Cirque du Soleil has added to its empire with the glorious Michael Jackson ONE at Mandalay Bay. Over at Steve Wynn’s XS and Encore Beach Club, the one-two nightlife/daylife punch heralds new DJs that include Zedd and DJ Snake. Marquee at the Cosmopolitan counters with a new roster featuring the likes of Cedric Gervais and Jamie Jones while Hakkasan at MGM Grand adds Deep Dish and Afrojack to its stacked summer lineup. If bars and live bands are more your thing, there’s an 80,000-square-foot outpost of bowling/music venue Brooklyn Bowl (more than three times as large as the Williamsburg original). Bands there this summer include Spoon and the Avett Brothers.
Stay
New kid the Cromwell — the former Bills’ Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon — may have rooms evoking Parisian lofts, but the 40,000-square-foot casino is all Vegas (from $229; thecromwell.com). Its Giada restaurant will tempt with fresh pastas from an open kitchen, along with an antipasto bar and signature dishes such as marsala herb chicken meatballs — plus views of Bellagio’s famous fountain show. But the biggest splash at this 188-room property will likely be party impresario Victor Drai’s 65,000-square-foot rooftop nightclub/beach club.