Travel

Fired up about paella

José Andrés has strong feelings about paella Valenciana. Two proteins are allowed. “It’s rabbit and chicken, that’s it,” he insists. As for those who want other meat or seafood, “This is not a pizza,” the Spanish chef playfully shouted at the crowd during the just concluded Vegas Uncork‘d by Bon Appétit food festival. “If you want that, go to an Italian restaurant!” Even chorizo, the spicy Spanish sausage that some eaters like us would request for our last meal, is off-limits.

We learned all this at an Andrés-hosted paella lunch at his Jaleo eatery (the country’s only restaurant with a wood-fired paella grill) at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. But another highlight of Vegas Uncork’d was a reminder that not everyone agrees with Andrés’ hard line on paella.

The night before, we were at the Follow That Food Truck party at Bellagio. In addition to local trucks, Bellagio chefs including Todd English and Jean-Georges Vongerichten were busy plating food. But the winner of the night, both in terms of efficiency and crowd-pleasing, was Julian Serrano. He offered huge pans of paella, with so many chunks of sausage (!), and let the crowd serve itself. Put it another way: ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT-PAELLA. Many went back for seconds and thirds.

The next night was the grand tasting, which brought many of the city’s most famous chefs to Caesars Palace’s Garden of the Gods pool area. Nobu Matsuhisa was there promoting his new Nobu boutique hotel at Caesars, which should open this year. Gordon Ramsay was in town for his newly opened Gordon Ramsay Steak at the Paris resort. (Ramsay also bounced around the Strip, including a stop at the Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Pool for Snow Patrol’s concert.) That restaurant, where we sampled Ramsay’s spot-on beef Wellington and irresistible sticky toffee pudding at a gathering after the grand tasting, should add a lot of joie de vivre to an often overlooked hotel on the heart of the Vegas Strip. And the cocktail menu, with selections available via iPad, is playful and solid. The HK Antioxidant with VeeV Acai Spirit, lemons and blueberries should be a lovely summer drink.

While that was light and refreshing, many of our favorite bites at both the truck bash and the grand tasting skewed heavy. Even though the city’s famed Fukuburger truck wasn’t on site, the local food trucks represented well. We especially liked Haulin Balls’ chicken-curry meatball and both the poutine and the jerk shrimp from Lola D’s Kitchen. Ben’s BBQ & Smokehouse served impressively smoky brisket. And Sausagefest’s Longanisa with jalapenos was just the right mix of meat and heat.

We found even better sausage at the grand tasting’s Rao’s table, where Dino Gatto, executive chef of the New York flagship, served fantastic sausage and peppers. (Reminder: For those of you with no shot of getting into Gatto’s New York restaurant, you can get the sausage, the lemon chicken and all the Rao’s red-sauce classics at the accessible Caesars outpost.) The Cosmopolitan’s Scott Conant, still sporting a surplus of facial hair as he held court with fans of his Scarpetta and D.O.C.G. restaurants all weekend, offered his famous creamy polenta with a fricassee of truffled mushrooms at the grand tasting. Kerry Simon served sliders from KGB, his Harrah’s burger joint. And our last savory bite at the grand tasting was perhaps the night’s most satisfying: The cheesesteak sandwich from Steve Martorano of the Rio’s Cafe Martorano was a perfect ending before we moved on to dessert including Joe’s Stone Crab at the Forum Shops’ excellent key-lime push-up pop.

Strip shows

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas keeps getting hipper. The resort is kicking off its Thursday Live indie-rock concert series this week with Dr. Dog. The poolside shows are already booked through September; Fun (riding the success of its chart-topping “We Are Young,” featuring Janelle Monae) plays Aug. 16.

The Cosmopolitan has also just started its free Monday Dive-In Movie night, with films broadcast on the Boulevard Pool’s huge marquee. “Top Gun,” “Billy Madison,” The Social Network” and “The Great Gatsby” are on the calendar.