Though coastal city snobs can continue to sneer, few if any cities can come near to rivaling the chef star power that is available in Las Vegas, where over the past 15 years, a fine food scene of remarkable breadth, depth and sheer volume has been gathered at the major resorts—and increasingly off-Strip, too. And the best representation of that scene, the best assemblage and celebration, remains Vegas Uncork’d by bon appetit.

Food festivals touting Star Chef appearances are nothing uncommon these days—they take place seemingly everywhere from Aspen to the Bahamas—but in Vegas, they like to do things a little bigger. Which is why Bon Appetit’s fourth “Vegas Uncork’d” fest (up and down the Strip May 6-9, 2010) not only featured healthy quotients of local and [...]

Chefs

Mark Andelbradt, Paul Bartolotta, Geno Bernardo, Osamu Fujita, Martin Heierling, Jean Joho, Emeril Lagasse, Scott Linquist, Shawn McClain, Michael Mina, Rick Moonen, Bradley Ogden, François Payard, Luciano Pellegrini, Guy Savoy, Kerry Simon, Alex Stratta, Masa Takayama, Charlie Trotter, Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Actors, Directors and Personalities
Ben Affleck, Jessica Alba, Alison Anders, Greg Araki, Samaire Armstrong (Entourage, Dirty Sexy Money), [...]

Las Vegas has no shortage of Star Chef restaurants, and I’ve been extremely fortunate to have experienced many of them.

Here are three that deserve their high marks, Bellagio’s
Michael Mina, Tom Collicchio’s Craftsteak, and Rick Moonen’s RM Seafoood
(click each to download PDFs).
Here’s a cute Q&A with Wolfgang Puck,
and a more serious interview with Eiffel Tower/Everest Chef [...]