Las Vegas Weekly

July 24, 2008 · 2:38 PM

New awards, new menus, new cookbooks

By Robin Leach

* Star chef Charlie Trotter and his team at the Palazzo restaurant Charlie welcomed chefs Dominique and Cindy Duby to celebrate their newest cookbook, Wild Sweets, Chocolate. More than 120 guests showed as the internationally famous chocolate couple proved their culinary artistry and passion. The chefs presented 25 of their exquisite recipes for specialty chocolates and savory-sweet desserts, such as cherry, ancho truffle, balsamic vinaigrette and crispy bacon, encapsulated in chocolate.

Charlie’s pastry chef, Aaron Lindgren, also prepared a sampling of luxurious dessert samplings, including Japanese eel with grapefruit and battera kombu and diver sea scallops with preserved kumquats and Thai chili.

Photo: Dos Caminos

A dish from the Palazzo's Mexican Dos Caminos restaurant, from executive chef Scott Linquist.

* Summer has arrived with a mix of new menu items at the Palazzo’s modern Mexican Dos Caminos restaurant from executive chef Scott Linquist.

Highlighting seasonally available ingredients, the new starter offerings feature crispy soft-shell crab taco rollitos with pickled red cabbage; avocado and jalapeno remoulade; a hamachi ceviche with citrus and achiote marinade; habanero and epazote; as well as a shrimp aguachile with cucumber lime marinade, serrano chili, mint and cilantro. The new entrees are lamb adobado, adobo marinated slow roasted lamb loin, lamb barbacoa in mixiote over mint rice with cumin-glazed carrots and jalapeno mint salsita; chicken tinga tacos en cazuela -- a half chicken cooked in a cast-iron skillet with a sweet and sour chipotle sauce, served with Mexico City-style corn on the cob, frijoles charros, spicy cabbage slaw and homemade corn tortillas. Rounding out the main course additions are the seared, big-eye tuna with quinoa salad, heirloom tomato pico de gallo and an avocado vinaigrette. Make sure you cool off with the Watermelon Paloma, concocted with fresh watermelon, Milagro Blanco tequila and finished with a spritz of grapefruit soda. The Mexico City Mule combines Absolut Ruby Red with ginger puree and lime wedges. It is topped with guava Jarritos, while the Tropica features a pineapple sorrel salad and Herradura Reposado.

* Incidentally, mark it in your diary right now: More than 30 eateries and eight James Beard-award winning chefs at the Venetian and the Palazzo team up on Aug. 30 and 31 for the first Carnival of Cuisine, which will become an annual affair. Charlie Trotter will serve up sensational seafood, Mario Batali with his imaginative Italian, Wolfgang Puck’s crowd-pleasing creations, dazzling dishes from Emeril Lagasse and the fabulous French food of Thomas Keller. It’s a three-hour feast, starting at noon on both days. The ticket is only $50 per day -- and where else in the world other than Vegas can you grab all those tasty treats from all those chefs for such a low price? Run, don’t walk, to buy advance tickets now!

* Every month, quietly, for the past three years, the Epicurean Charitable Foundation has worked alongside the Nevada Cancer Institute to host more than 30 guest chef events to support patients, caregivers, physicians, researchers and staff. Chefs and staff from our finest Vegas restaurants prepare and serve the meal, and this month it was the turn of Golden Gaming, featuring a Hawaiian theme complete with leis and dancers -- along with a delicious Hawaiian pork barbecue.

* Congratulations to our friends at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Caesars Palace for winning the prestigious Wine Spectator magazine’s Grand Award. It is one of only five Vegas eateries to receive the international honor, bestowed on restaurants in more than 50 worldwide countries. Celebrated chef Guy Savoy and his son, managing director Franck Savoy, oversee a wine cellar in excess of 2,000 selections. More than 4,000 restaurants were reviewed this year and Guy Savoy was one of 73 earning the top honor recognition. Winners will be listed in the Aug. 31 issue.

* Our hometown chocolate factory, Ethel’s, out in Henderson is running a contest to find four winning residents to design original artwork to be stamped onto limited edition chocolates. There will be 24 chocolates per gift box, this coming Oct. 15 through year’s end. The winners each receive $1,000 and 10 percent of the proceeds from their “designer” chocolates will go to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity as part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The deadline to submit original artwork to any local Ethel’s chocolate lounge or online at www.ethelschocolate.com is next Thursday.

* Former Vegas chef Bryan Ogden -- last at Company in the Luxor -- will open his very own first restaurant, Apple, in Los Angeles next month. The son of Caesars Palace restaurant owner Bradley Ogden, Bryan honed his craft there and has worked with such Vegas star chefs as Charlie Trotter and Michael Mina. He is joined by advanced sommelier Mark Heftner, who most recently created the wine lists for Le Cirque and Osteria del Circo at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

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