Las Vegas Weekly

September 30, 2008 · 4:29 PM

Moguls battle at auction over $340,000 world’s best chefs private dinner

By Robin Leach

Wolfgang Puck and his famous culinary friends.

Photo: TVT

It was an all -- out bidding war between two prominent Vegas high rollers as they fought to win a one and once-only dinner with seven of the worlds best chefs! I was at the mic handling the auction chores after introducing the lineup of kitchen kings who volunteered to cook an eight-course dinner with paired wines for the winner and 29 other guests!

Photo: TVT

Wolf and Nobu.

The culinary stars were Vegas heroes Wolfgang Puck (Spago Las Vegas), Joel Robuchon (L’Atelier -- MGM), Nobu Matsuhisa (Nobu-Hard Rock Hotel) New Yorkers Eric Ripert and Daniel Humm, Sam Mason and Spain’s great Jose Andres who will be opening his new restaurant in the Sam Nazarian SLS Hotel in November. He told me that might also be added to Nazarian’s lineup of new restaurants planned for his Sahara here on the Strip.

I started at $25,000 and we were at the $100,000 mark within one minute. We held our collective breaths as we hit $150,000, then $160,000, then $165,000 and then we slowed at $170,000. Would it hit $175,000 or even $200,000 to set a new per chef world record?

Photo: TVT

Wolf and Nobu.

(Steve Wynn still holds that distinction with his $1 million bid I auctioned for the world’s top ten chefs at our Keep Memory Alive gala that he used for his opening night of Wynn) It was the night before the 777 meltdown on Wall Street. Would there be enough money during these awful financial times to go higher?

I got the $175,000 bid -– and the dueling stopped! How could we ignore the two $170,000 bids? I begged the chefs and they broke out in a United Nations frenzy of French, Austrian, Spanish and English conversations about traveling twice, staffing and cooking twice. In the end Wolfgang and Joel Robuchon shook hands and said, “Yes- we’ll do it twice,” – and the Meals on Wheels charity benefited with the $340,000 haul!! Incredible! Fantastic!

Photo: TVT

Wolf, chefs, and Robin Leach.

The meal they served at the 9th annual Chefs Grand Tasting dinner was a magnificent masterpiece. Pure brilliance from start to finish, especially the mozzarella triple-spots that took two of Rubochon’s kitchen team two 12-hour days to prepare!!!!! MGM executives in from Vegas were as blown away as the other party people.

Their dinner was the highlight of a three-day weekend known as the 25th annual American Wine & Food Festival. It began on the first night at Wolfgang’s new Red Seven restaurant at the Pacific Design Center and continued on the 2nd night at the backlot of Universal Studios. Wolf, Nobu and Jose kicked it off with a private cooking demonstration for some VIP high-roller supporters where I even sold off their cooktop afterwards for another $2,000!

About 100 winemakers were joined by more than 50 celebrity chefs from across America, including many from Vegas, for the event which attracted a record number of almost 2,800 focused food fans! Among our Strip stars were Wolfgang’s Vegas managing partners Tom Kaplan and David Robins and chefs Eric Klein from Spago in Caesars Palace, Matthew Hurley from CUT in the Palazzo, Luciano Pellegrini from Valentino at the Venetian, Nobu Matsuhisa from Nobu at the Hard Rock Hotel, Roy Yamaguchi from his two self-named Roy’s restaurants here, Julian Serrano from Picasso at the Bellagio, Michael Mina from Bellagio, MGM and Mandalay Bay -– about to open his new and first LA restaurant 14, on the Sunset Strip -- Alessandro Stratta and Jenifer Fournier from Alex at the Wynn, Joachim Splichal from Patina at the Venetian, David Walzog from SW Steakhouse at the Wynn, and Joachim Splichal from Patina at the Venetian.

Before I flew back to Vegas, Wolf told me he thought the weekend had raised a record $2 million for the Meals on Wheels charity -– and that next year he planned to make it an even bigger event!

— From Vegas Deluxe

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