Las Vegas Weekly

April 29, 2009 · 8:22 AM

Photo Gallery: Savoring epicurean excellence and mushroom madness

By Robin Leach

Kerry Simon.

Photo: TVT

More than 100 of the best chefs, restaurants and bars throughout Las Vegas turned out for the 19th Annual Epicurean Affair held for the fourth consecutive year at the Flamingo. It was a night when great food and drinks and happy people enjoyed the best of Las Vegas cuisine and once again proved that our city has become one of the finest dining destinations in the world.

Our contributing photographer Erik Kabik had no time to enjoy the taste treats because he was too busy shooting all the sights, including acrobats floating from helium balloons.

Iron Chef winner Kerry Simon had a crowd around his Cathouse restaurant booth from the Luxor -- and not just because of his savories but also because of his beautiful servers. The stocking-clad cuties who served up the potions of pleasure were the icing on the cake!

Among the celebrity chefs represented at the event sponsored by the Nevada Restaurant Association were Bradley Ogden from Caesars Palace and Emeril Lagasse from his New Orleans Fish House at MGM Grand. Other restaurants and bars represented included Toby Keith’s hangout at Harrah’s, Lavo in the Palazzo, Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville at the Flamingo, Rao’s at Caesars Palace, Valentino’s at The Venetian and my favorite local off-Strip bistro Marche Bacchus!

Fun with fungus

Meantime, Sushi Samba chef Jose Mendin gave a cooking demonstration in the Palazzo of the new food rage “homegrown, organic, cultivated wild mushrooms.” They come in king trumpet, brown beech, white beech and maitake varieties. Originally from Japan, the Hokto Kino company now raises them in bottles in San Marcos, Calif., in a high-tech, 250,000-square-foot facility.

Chef Jose said: “I love these mushrooms. I have been cooking with them for eight years but always had to get them from Japan. Now we get them from next door! I served five exotic dishes. They presented me with one king trumpet mushroom that stood 18 inches high and weighed more than six pounds as a centerpiece. It took 50 days to grow it.”

Jose’s eclectic dishes were served with five different sakes that he features at the restaurant’s monthly Sushi and Sake 101 cooking classes.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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