Las Vegas Weekly

January 29, 2009 · 2:37 PM

It’s out with the old and in with the new for star chef Andre Rochat

By Robin Leach

Chef Andre Rochat.

Photo: TVT

Legendary, celebrated Las Vegas chef Andre Rochat literally closed his famous downtown eatery one day and opened his new fine dining restaurant the next! He did it without dropping a pan or missing a stir of the whisk!

For 29 years, the king of the kitchen ruled at Andre’s downtown and served everybody from Frank Sinatra to our merry Mayor of Mirth Oscar Goodman as regular customers. He even opened two other restaurants: one at the Monte Carlo and another, Alize, atop George Maloof’s Palms.

But the food world of Vegas began changing after Wolfgang Puck brought fine dining to the Strip, and $1.99 all-you-can-eat-shrimp-cocktail buffets were replaced by an invasion of other star chefs. Visitors and residents no longer had to travel downtown just to find a freestanding, fine-dining destination.

Andre decided to lighten his load and shuttered his long-established downtown restaurant after his New Year’s Eve celebration. He said simply: “Now I’ll have time to go fishing whenever I want.”

Photo: MGM Mirage

Andre's Restaurant in the Monte Carlo.

Meantime, his Monte Carlo outpost had been closed for a major makeover that included a newly designed restaurant with a new menu, his ace chef de cuisine from downtown and the best cigar-friendly bar in the state. Andre decided he wouldn’t miss a beat and opened it just hours after closing the other.

I talked with him about the new restaurant, his views on Vegas food and the romantic story behind his move here in the first place nearly 30 years ago!

Robin Leach: Tell me what you love about your new restaurant at the Monte Carlo.

Andre Rochat: We have a total new decor. It is more contemporary. It is coziness, not too modern, but it is totally different. The whole front of the restaurant has changed and become more open and welcoming. We took out the wine cellar that was out front. We turned the stairs around, so now the whole front is open. The bar is twice the size that it used to be, and that makes it much nicer.

RL: You are now one of the few cigar bars left?

AR: We are the only nice restaurant with a smoking room.

Photo: TVT

Chef Andre Rochat in his kitchen.

RL: I know you are very happy opening the new restaurant in Monte Carlo, but do you miss what you had downtown?

AR: Downtown has been my heart and soul, but it has changed a lot since I started there. It is a different city now. The business downtown is not what it used to be, and a lot of people that work downtown, they finish work, and they get in their car to go to their home that is on the outskirts of town.

RL: So, in a sense, the town grew up in a sudden, rushed way, and then people had lots of other places to go to rather than just downtown?

AR: Exactly. There are so many places everywhere. Hotel casinos have been building away to keep all their guests inside and not leaving. For someone that comes here on vacation, there is so much to do on the Strip, they don’t venture out of the Strip to downtown like they used to before.

RL: It’s true! The hotel executives want guests to stay put under the roof of the same hotel and never venture out elsewhere. So think back over 29 years and tell me a couple things you will never forget about Andre’s downtown.

Photo: MGM Mirage

A delightful salmon dish.

AR: When I first opened, everyone thought I was crazy to open a French restaurant downtown. I have friends that bet me I wouldn’t last three months, but 29 years later, I was still there. Downtown, I was the only freestanding restaurant to win a Michelin star, a Four-Diamond star and other prestigious awards, so that says a lot. Through all these years, all the stars, the big political men and the big businessmen, came downtown -- not to see it, but to dine at Andre’s. In the last month since your original article came out that I was going to close, everyone came in for one more dinner downtown. That was overwhelming, and I will never forget that.

RL: Who were some of the stars that came down over the years?

AR: I have a whole book from Frank Sinatra to Steven Spielberg to Juliet Prowse -- everybody who was a big name in Vegas entertainment all those years came to Andre’s.

RL: Does Andre’s at the Monte Carlo take up the mantle of the legend?

AR: Kind of. The whole crew from downtown is there; the chef de cuisine from downtown is there. It is like the downtown has gone uptown. However, we will still have private banquets and party groups at the building downtown. There’s too much history there not to keep using it until one day it’s eventually sold. We will open it up for as little as 25 people for a private dinner or as many as 150 for a big banquet party or reception. Andre’s will always be part of Vegas history!

Photo: MGM Mirage

Colorado rack of lamb at Andre's in the Monte Carlo.

RL: So it was an almost seamless transition from downtown to the Strip?

AR: Oh, yes. We made the transition in one day. We have had a lot of our regulars come in already, and during the last two big conventions this month, all of our regulars that used to come downtown, now they all came here. I think it will be good for the Monte Carlo because a lot of them will stay there just because we are here.

RL: How do you describe the difference between Andre’s at Monte Carlo and Alize at the Palms?

AR: At Alize, we get a lot of locals because it is not on the Strip. If you live in Las Vegas long enough, especially on the weekend, you avoid the Strip. That is why Alize is convenient. Alize is a very special restaurant because of the incredible skyline views. There’s a little big of a difference in the menus, too. At Alize, Mark is my chef over there, and here it is Greg, who was downtown. Both of them are fantastic, even though they are both different. Greg is closer to what I do, more classical and what we have been doing downtown, and Alize is a little more not daring but different, maybe more modern.

RL: What is everybody going to love at the new Andre’s in the Monte Carlo?

Photo: MGM Mirage

Macaroons, a decadent dessert at Andre's.

AR: The decor is the first thing. The food is the same as downtown, and I would put it against any of the really big star chefs here who live elsewhere. The convenience of the smoking room. A lot of people may like a cigar or a little cigarette after dinner. We have a beautiful smoking room where you can sit and enjoy cognac, port or whatever you like with a cigar and a cigarette and finish the night with nice conversation with a friend or loved one.

RL: Look back to when you were a daring young man and you went downtown and people said you were crazy to open a fine dining French restaurant when everything else was shrimp for $1.99.

AR: I had two menus when I started out: one at $14.95 and one at $18.95 in 1980. I watched this city grow. The big change came with The Mirage; it really turned the dynamics of Vegas around. In terms of celebrity chefs, Wolfgang came here in 1991 at Caesar’s Palace. He was the first one after me.

RL: You were the original; you led the charge.

AR: Now anybody that is anybody is in Las Vegas, but it is just a name, and that is all. I am one of the very few who is here on hand every day.

RL: You said your reason for closing downtown was so you could go fishing. Have you had any time yet?

AR: I am working on it. I have great people working for me. I have a great crew. Joe, my general manager, is fantastic, so that gives me more time. I don’t put in the days I used to; at the end of the day, I get tired. I didn’t used to before. Being a chef is a long 14- to 16-hour day -- every day. It is a passion. You go to bed thinking about food, you wake up thinking about food, and you think about food all day.

Photo: TVT

Andre Rochat with Jean Louis Palladin guest chefs.

RL: Is it easier now to get the food products that you always wanted than it was 30 years ago?

AR: Oh, yeah. It is because this town has grown so big with all these wonderful restaurants and chefs. It is a lot easier to get produce and food products than we used to. In the old time, getting strawberries and berries was tough, and it was very expensive. Now, the big produce companies have a big warehouse right here. The products are flown from all over the world every day: produce, meat and fish. Whatever we need or want.

RL: Be honest: After all these years, are you glad you chose chef as a profession?

AR: Some days I wonder. I have tried other things, but when it is something that you love, that is what you do.

RL: What made you come to Vegas in the first place, and where were you before?

AR: I opened the King’s Castle in Tahoe in 1970. Before that, I was in New York. I was executive chef for United Airlines in New York, and before that, I was in Boston. I left Europe for the States, and Boston was the city I came into in 1965.

RL: What drew you to Vegas when you headed out West?

AR: Women. There was a showgirl in King’s Castle that I was going out with, and we were later married and divorced. That is how is goes. I have been single ever since.

RL: So it was a romance with a showgirl that brought you to Vegas?

AR: Yes. I love Las Vegas. It is a great city. I fell in love with Vegas after I fell in love with the showgirl, and I am still here. That’s a great, long love affair!

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