Las Vegas Weekly

May 11, 2009 · 4:45 PM

Photo Galleries: Vegas Uncork’d is a wrap; festival returns next year

By Robin Leach

Here's to Vegas Uncork'd 2009!

Photo: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

For four spectacular days, it was nothing but delicious dinners and wondrous wines. The 3rd Annual Vegas Uncork’d sponsored by Bon Appetit magazine also featured celebrity chef contests, cooking demonstrations and seminars on drinking! Cheers to that! Ten Japanese sake masters were even flown from Tokyo by Southern Wine and Spirits head honcho Larry Ruvo for one tasting and workshop!

Our Vegas DeLuxe contributing photographers tried to keep up from start to finish, and we’ve assembled here in our final photo gallery all the shots we didn’t post earlier with each overnight report. Also, click HERE for our Friday morning coverage, click HERE for our Saturday morning coverage, and click HERE for our Sunday morning coverage.

Barbara Fairchild, editor in chief of Bon Appetit, commented: “I think it’s the biggest food party on the Strip. We’ve covered Vegas as an important dining destination ever since the first wave of noted chefs came on the scene in the early ’90s.” Cat Cora, the magazine’s executive chef and Food Network and Iron Chef star, served as the main hostess.

Said Cat: “Vegas is such an exciting city, and Vegas Uncork’d has become one of the signature events. It just gets bigger and bigger every year.” Chef Rick Moonen, who won the chefs’ challenge, added: “Vegas has become a major contender to any restaurant city in the world. It’s all here, and now Vegas is a legitimate food destination. I’m excited and proud to be part of it.” Michael Mina agreed: “You will continue to see more and more restaurants, and there’s no way we’re even close to a plateau here yet. Hard to believe, but the entire Vegas food scene will get even better and better as time goes on.”

Actor Kyle MacLachlan was the celebrity guest of honor at the Masters Series Dinner with chef Bradley Ogden at his Caesars Palace restaurant. Kyle told me as he poured a glass of his own “pursued by bear” Cabernet wine: “This is the first tasting of my Washington state wine. We produced 300 cases from 12 barrels for our first 2005 harvest. We had it in the barrels for two years and then 25 months in the bottles before release. I come from the Walla Walla area and still go back to see my family six times a year, so it seemed a sensible thing to start a business in the Columbia Valley. We’re now working on a second wine, and that will be a Syrah.” And that unusual name? “It was a Shakespearean stage direction for an actor to get off the stage as quickly as possible!”

The 96-hour marathon of food fulfillment and wine immersions began with our Merry Mayor of Mirth Oscar Goodman helping French chef Guy Savoy saber open a bottle of bubbly atop the Strip view patio of Pure at Caesars Palace. Oscar told me: “In my opinion, we have more celebrity master chefs than any other city in the world, and once we were just the entertainment capital of the world. We have now become the fine dining capital of the world, too.”

Vegas Uncork’d ended yesterday with the first-ever screening of Julie & Julia, which is being released this summer starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child and co-starring Amy Adams. Click HERE for our story yesterday.

In between were culinary conversations with such chefs as Daniel Boulud, Francois Payard, Paul Bartolotta, Rick Moonen and Bradley Ogden; a cocktails dream team starring master mixologists Tony Abou-Ganim and Francesco Lafranconi; the ultimate tasting with 75 chefs and vintners at the Caesars pool, which included cookbook autograph sessions and an all-star interactive luncheon cooking alongside chefs Marc Poidevin and Alex Stratta; a chefs’ blackjack tournament won for the second consecutive year by two-time James Beard Award winner Paul Bartolotta; a culinary pro-am won by Rick Moonen and Adam Sobel; Master Dinners at Caesars Palace with Bobby Flay, Carla Pellegrino, Bradley Ogden, Guy Savoy and Francois Payard; and a gala dinner with Michael Mina, Anthony Amorosa, Todd English, Julian Serrano, Robert Moore and Jean-Philippe Maury.

Cirque du Soleil joined in the celebrations. Joel Robuchon cooked up magic with the cast of Ka, entertaining between courses in his artists’ food studio, L’Atelier at MGM Grand. Joel signed copies of his new cookbook The Complete Robuchon for each of the guests!

David Foster, 15-time Grammy winner, had his Mandalay Bay concert after-party at Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood as part of Vegas Uncork’d! Brian McKnight and Charice Pempengco joined in the fun, while Cher, Paul Anka, Donny Osmond and Phillip Bailey all called it a night after the three-hour show!

Yesterday’s final goodbye included Top Chef Tom Colicchio’s Mother’s Day brunch and a champagne and chocolate presentation at Charlie Palmer’s Aureole by pastry chef Megan Romano and master sommelier William Sherer hosted by Bon Appetit senior writer Alan Richman. It was seven chocolate confections paired with seven wines -- now that’s the way to head to the airport!

Vegas DeLuxe has confirmed that Vegas Uncork’d will return for an even more ambitious festival next year. Bobby Flay summed it up: “It simply doesn’t get any better than this, but we’ll go on trying -- and succeeding.” I go one on one in the kitchen with Bobby this week here at Vegas DeLuxe!

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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