Las Vegas - City of Sin, Neon Lights & Culinary Capital of the World

Las Vegas. The city of sin, neon lights and, in recent years, the culinary capital of the world. In 1946, the Flamingo Hotel opened in Las Vegas and the rise of gambling began. Almost fifty years later, Wolfgang Puck, the first celebrity chef to try his luck in Las Vegas, did something similar with his Spago restaurant.

A culinary renaissance

Before Puck, who opened a branch of his restaurant Spago from Los Angeles in Las Vegas, "all you can eat" offers and inexpensive bistros reigned supreme in the "Gaming Mecca" in the field of cuisine. Denny's, Wendy's and other fast-food restaurants provided refuge for impoverished gamblers before their next game of roulette or black jack. With arrival Wolfgang Puck, an Austrian-born chef, the culinary scene was reborn. Twenty years after the opening of the Spago restaurant, otherwise a branch of the cult restaurant from Beverly Hills, Las Vegas has become a global culinary destination. Restaurants in the city already employ more than 35,000 people, and the profits are also suitable for this. Celebrity chefs, known from television screens and the covers of best-selling cookbooks, are competing to open the most restaurants.

Las Vegas - the city of sin and neon lights.

Gordon Ramsay and BurGR

Gordon Ramsay can boast of three. He lives in the Planet Hollywood Hotel restaurant Gordon Ramsay BurGR, where, as the name suggests, they swear by classic American burgers. The name of the restaurant is actually a play on words. From the word burger, Ramsay omitted the letter E, thereby emphasizing his initials - GR - in the name of the restaurant. Upon entering BurGR, it is obvious that the guest is not in a fast food restaurant. The ten-meter fireplace that greets visitors at the entrance and brightly colored walls ensure that after going home, the guests are not only talking about the food. BurGR is the only restaurant in Las Vegas that uses a charcoal and wood grill to cook its burgers, ensuring maximum juiciness of the meat. Gordon Ramsay swears by Euro Burger, which is made with flavored beef, goat cheese and fresh arugula. The whole grain bombica is fried in olive oil and soaked on each side with a truffle spread. A mandatory side dish is fried potatoes, which are offered with herb spread and melted parmesan cheese. As in any real American burger bar, guests can indulge themselves with freshly prepared shakes of various flavors. BurGR is located at the entrance to the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino, making it the perfect starting point to continue the fun after dinner. Guests can continue the evening at the gaming tables, at the hotel's Koi nightclub, or even at a concert by Britney Spears, who has been performing there three times a week for the past year.

The pioneer remains king

Wolfgang Puck was the first to believe that Vegas could become a culinary destination. At the beginning of the 90s, he opened the famous Caesars Palace hotel Spago restaurant, which is still famous today for its Californian and Mediterranean cuisine. Puck is the chef with the most restaurants in Vegas. However, he left the management of Spag To Eric Klein, but six restaurants still bear his name. Of the six, Spago is considered the best, but also the most expensive. Grilled sea bass with cherry tomatoes and basil flowers is just one of the dishes he is famous for. Spago swears by innovative and sophisticated cuisine. His opposite is Puck's restaurant Pizzeria & Cucina, where guests can enjoy simpler dishes for an affordable price. The restaurant serves wines from California vineyards, which perfectly emphasize the taste of Puck's crispy pizza. She is the most famous of all pizza with salmon and caviar, the dish that made Puck famous.

Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa

Noboyuki Matsuhisa is a name that means everything in the world of sushi. He is known for combining traditional Japanese dishes and South American ingredients in his cuisine. He was born in Japan and after finishing high school got a job in one of Tokyo's many sushi restaurants. There, a Peruvian businessman noticed him and invited him to travel to Peru with him. The desire for independence convinced Matsuhisa to accept the offer. Peru's coastal location gave him a wide selection of fish, but he couldn't find typical Japanese ingredients there. This is how he developed his style of preparing sushi, which combines Japanese with South American. From Peru, Matsuhisa's path led to America, where he impressed with his culinary skills Robert De Niro. They opened together the Nobu restaurant chain, which today is known all over the world. Nobu is a restaurant that everyone must visit a lover of sushi and Japanese food visit at least once. Matsuhisa and De Niro also opened two restaurants in Las Vegas. Already at the entrance, a sign warns guests that only the evening toilet is allowed. The interior of the restaurants was designed by a renowned American architect David Rockwell. The interior is characterized by brick walls and dark colors, which create an elegant and intimate atmosphere with a hint of industrial. Directly next to the counter where the Japanese masters create sushi, there are bar stools for those who want the freshest possible. Matsuhisa likes to point out that this is the best place in each sushi restaurants. Due to the freshness of the fish, its temperature is decisive, and during the time when the sushi travels from the hands of the master to the guest's table at the other end of the restaurant, the temperature of the fish can rise. This makes it lose the flavor it had on the chef's counter. Matsuhisa lovers swear by its signature and most famous dish – cod in miso marinade. The cod must sit in a marinade of miso paste and sake for three days before it can be grilled. The marinade provides a characteristic sweet-salty flavor that is irresistible. Cod in miso marinade is a simple Japanese classic that anyone can prepare at home.

All you can eat

Recently, "all you can eat" offers have come to life again in Las Vegas. Caesars Palace, Cosmopolitan and Wynn are just some of the prestigious hotels that have renewed their offer in this area. These types of buffets are now run by experienced chefs such as Ryan Nuqui, who ensure that tasteless buffet food is a thing of the past. For the price of about twenty dollars, guests are guaranteed entry into culinary paradise. All the food a guest could wish for is placed on the covered tables, which sag under the weight of the delicacies. Crab claws, German sausages, Chinese dumplings and American waffles are just some of the dishes that show the diversity of the offer. The first place among this offer belongs to restaurant Bacchanal, which offers guests more than five hundred dishes daily. This is precisely the charm of Las Vegas. Every day, day and night, on weekdays and holidays, guests get what they want.