The Divine Dish

Vegas Uncork’d Grand Tasting at Caesars Palace Pool Deck

Posted on May 11, 2009 under Archives | No Comment

On Friday, May 8, I began a wonderful weekend of events at Bon Appetit’s Vegas Uncork’d event.  My friend and fellow foodie Chris came from one desert (palm springs) to another (Las Vegas) to join me.  Our first event was the grand tasting held at the pool deck at Caesars Palace.   Signature dishes from a large variety of Vegas’ top chefs were available as well as some great wines.  We tried to taste everything, but it was pretty crowded so here is a sampling of what we were able to see and taste:

David Burke Modern American Cuisine had some tasty Thai Chicken Dumplings, here is a pic:

We ran into Dos Caminos chefs Scott Lilnquist and Roberto Hernandez.

Dos Caminos is one of my favorite restaurants in Vegas, great food for a reasonable price, here is what they offered for the tasting, it was one of our faves of the night.

The Dos Caminos short rib was spicey and tender and had a nice slaw to go with it.

After sampling the BLT Burger, well worth a visit if you want a tasty burger and are near the Mirage, we had some nice pork from Isla.

We headed around the curve to the Country Club New American Steakhouse, located in Wynn.

The Kobe beef tartar with black truffle vinaigrette was another fave.

After the yummy steak tartare, we squeezed into Society Cafe.

The sugar cane shrimp skewers were tasty.

Who did we run into?  Robin Leach talking up Chef Kim.  So, we asked for a pic and got a very grumpy, “if you must.”

We got a whiff of next door’s meatballs, so we headed over to the  Lavo booth.  Lavo is a nice place to dine if you want to share some small plates for dinner when you are near Palazzo.

Next over to BOA (located in the Forum Shops at Caesars).

Guy Savoy (located at Caesars) had some nice artichoke and black truffle soup.  Anything with truffles makes us happy.

Also at Caesars is Bradley Ogden, here are pics:

Next door was Payard Patisserie and Bistro, also at Caesars.

Master pastry chef Francois Payard was on hand to talk about the dish of the night, the butterscotch pudding.  This was so good that we had two – winner, best dish of the night.

The Caesars area also featured Neros Steakhouse.

Chef Matt Seeber and his crew manned the Craftsteak booth.  Craftsteak is at MGM Grand.

We headed to Fiamma, also located at MGM, for some pasta.

We got through most of the booths, but by this time we were pretty full.  We headed out and saw some great food on the way:

I ran into one of my fave chefs, Hubert Keller, and Jean Joho from the Eiffel Tower at Paris.

We saw Border Grill chef Mary Sue Milliken on the way out.

Valentino had a great spread – located at Venetian.

Their antipasto misto was one of the best displays at the event.

The last booth before heading out was Eiffel Tower (located at Paris).

There were many booksignings, but the crowd was huge so we left.  It was a great grand tasting.