las vegas top10

TOP ten restaurants
· Joel Robuchon – French style
· Aureole – French style
· Nobu – Japanese Style
· Le Cirque – French style
· Mix – French style
· Spago – American style/ Californian style
· Alex – French style
· Guy Savoy – French style
· Picasso – French style
· Emrils New Orleans Fish house - seafood
We used the 3 tier system to rank the restaurants.
Therefore, the restaurant with the highest points rating is Joel Robuchon with 230 points from tier 1 and tier 2 rating guides. Coming in second place is Aureole with 210 points from tier 1 and tier 2 rating guides. In third place is Nobu with 170 points from tier 1 and tier 2 rating guides. The chefs to be discussed will be Joel Robuchon, Charlie Palmer, and Nobu Matsuhisha.






Joel Robuchon

http://www.joel-robuchon.com/
http://www.mgmgrand.com/dining/joel-robuchon-french-restaurant.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%ABl_Robuchon
Joel Robuchon is a visionary chef who was born in the small town of Poitiers, France on April 7, 1945. He owns and operates several restaurants across the world, including his namesake restaurant, Joel Robuchon located in Las Vegas, the original L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon located in Paris, a more recent restaurant, Robuchon a Galera, located in Macau. He plans on opening his next restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Robuchon began his career, at the age of 15, as an apprentice chef at the Relais of Poitiers hotel, located in his hometown of Poitiers. After years of experience and moving up the promotional ladder, he finally became an executive chef at the Harmony-Lafeyette hotel, at the age of 28. He would open the first out of his many restaurants in Paris, before moving out to other cities across the world. He has been credited as being mentors for popular celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Michael Caines. He is renowned for his style of cuisine, a more traditional French style, and his perfection of his cuisine.
His first operation in the USA is in Las Vegas and he named it after himself similar to many of his restaurants. It was founded in 2003, and is operated by his highly talented and qualified team of chefs, among them another Meilleur Ouvrier de France award winner. The restaurant is a small banquet hall setting, with a private section for a more intimate setting. The design and décor is an elegant French style designed by Pierre Yves Rochon.
Robuchon uses the freshest possible ingredients available to produce his meals. In the Joel Robuchon, the menu items are produced in various forms; a 6 course tasting menu, a 7 course meal, a 16 course tasting menu, and an a la carte menu. His signature dish is considered to be the Pommes Puree, which is his original style of mash potatoes. He tends to create a variety of dishes which include fish, high-quality meats, seafood, fresh vegetables, and various grain products. More information on the various menus can be found here
Due to immense dedication to the culinary arts, Robuchon has received many accolades for his mastery of French cuisine. He received the highly touted Meilleur Ouvrier de France, an award for the top French craftsman in their field, when he was 31. In 1989, he was labelled as the Chef of the Century by the guide Gault Millau, a highly influential French restaurant guide. As a result of his dedication and high standards, he has been awarded a total of 17 michelin stars for his various operations; the only chef in the world to reach that amount.
The chef has also ventured into other areas related to cuisine. He published many cookbooks in French, two of which have now been translated into English. He has hosted a culinary television show in France. Finally, he contributed to an edition of Larousse Gastronomique, an encyclopedia which looks at the relationship between culture and food.


Charlie Palmer
Picture : www.unionfloor.com/gallery.php
http://www.mandalaybay.com/dining/aureole.aspx
http://topchefs.chef2chef.net/recipes-2/charlie-palmer/#Biography
Charlie Palmer is widely renowned as one of the greatest American chefs of our time. He focuses on a progressive American-styled cuisine and owns five restaurants in New York and two in Las Vegas. Raised in New York, Palmer acquired his knowledge of culinary styles and tastes from the Culinary Institute of America. He found a job after graduation at one of the most prestigious French-styled restaurants in New York called, La Cote Basque. He would later move on to become executive chefs in various restaurants including the River Café, a restaurant owned by American actor, Michael O’ Keefe. After his tenure at the River Café, he would open his first restaurant in New York, which would be the first of his many popular restaurants he would open across America.
The Aureole of Las Vegas in particular, caught the attention of many restaurant critics. It was created in 1999 and has gone onto receive recognition in several areas. It has been recognized as a four diamond restaurant since its inception. In 2006, the restaurant won the award for outstanding wine service. Recently, in 2008, the restaurant received a Michelin star. Arguably, the main physical attraction is the four story wine tower, which holds more than 10,000 different types of wine.
Palmer’s signature dishes are a reflection of progressive American cuisine. Progressive American cuisine can be described as a combination of culinary tastes from various cultural backgrounds within America. He tends to use high quality beef and fish in his meals. A sample from his menu supports this notion. The first course options include caviar, a thai influenced soup, and ravioli with goat cheese. The main course options include trout, veal, and rack of lamb, all of which are presented with their own set of side dishes. For a descriptive sample of Palmer’s menu, see here.For his excellence in the culinary arts, Palmer has received several awards. In 1997, Aureole joined a short list of American restaurants that were inducted into the Relais and Chateau, a European based association of hotels and restaurants. In 1997, Palmer was awarded the James Beard award for “Best Chef” in New York, while a year later he was awarded the James Beard award for “Who’s who of food and beverage in America”.
Palmer has initiated other projects outside of the kitchen as well. He set up an association of farmers “to supply his restaurants with local produce” (Chef2Chef). He is the authour of Great American Food, a cookbook which was published in 1996 along with another book Charlie Palmer’s Casual Cooking published in 2001.

Nobu Matsuhisa
Picture : www.time.com
Nobuyuki Matsuhisa is the owner of the most prolific Japanese styled restaurant in Las Vegas, named the Nobu. Born on 1949 in Saitama, Japan, Nobuyuki creates authentic Japanese cuisine using ingredients from all over the world, most especially imported from South American countries. Since opening his first Matsuhisa in 1987, he has gone on to open more than a dozen restaurants across the world including his Nobu in Las Vegas which opened in 1999.
Nobu started his career as an apprentice in a sushi bar in Tokyo before he opened his first sushi-bar in Peru, South America. It was here that he gained his appreciation and his knowledge of South American ingredients. He has gained recognition from various food critics and commentaries. In 1989 he was considered to be one of America’s top ten chefs by Food and Wine magazine and was awarded a “Who’s who of Food and Beverage in America” by the James Beard foundation in 2002.
He has two signature dishes: a miso infused black cod and a shrimp tempura with cream sauce. Both dishes were created in his first restaurant in New York, and has since gained popularity in his other restaurants as well. Nobuyuki uses similar menu items in all his restaurants, with the main focus on the different types of sushi. Some examples of his specialty courses include: King Crab Claw tempura, and New Style Sashimi. Both of these courses involve elements of sushi but are made as a main entrée item. Since his cooking style brings out the natural flavours of the ingredients, he is very strict in selecting his ingredients