Skift Take
Hanging out with America’s best chefs is as much a lesson in creativity, inspiration and business leadership as it is a killer steak from Kyoto.
Las Vegas has the highest concentration of celebrity chefs per capita on the planet. Many of them headline restaurants in marquee hotels operated by MGM Resorts Las Vegas, including ARIA Resort, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand, among others. The hotel group has aggressively positioned itself as the vanguard of culinary excellence on the Las Vegas Strip to attract business and convention travelers with healthy appetites and healthier expense accounts.
When I approached MGM with a request to explore the hotels, they had an open spot on a food-themed press junket. I, however, am not a foodie. Not even a little. Embedding me among America’s elite food writers is like inviting an atheist to a Tea Party rally.
But I’ve always wondered what makes a celebrity chef a celebrity. I discovered it doesn’t have a lot to do with food.
“Chefs are the new rock stars of Las Vegas and they are true partners with us,” says Mike Dominguez, senior VP of corporate sales at MGM Resorts. Dominguez has been visionary in leveraging the American consumer’s passion for reality chef television shows to sell hotel room nights up and down the Strip.
“With our food and beverage experience, we’re sharing with our guests the cachet of these amazing chefs,” he says. “The quality of the food is kind of a given. We’re trying to promote the breadth and diversity that we offer, and I don’t think there’s any other company that can match it.”
Chef Julian Serrano owns his namesake restaurant in ARIA’s lobby and he operates Picasso at Bellagio nearby, heralded as the catalyst of Las Vegas fine dining when it opened in 1998.
Serrano is sitting at a table in the back of his restaurant with two PR staffers hovering over him. It’s morning
