THE Atelier...Las Vegas & Paris

I thought about stepping away from Las Vegas for a few months (on the blogging front). Not really sure why, but I thought it was time to move on, and I know that I will be going to Sin City next year (maybe twice), so I'll just pick up then.

That all changed when I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations".  The whole show was about Paris and how the cuisine is changing from the old traditional classic French way to a more fashionable modern bistrot style. Food-god Eric Ripert (yes, it is my dream to eat at Le Bernardin...one day), accompanied him on the tour and the most shocking thing was to see him defend the Michelin system and his 3 stars to the new up-and-coming chefs. Quelle horreur!

The show ended with Anthony and Eric dining at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - the modern style restaurant of the man voted/known as "Chef of the century"...the master: Monsieur Joel Robuchon. What a man, what a visionary, what a talent. I say this with 100% certainty, not because I've heard a bunch pompous know-it-all's said so, but because one perfect day, 3 years ago, I had the pleasure of dining at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at the MGM hotel in Las Vegas. I think it must have been the best meal of my life and well worth the extremely large bill that waived us goodbye at the end of our meal. Every plate was a masterpiece, every bite was perfection. (we ordered 6 small tasting portion plates and the one was better than the other).

The only thing that I regret now, is that I didn't write down the full descriptions of the menu. Oh...there is another regret...I only took pictures of 5 of the dishes - the champagne and general food/flavour/fabulousness-induced high that I was on caused a small short-circuit in the brain.

With this photo trip down memory lane, I present: joy/beauty/love on a plate:

Now I have a new goal...another place that has been added huge list of places to visit/eat at...L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon in Paris. (good thing I love Paris)

PS: Yes, Anthony, I agree...the pomme puree was to-die-for!!!

Day 7-10 - Sin (sick) city and the long winding road...

On day 7, after a quick stop in Los Angeles at the South African Embassy to apply for a new passport, we headed to Viva Las Vegas. Getting out of Los Angeles was quite the mission, because as we have all been informed, the traffic in LA is very very crazy and I couldn't wait to get out of the hecticness on to the nice big road on our way to Vegas!

The Strip at night

 

I've been to Vegas 4 times, and I've loved every moment. Most people might not believe that I, food-culture-and-fashion-loving moi, could love the drunken debauchery of Las Vegas, but that is just because most of those people have never been to Vegas. The place has turned into a foodie and shoppers paradise. All the hotels on the strip have numerous restaurants and most of them are owned by celebrity chefs. Eating in one of the celebrity owned joints can break the bank, but the culinary experiences will more than likely stay with you forever. 

 

To finish off our culinary expedition/road trip, we wanted to go to the annual Vegas Uncorked festival. It is an amazing food festival with fantastic food opportunities, such as dinner with Joel Robuchon (named chef of the century) and a few very well known chefs, wine tastings and a grand tasting where you can taste small plates from about 150 different restaurants and sip wines from all over the world.

Just before the Grand Tasting, everyone is adding the finishing touches

We enjoyed the Grand Tasting immensely and even though it is very pricey and a bit over-crowded at times, I highly recommend any food-fanatic to attend.

Some of the celebrity chefs

Unfortunately, the towards the end of the Grand Tasting, our trip turned slightly sour because the old hubster started getting very sick. For the next day and a half he could barely leave the room, except to join me for lunch, dinner and a quick spot of post-dinner gambling. How disappointing! I had a whole list of things that I wanted to do and places that I wanted to visit, but spending a whole day on my own didn't sound so great, so I didn't wander off too far. Afterall, we are just an hour away (by plane), so we can come again. 

The Mirage Water Feature

I have so much to say about Las Vegas - I'll have to write a few posts about it to cover most of it. In fact, I wrote an article for an English magazine called SA Promo about Las Vegas, and it featured in their July 2010 issue. (I was very chuffed!) I still have no idea how I managed to squeeze my love, feelings, thoughts and more about this great place into 1 tiny article. It took some hard work and edit, edit edit. You can read my article "Las Vegas - desert city of lights and water" on the SA Promo magazine link http://www.sapromo.com/magazine/book/38-sa-promo-magazine-issue-38/1-sa-promo-magazine

Bye-bye, Las Vegas!

Our drive back on day 10 was pretty uneventful - excruciatingly long, and just very blah. My husband was still ill and I sat there with my mind full of happy thoughts, joyous images and just a great feeling about our road trip. I thought I'd start blogging about the trip immediately - right inside the car - afterall I had around 10 hours, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It just felt like that would be as if I'm admitting to myself that our trip was over and I didn't want it to end. I guess that is also why I'm dragging my blog posts out. The longer I write about it, the more connected I still am with it. I absolutely love travelling. If I could travel every month or two, I'd be beside myself, but unfortunately the daily grind and lack of funds won't allow it. So for now, I'll just have to relive it by blogging about past and future trips and the meals that I enjoyed on them.