Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/61075
CHEF TALK Chef Michel Richard: "Most of the great chefs of the world have a restaurant in Las Vegas. So I thought, 'Why not me?' Besides, Las Vegas is a fun place to be!" "Why Not Me?" I Refl ecting the Las Vegas lifestyle, Central in Caesars Palace is light years away from Central in Washington, D.C. Central's popular lobster burger is made of 98 percent lobster, held together with just two percent scallop mousse. 30 / the tasting panel / april 2012 t's hardly surprising that vibrant, larger-than-life award-winning French celebrity chef Michel Richard should open his newest restaurant at Caesars Palace, itself an award-winning center of attraction in a vibrant, larger-than-life city like Las Vegas. Chef Richard's latest showcase for his gastronomic skills is the appropriately- named Central (pronounced "senTRAL") Michel Richard, the second such location, with more to come, most likely, according to Chef Richard, in Atlanta and New York. The original Central Michel Richard is in Washington, D.C.—not only at the opposite end of the country, but at the opposite end of the lifestyle spectrum. For example, the D.C. Central only serves lunch and dinner. But the constantly pulsating Las Vegas Central, at twice the size and seating over 300, not only serves breakfast, lunch and dinner but is open 24 hours a day. And the bar, which opens onto the spaciously elegant Caesars Palace lobby, is often three people deep. Inside Central, customers on their way to tables pass an open kitchen and a mouthwatering display of rotating rotisserie chickens weighing four to fi ve pounds each (half a chicken constitutes an order that dwarfs the plate). Other menu items refl ect Chef Richard's whimsical interpretations of American MICHEL RICHARD'S CENTRAL BRINGS A CULINARY SPIN TO CAESARS PALACE by Richard Carleton Hacker favorites with a French twist. Consider the lobster burger (98% lobster held together with 2% scallop mousse); the unbelievably moist, crispy fried chicken coated with bread crumbs mixed with chicken mousse, curry powder and heavy cream; and 72-hour short ribs, braised and cooked for three days at 132.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Special cock- tails and twin 1,000-bottle wine towers complement the gastronomic scene. Desserts include a rich, crunchy- creamy Le Kit Kat Napoléon chocolate bar, plus seasonal specialties such as a Christmas-themed meringue snowman fi lled with eggnog ice cream and sitting in a "snowdrift" of whipped cream. Each takes 3½ hours to make. Chef Richard donates two dollars from every dessert to St. Judes Children's Hospital. "As for the restaurant's name," says Chef Richard, "I used to spend a lot time in San Francisco at a restaurant called Le Central. I loved that name. When we found the D.C. location close to the White House on 11th and Pennsylvania Avenue, it seemed to me to be the center of the world. And of course, everybody goes to a place that is central. As for Las Vegas, the 24-hour menu was not the attraction; it was the fact that most of the great chefs of the world have a restaurant here. So I thought, 'Why not me?'" PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHEL RICHARD CENTRAL RICHARD CARLETON HACKER PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHEL RICHARD CENTRAL