Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/215016
ON THE TOWN Sweets Raku offers a dessert-friendly wine list, along with pairing suggestions. continued from page 92 I feel like the Japanese take it to a whole other level. It takes a lot to get to simple. Kabuto chef Gen Mizoguchi is cutting a 600-pound tuna. Conant asks for permission to take a picture with his iPhone. Granted. Look at that. Wow, it's like Kobe beef. Unbelievable. I've never seen quality like this on the Strip. When we eat this kind of sushi in New York, it can cost six times as much. Don't tell him that! He's going to start charging the same! You traveled a lot during the summer. I was in Abu Dhabi during Ramadan. That was something. I took a car to Dubai. In the car, the driver said, "There's two bottles of water, but I just beg you to be careful. If the authorities see you drinking this, you'll get fined and I'll really be punished severely because it's my country and I should know better." It's 125 degrees with 100 percent humidity. It's like the hottest place in the world. And you're in a car with drapes down and you're really concerned people are going to see you. I didn't drink anything. And after traveling, you've been busy with TV work? Chopped is going great. And I'm always speaking to people about doing a new show. You could do a travel show. ABOVE: Even I would love to. Tony Bourdain took the market on that. Sweets Raku's I don't want to compete with him. [Laughs] He's too menu is edible—and good. But I may come up with something. served with a Head server Azuma Manandhar brings a sashimi plate with raspberry sauce. RIGHT: three cuts of tuna, including wakaremi, which Mizoguchi calls Sweets Raku's tuna tenderloin: "Just one percent of the tuna!" There's also cheese plate. ginger from Hawaii, aged for two months. You've got to start aging your pasta, Scott. You need to compete. I feel like such a slack-ass now. [Laughs] I gotta catch up. This fish is so beautiful—there's no other word for this. It's so clean. I could eat this all day long. We head next door to Sweets Raku for a three-course dessert tasting and the edible rice-paper menu served with a raspberry sauce. Tell me about your book, The Scarpetta Cookbook. It came out October 15 [see "Invited", page 50], and it's a culmination of all the recipes from different Scarpettas. It's not just about the food, either. I wanted to create something where if somebody has a particular experience, they can go home and recreate that experience. The recipes are there, and there are tips on lighting, plate presentation, a lot of good food photos. It's just fun. I wanted to do something that wasn't pretentious. Head pâtissiere Mio Ogasawara and manager Kazue Kikuchi present a cheese 94 "The Japanese take it to a whole other level. It takes a lot to get to simple." —SCOTT CONANT plate, including bleu cheese mixed with whipped cream, a spoon of Parmesan, and honeycomb. It's crazy. People go next door and eat so much sushi, then they come here and are like, "Okay, I'll eat dessert for an hour now." You're in for a night of it, for sure. Conant explains to the server that we've already been eating for hours today. But it's okay. That's our life. We were in Tokyo for 10 days and I think we ate at 32 restaurants. V VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 092-094_V_ST_OTT_Dec13.indd 94 11/19/13 10:09 AM