Exclusive Interview with the World Series of Food Chef

In Las Vegas, we have many celebrity-chef-restaurants that expose us to high quality cuisine. But there is a whole other realm into which only few restaurants in the world dare to venture, let alone in Las Vegas. These are the restaurants that make foodies drool, like Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck, Ferran and Albert Adria’s 41 Degrees, or Grant Achatz’s Alinea. These are the restaurants that you do not just eat dinner, but you ingest an experience. This type of experience is going to be provided at the World Series of Food.

This most exclusive meal served in Las Vegas happens only once per year. Chef Brett Uniss is preparing an avant garde dinner for ticket holders to experience this remarkable meal. Chef’s experience in produce and cooking techniques has led him to create the menu for this pop-up dining chef d’oeuvre.

I was able to sit down with Chef Brett in between stirring polenta at his current stint at Honey Salt. As we sat there, I couldn’t help but think that this is the man who is going to push the limits and bring “dining as an experience” to Las Vegas plus make it popular.

This is the second year Chef will be showcasing his talents at the World Series of Food. The meal started last year around the same time (during World Series of Poker hence the name). During year and a half that Chef was working at é by José Andrés at the Cosmopolitan, he dubbed one of the frequent guests the Duke of é. The Duke was such a regular that if he were dining, the kitchen would change the menu just for him to feature new items. One night the Duke brought one of his friends Mr. Albini who was interested in cooking with Chef Brett. Mr. Albini who happens to be very influential in several communities, including poker and food, cooked with Chef at the Duke’s home and served this meal to 30 of their closest foodie friends. One of them being James Beard honored Chef Brooks Hadley from Del Posto (NYC), who whipped up a couple desserts of his own.

Although last years WSOF was more casual, this year’s dinner will be more of an occasion. There are only 32 seats to this dinner and tickets have already selling for $175 per person. Chef is betting that they will be sold in two weeks. (I’ll take under two weeks.) This could very well be the best meal served in Las Vegas this year, says Chef. “I’m not putting gold leaf and caviar on top of every dish like Robuchon, but I don’t think that needs to be done to present a good meal.” Instead, Chef is focused on comfortable food served in a polished way with beverage pairings.

Chef is excited to be hosting this meal at what he considers the most important restaurant as far as the food scene is concerned in Las Vegas, Natalie Young’s Eat in downtown. Both Chefs Natalie and Brett share a passion for feeding people. Natalie says that her secret ingredient is love, and Brett would probably agree. “Nothing good comes out of the kitchen when you cook angry,” claims Brett.

“It’s perverse,” says Brett. “When you get to put something inside someone for a living, one is cooking and the other you have to go to Pahrump.”

So even though he is crude at times (he works in a kitchen, what do you expect?), Chef has a dedicated passion for living out his deep connection to the world through cooking. Chef lives in sync with the seasons and environment because these factors affect his produce. He developed a keen sense of goods when he worked at The French Laundry. The menus were designed to feature what was arriving at the back door. since Nearly everyone in the Napa Valley area is focused on the produce, people lined up at their door. “They would trade trash bags full of Meyer lemons for a discount on their meal,” Chef told me. A kitchen focused on produce has small time period to feature the seasonal fruits and vegetables. Everyone gets passionate about those ingredients until the next season comes and then excitement explodes for the new harvested fruits and vegetables.

Being located in California, The French Laundry had access to all the great produce. “They take and prepared it minimally and you can appreciate what it is.” But when Chef was moved to Per Se by the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, he learned to that the showmanship of the Chef outweighed the produce. “In New York they have great purveyors but it’s a fight among the other restaurants to get the best stuff. You are forced to use more technique where the chef shines a little bit more.” They have to develop different methods to feature the food. And instead of being excited for the produce, the thrill was for the end result.

Chef Brett started gaining experience on manipulating ingredients in order to showcase a beautiful product. This compelled him to assist with opening é at Cosmopolitan where he learned how to push his technique to the extreme. He learned from the line of El Bulli, forefront dining experience featuring technique-driven food.

Not only did Chef learn the molecular artistic cooking techniques, but he also broke out of his shell. Chef Brett compares dining at é to being as close to the chef when you are sitting at the sushi bar. At é, Chef learned to create an intimate experience between the guest and the chef by serving sixteen people per night between two seatings. He ran the show similar to a service captain as well as still preparing the food being on stage the whole time.

Now Chef Brett is preparing the menu and the experience for another arena, the World Series of Food. Las Vegas is the perfect city to showcase Chef’s product knowledge and cooking talents. He believes that Las Vegas has a great opportunity to have access to produce from California and avante garde cooking methods from New York and that the two combined will result in a brilliant and complementary combination, neither one outshining the other. Chef Brett is prepared to astonish Las Vegas, starting with twelve courses served to the 32 lucky guests at World Series of Food. And if Chef keeps mentioning the foie gras macaroons, then I’m sold.

If you would be interested in attending the World Series of Food on Monday, July 8, please email info.wsof@gmail.com or leave me a comment and I’ll get you in touch with the creators of the WSOF.