INTERVIEW: Michael Jordan

Update: Rosemary's has closed.


Michael Jordan and his wife Wendy are chef/owners of the acclaimed Rosemary's Restaurant.

What's new at Rosemary's?

Michael Jordan: Well, we just got new ratings from Zagat, a 28 in food and a 26 in service, so we're pretty proud of that. Also, we recently opened up our catering division. We used to do all catering in house, but it got bigger and bigger and so we had to get another kitchen. We had always done private parties and special event dining in our private room at the restaurant, which we call the West Wing. But our outside catering jobs just kept growing and growing and so we had to bite the bullet, and now we have a brand new facility to handle those needs.


There are many fine dining restaurants off the Strip these days, but that wasn't necessarily true when you opened Rosemary's. What do you think about the growth and competition among restaurants like that?
I think fine dining in our neighborhood, Summerlin, and other Las Vegas neighborhoods away from the Strip is moving along at a snail's pace. Casual dining is doing much better, and there is certainly the clientele that seeks that. I think there's really just a lot of room for everybody right now. New places open all the time but they haven't made much of an impact on us. We continue to grow each year, year after year. We want to see growth but we really just try to focus on what we do.


You started out in Vegas working at Emeril's restaurant at the MGM Grand on the Strip, so you've had plenty of experience catering to both tourists and the local diners.
We walk such a fine line at Rosemary's. People are surprised to find out just how much tourist business we do. But the meat and potatoes for us is locals. They're not on vacation, they're just out to get something to eat or maybe they're celebrating a birthday or anniversary with us. We're most proud of what we do because we don't have to charge Strip prices, because we have more control of our overhead. We certainly see those tourists who want to go crazy, have a great meal and order wine and do it all, but it's a nice mix with our local customers who just want to have a quiet dinner, a little salad and a nice piece of
halibut. The tricky part is that we have to gauge what each table wants. We have to be aware of our guests and the kind of experience they're seeking, and I think being used to seeing different guests has heightened our ability to get to know them and give them what they're looking for.



Rosemary's is known for having a very friendly, versatile menu, stocked with plenty of favorites like the great Hugo's BBQ Shrimp dish. That's one of our favorite dishes in Vegas. How do you go about making additions or changes to the menu?
I'm not the type that says we have to change things every so often just to do something new. I'm really just watching the market, talking to our purveyors, seeing what's new and what's missing and what's coming up and then making adjustments based on those factors. Our products are driving our menu. I try to take a pretty flexible approach. The BBQ shrimp, that's not going anywhere. Same with the halibut because that's another of the dishes people love, but we only buy wild Alaskan so we have to make adjustments based on what's available and what's in season. We have daily specials and we try to do a lot with those, really check on what's getting people excited. We've had to add some things to the menu that started out as specials. Honestly, it's not really about me or my ego or what can I do. We're just trying to make them happy. If there's something our regulars want to see back on the menu, we're bringing it back. A perfect example of that would be the parmesan soufflé. This is just something I was playing around with. We baked it twice to get it real crispy and crunchy, and every time that thing comes out into the dining room people are just blown out of the water. There's another dish we're doing now that will probably make its way to the menu. We take a brioche roll and hollow it out, fill it up with grilled wild mushrooms, crack a fresh egg over it and then bake it. It's unbelievable. That's probably going to come out soon.


It sounds like you're very easily influenced by your regular customers, which I'm sure has become a large group.
We have quite a few regulars. We call them family. Actually, we have a lot of regulars from here and from out of town. We try to stay in contact with as many of them as possible, send e-mails and stuff like that so they know what we're doing. We just had a group come in from California just to come to a wine dinner. I'm still blown away by things like that, that people would do that, go out of their way to be with us.


What's coming up for Rosemary's? Any plans for further growth, expansion or anything like that?
There's always talk about potential future projects but talk is cheap. We're always listening. We're consistently hosting special events and we have a beer pairing dinner coming up, but as far as bigger plans, we'll see. It would be great to be able to make an announcement before the year is out. We'll let you know.

INTERVIEW: Mimmo Ferraro

Mimmo Ferraro is executive chef at the long-popular Ferraro's Italian restaurant.

You're a young chef but you've already logged quite a bit of experience. What was it like growing up in a Vegas restaurant like Ferraro's?
Mimmo Ferraro: I've always enjoyed this business, and it's always been a big part of my life and my family. But Ferraro's didn't start out as a high-end Italian restaurant. The first business was a deli and pizzeria, so it was a lot different. And I've been working since I was just a little boy. Back then it was like, "Go price those tomatoes!" And running around playing cops and robbers in the deli. But I've always loved cooking and I started cooking at a very young age, too. I think I started making pasta when I was six or seven years old.

Did you always know you'd be following in the family business and becoming a chef and restaurateur?
There was a time when I wanted to be an architect for a while, but ultimately I knew I'd always be in this business. It's not an easy business to be in, but I really enjoy it and it's just the thing for me. Some people say you are born with a gift. I really enjoy what I do, and my food is good.

When you finished your education, you spent some time in Italy, mostly Tuscany, before returning to Las Vegas to take over the kitchen at Ferraro's. Was it difficult to step into your father's footsteps? Did you want to make a lot of immediate changes at Ferraro's?
It wasn't easy. Even though we're an off-the-Strip restaurant, still about 90 percent of our business is from tourists and convention business. We have regular tourists. They come into town from wherever and no matter what they're in Vegas to do, they're going to visit us. It's the same faces. And they're used to coming to Ferraro's and getting what they've been getting for the last 20 years. My style of cooking is very different from my father's. He's from the south. My father was born in Calabria, and they cook a certain way there. It's heavier. It's those deep red sauces, the eggplant, the great sausages. Mine is a little bit lighter. We've always thrived on using the best products available, but when I came in we started making everything in-house, not just all our sauces which we make every day, but even the sausage, the pasta, the ravioli. Everything is made fresh daily. We'll come in and make the pasta fresh for that day, and we might run out if we're very busy. But that's how we make sure we giving the best product we can serve. That's something that's never going to change.

Was it hard to bring your own style to the kitchen without alienating people who expect certain things?
Well the biggest fight was with my father. "It's my way because it's my restaurant." Really, we always saw eye-to-eye about things, we just had different opinions sometimes. He's very much an Old World Italian. But to me, we have the best combination possible. It's the Old World with the new.

Besides all the growth, how have you seen the world of dining in Las Vegas change over the years?
Las Vegas wasn't always considered the way it is now. What, are we the number two or number three culinary city? I think Vegas has become more sophisticated. People understand quality, and they're not scared to pay for what they're getting. Every year it gets busier and the prices have to adapt. You know, we're a $20 cab ride both ways from the Strip. So that means we have to offer something as good or better just to get them to come back. We have to adapt to that environment as well.

What is your approach to pleasing locals?
We do a lot of different things for locals. We have a great happy hour all week with half-price appetizers and buy-one-get-one drinks. We have an extensive wine list with over 1,200 wines, and we do half-off the wine list for locals on the last Sunday. We're a different kind of restaurant here. People come here because we're one of the last true family establishments left, and I think that's something locals and out-of-town people appreciate. You know, my mother is here, my father is here, my nephew is running around in the kitchen. We get to know our customers, and I think they appreciate and recognize that difference. People
don't feel like they're in Vegas when they come to Ferraro's for dinner.

What's next for you and Ferraro's? Any expansion plans or new projects in the works?
We're making changes every day, even if it's something small. My father's going to Italy a few times a year and coming back with great additions to our wine list, stuff you can't get anywhere else. And as far as something new, I'm getting into the tavern business. I have a partner and we're going to open a new place called Wiseguys, which is going to be a tavern that serves classic Italian food, and it's going to be in the North Las Vegas area of town. Maybe we'll be expanding it later, but that's a new venture for me and it's exciting. Of course, you won't be able to come into the tavern and get the osso bucco like at Ferraro's.

m & m, the soulfoodiest.

Las Vegans love to lament the ways their city has been altered by the hordes of Southern
Californians that have relocated to our desert oasis. Too much traffic. Too many SUVs. Too
many Hollywood types. Too many well-tanned women looking for a hot nightclub. Well, not so much that last one.

We choose to appreciate many of the wonderful things Los Angeles has contributed to Las
Vegas, namely terrific ethnic restaurants, and one of our favorite imports is M&M Soul Food, a small cafe just west of the downtown area on Charleston Boulevard. M&M serves up Mississippi-style comfort food favorites every day and night, including incredible fried chicken (try it smothered in gravy), meatloaf, oxtails, catfish, pork chops and spicy gumbo. The crew gets it right on the side dishes, too, plating some tasty, home-style macaroni and cheese, collard greens, yams, black-eyed peas and red beans and rice. It's not light, and it may not be healthy, but it hits you in the right spot like good soul food should.

M&M also offers great breakfast options to warm up your morning, including normal fare like omelets or a great big ham steak, and other stuff you can't find at other places open in the morning, like pork chops or catfish with eggs, salmon crochet and a crispy waffle served with chicken wings. Where else can you get no-frills chicken and waffles outside of L.A., or a plate of liver and onions with potatoes, eggs, grits and biscuits on the side? And don't forget to try some great banana pudding to top it all off.

INTERVIEW: Luciano Pellegrini

Luciano Pellegrini is chef and partner at Valentino in the Venetian and Giorgio at Mandalay Bay.

What's new at Valentino? How has the restaurant changed over the years?
Luciano Pellegrini: It was a very good year for us at Valentino. We first opened in 1999, right with the opening of The Venetian, and we've changed our look a couple of times over. The restaurant definitely looks different now. That's just something you have to do in Vegas to keep things fresh. And I believe the food has improved as well. You know, we're not a cookie cutter restaurant. We're still very much about first class service and food, and we've managed to stay that way.

How would you describe your vision for the restaurant when you first came to Vegas in 1999?
Well we came to town not as pioneers in Vegas but really in that second wave of big resorts opening up shop at the time. There was not a lot of fine dining Italian restaurant experiences on the Strip at that time. In fact there was nothing like what we wanted to do. That was our vision, to be the restaurant in that category. And really the work comes in maintaining that high reputation.

As a young man and burgeoning chef in Italy, you served as a parachutist in the military. What made you want to volunteer for that duty? And are there any similarities between jumping out of planes and running a couple of restaurants on the Strip?
Yes that's true. I remember being with all my friends, who also all volunteered for military service because really, everyone did at that time, it was expected, and on the first day of orientation this guy came in and started asking who wanted to be a parachutist. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I raised my hand, and that was that, I was one of about four guys out of 100 to do that. It was pretty intense. Obviously jumping out of a plane gives you quite a rush. After a while, I had done what I needed to, and I said that's enough for me, and I returned to doing what was my destiny to do for the rest of my life. But I did learn a lot of valuable lessons from being in the military, besides working at one time to serve three or four thousand meals, lunch and dinner, in the service. The kitchen can be very militaristic. The chef is the supreme being; the sous chef is like the lieutenant. Things need to go in a certain way with no questions asked, and being in the service definitely taught me to keep that order when in the kitchen. But you also need to know when to give someone else the room and space to operate on their own.

A lot of big time chefs have come to Vegas in recent years, but you are one of a very small group to be honored with the prestigious James Beard award. How important is that type of recognition?
I mean, what can you say? It's kind of huge. It took about a year for it to really sink in, that I could win something like that and what it meant, considering how many talented chefs there are out there. It was really a combination of things, a combination of timing, talent, luck, a little bit of everything. That's not to say that I rest on an accomplishment the day after. It was never my ultimate goal to win something like that, but it was a very pleasant surprise, very rewarding.

Awards are one thing, but the real competition among restaurateurs in Vegas seems to be where the hottest restaurant is, and how you can maintain that edge.
The hardest thing you can do is to maintain a spot as one of the top restaurants in town. Las Vegas is growing in so many ways, and the restaurant market is not to be underestimated. This is a place to shine, a place with opportunity for the underling to move up and the chance to gain recognition for the star chef. A lot of people come in ready to find success, and some have, and most have not. It's very difficult.

Giorgio at Mandalay Bay has become a popular, more casual restaurant. How do you compare it to the Valentino experience, and do you enjoy the differences between the two?
Well after the first year at Giorgio we really kind of stepped aside and let chef de cuisine Nico Chessa take over and do his thing, and he's doing a great job over there. We decided to really let him express himself to the highest degree, and it has been to the ultimate benefit of the entire company. It's vital for a restaurant to establish its identity, and Giorgio is a place to go for a good meal, to enjoy a pizza, and not get hurt too much in the wallet. It was fun to start a new project like that. New projects always bring a lot of excitement, and it was a great experience. Slowly but surely, it has come along, maybe a little slower than we thought. But it's doing very well.

What does the future hold for you and the Valentino group? Any expansion plans?
We are keeping our eyes open. We've had a lot of talented people leave our company to go find other opportunities. Las Vegas has turned out to be not such a great bet after all for many restaurateurs. But we're always considering our next move.