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22
Jun
Chef Pierre Gagnaire
by Sophie Gayot
The first time I met chef Pierre Gagnaire was on a cruise ship crossing from Dakar, Senegal to San Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. A “Croisière Gourmande” had been organized with chefs including Jacques Chibois. Alain Dutournier, Michel Bras, and many more. It must have been some time ago, as I think I was still under the legal drinking age!
At the time, I gave Pierre Gagnaire the nickname “The Salvador Dali of Gastronomy,” and it still holds true today. His renderings are creative, dramatic, somewhat crazy, unexpected, phantasmagoric, with a genius touch. But the catch is you either love it or hate it; and always at a high price, just like Dali. A 2005 menu from his eponymous restaurant in Paris I keep in my office offers a perfect illustration: a casserole of chestnuts and topinambour (Jerusalem artichoke), with a crème chocolatée de panais (carrots’ cousin) served with a gâteau de foie blond and truffle, at a staggering € 143!
Like chef Guy Savoy, Pierre Gagnaire was unknown to the American public except for the few who had dined at his restaurant in Paris, but gambled by opening his first American outpost in Las Vegas. At Twist at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, which opened last December at CityCenter, the modern chef took a more classical approach to what he usually masters, and at much more affordable prices. I suspect, and hope, he will gradually let loose and bring more of his innovative panache to The Strip.
In our annual Restaurant Issue Newsletter published in January, we named Twist one of our Top 10 New Restaurants in the country. Will he again follow in the footsteps of Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace and move on to our Top 40 Restaurants in the US? A few more meals will tell.
Take a photo tour of the Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas in GAYOT.com’s gallery.
Keep coming back to GAYOT.com for more Las Vegas Restaurant News, Restaurant Reviews, Culinary Events and Las Vegas Wine Dinners.
You can click on each photo to enlarge to see dishes from Pierre Gagnaire restaurant menu. All photos by Sophie Gayot.
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- Plated canapés
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- Grilled organic salmon with ginger
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- Sea scallops & foie gras with squab breast, black olive gelée, sake-apple marmalade & pomegranate seeds
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- John Dory fillet poached in Malabar black pepper-citrus butter with cannelloni beans, marin velouté
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- John Dory’s crunchy sauce: toasted brioche, cannelloni beans, marin velouté
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- Langoustine & mousseline perfumed with sherry Manzanilla
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- Grilled langoustine with TTB sauce and avocado
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- Langoustine tartar with Campari turnip and baby greens
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- Seared langoustine with Iberico ham and bell pepper
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- Intermezzo: cucumber, tomato & pineapple with Kirsch brandy, rhubarb mousse & grapefruit granité
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- Homemade bread
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- Grilled prime sirloin with stewed rhubarb & celery, Laetitia Pinot Noir jus & preserved shallot
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- Broccoli salad with egg “mimosa” and red cabbage gelée
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- Bolognaise with grilled zucchini, beef carpaccio and black olive
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- Quince gelée, bavaroise & chartreuse parfait
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- Nelson sablé with meringue & citrus sorbet
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- Cachaça granité with cucumber marmalade & green apple
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- Fruit biscuit with seasonal coulis
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- Ganache with ginger and chocolate ice cream
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- Elegant dishware
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- Cracked eggshell presentation plate
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- Twist
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- Twist dining room
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- View from atable
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- Dinning with views of Las Vegas
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- The kitchen from the dining room
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- Kitchen with a view of The Strip
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- Wine director Julie Lin in the wine tower
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- Private dining room
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- Cracked eggshell wall by interior designer Adam Tihany
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- Chef Pierre Gagnaire
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[...] confirmed that the Mandarin Group is also very focused on what is happening in its restaurants. Pierre Gagnaire’s Twist restaurant in Vegas made our 2010 Top 10 New Restaurants in the US. Top toque Carme Ruscalleda runs Moments in [...]
Pingback by GAYOT’s Blog News from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group — July 8, 2010 @ 3:06 pm