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UNDER THE TOQUE
At the tender age of 41, David Robins is considered by many to be the culinary grandfather of fine dining along Las Vegas Boulevard. Mentored by Jeremiah Tower and Wolfgang Puck, two of the icons of California cuisine, Robins came to town to open Spago Las Vegas in late 1992 when the so-called Strip s culinary landscape still was a mosaic of low-priced buffets. The allure of Puck's reputation and Robins' food at Spago Las Vegas reputedly inspired casino impresario Steve Wynn to create his chef-driven Bellagio resort. The rest, Robins says, is history in Las Vegas, noting that there are at least 34 celebrity chefs currently staking a claim on the boulevard's casino corridor.
Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group - Las Vegas, under the watchful eye of Robins and senior managing partner Tom Kaplan, has grown to four restaurants at three separate resorts. Spago Las Vegas and Chinois can be found at The Forum Shops connected to Caesars Palace; Trattoria del Lupo was created for Mandalay Bay; and Postrio, a branch of the San Francisco flagship, serves Italian-accented California cuisine at the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian resort. The enterprise is continuing to expand, Robins discloses, hinting at two projects along Las Vegas' main drag that are in development.
Title: corporate executive chef and partner, Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group - Las Vegas
Birth date: Aug. 14, 1962
Hometown: San Francisco
Education: Radio and television studies, San Francisco State University
Career highlights: Las Vegas Life 2003 Chef of the Year Award; cooking at James Beard House in 1996 and 1999; participating in worldwide charity events for Meals...