Chef Brian Howard
Meat the detail man
Comme Ça inside the Cosmopolitan, commecalasvegas.com
Bacon, salami, ham, sausages, terrines, patés — everybody loves charcuterie, even if few of us understand the hours, days and months required to put in the necessary work and affection to create a colorful plate of assorted meaty goodness. Luckily, Vegas has chefs like Brian Howard, who do understand — and care a great deal.
“For many people throughout the world, making charcuterie is something they grew up doing, a family thing. For me, it’s getting back to a heritage, touching base with European roots, and just learning how to do it. It’s something that takes a lot of time, anticipation and love to come out with a good product.”
There are a lot of variables in making what seems like a simple sausage: humidity, temperature, technique and mixing the right amounts of fat, protein and seasoning. Howard’s charcuterie program at Comme Ça is one of the city’s best, but the chef’s first memorable triumph was making a standard paté at Bouchon years ago.
“There was so much detail, how the bacon was sliced that wrapped around the outside, how smooth the texture needed to be on the inside. It was very gratifying to make it well the first time, but now, that’s like the easiest thing to do on the list.”
He has expanded into duck salami and prosciutto, and an insane new mega-terrine that contains cured pork belly, hot coppa and garlic sausage in one savory slice. Now he’s experimenting with vegetarian replication. “I would put our charcuterie up against anybody’s,” Howard said. “I try to be humble, but this is something I’m pretty pleased with.” — Brock Radke
Smoke and jazz
Las Vegas Grille 7865 W. Sahara Ave. #105, vegasgrille.com
Two things catch your attention upon entering Las Vegas Grille: a drum kit to your left, and a glass display case of hard woods to your right. Although neither is edible, together they represent owner Phil Holec’s philosophy on barbecue.
“I like to call what I do improv or jazz cooking,” he says. The self-taught chef spent years mixing and matching woods, meats and smoking times and temperatures to compose the eclectic menu you see at his year-old restaurant today. “Before we opened, I was the guy who’d come home from work and stay up until 3 a.m. experimenting with different recipes and techniques.”
The results of those culinary jam sessions are a hit. Using an industrial smoker that sits in view of the dining room, Holec serves an extensive and creative list of meats, seafood and house-made sausages. White oak pairs perfectly with sirloin, pecan infuses just enough smoke in an herb-crusted pork loin, and nectarine wood lends flavor to a smoked salmon filet that blows any kosher deli’s lox out of the water.
Holec says that barbecue enthusiasts can smoke meat at home for themselves, but warns that the endeavor involves long periods of trial and error.
“There is no right or wrong, but you’re going to make certain mistakes in the beginning, like oversmoking or overbrining your meat,” he says. “It’s a project that requires patience. My own recipes are an ongoing, lifelong process, some of which the concepts for began when I was cooking next to my mother as a young child.”
Sounds daunting, so why bother when you can just go straight to Holec? The man has clearly already found his groove. — Debbie Lee
Chef Saul Ortiz
Hot salsa steps
Tacos & Tequila inside the Luxor, tacosandtequilalv.com
“To really make salsa, you must have fresh ingredients, and it must be something spicy yet enjoyable.” So says chef Saul Ortiz, and you should believe him. He’s obsessed. At his restaurant in Luxor, the kitchen is turning out between 15 and 25 fresh-made varieties every day, some in 10-gallon batches. He’s made rose petal salsa. He’s using every kind of chili pepper out there, guajillo to pasilla, cascabel to chipotle. He’s even got a hydroponic set-up at home so he can grow his own ghost pepper plant, which he can’t wait to make into a roasted salsa.
“They say when you eat raw ghost pepper, the feeling you get is that your scalp separates from your head,” Ortiz said. “I don’t know if I want to feel that, but I’m curious about the flavor profile.”
Creating great salsa is first a decision as to what type of flavors you like, and then an ongoing experiment in ingredients and technique. Try different peppers, and blend them in raw, roasted or dried form. Use only fresh ingredients — onion, cilantro, citrus — and don’t let it sit too long.
“After 24 hours, the acids start eating away at the sodium and you’ll get a pickling effect. When it’s not fresh, you’re losing your original flavors.” And take it easy on the tomatoes. “They are overused. Clean up your tomatoes by removing the seeds, which hold water, otherwise your pico de gallo will turn to soup. And you can use different things instead of tomato as your base, like more citrusy tomatillo or roasted poblano peppers. Once you know how to roast your basic ingredients to add depth of flavor, and then you can incorporate an exotic pepper? Oh man, you’re set.” — B.R.
Healthy hedonism
Greens & Proteins 8975 S. Eastern Ave., greensandproteins.com
restaurant cuisine that's healthy and filling? Tough sell. And that actually tastes good? Even tougher. Hitting all three is the goal of Greens & Proteins, a “healthy fast food” spot where vegan yoginis, UFC powerhouses and average Joes can dine in harmony.
Strategically located a short sprint from a perpetually crowded gym, Greens & Proteins has managed to achieve the unthinkable: making feel-good food craveable. Chef Murray Young, formerly of China Grill management, credits this first and foremost to seasoning.
“Cooking with seasoning takes the place of excess salt and fat, which are typically found in fast food,” he says. “We also use a lot of fresh herbs, citrus and virgin olive oil, which really impact flavor.”
Some of the most popular items are lighter riffs on comfort foods. Spiced tofu fries ($5.99) are crisped in heart-healthy grapeseed oil; a cheesesteak wrap contains high-protein bison meat and low-fat mozzarella ($10.99); and a 305-calorie margherita pizza is served on a thin crust dough or vegan lavash ($7.99). Even the deceptively rich Thai ginger soup ($4.99) has a surprise ingredient.
“Cashews that have been soaked and pureed are a vegan way to make recipes creamy,” Young says.
Another draw is the restaurant’s flexibility. Customers are able to “Build Your Own Custom Meal,” mixing and matching proteins, greens, grains and sauces, which eases the challenge of menu navigation for special dieters, picky eaters or apprehensive first-timers.
At the end of the day, “making good food stems from using high-quality, wholesome ingredients,” says Young. Case in point: The fully-loaded chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie ($7.50). Somehow, this combination of 14 seemingly mismatched ingredients, including kale, avocado, cacao powder and chia seeds, blends together to create a refreshing vitamin-packed play on a much more sinful treat. That’s what I call having your shake and eating it too.