A top Vegas chef explains the lobster — from grilling to lollipops

Don’t fear the lobster. Claws and tails aren’t hard to handle. The king of crustaceans is your friend.

That’s the message of “Viva La Lobster,” the latest cookbook by Las Vegas chef Grant MacPherson, owner of Scotch Myst, a culinary consulting firm.

In his decades-long career, MacPherson has created or led culinary programs for hotels across the globe, among them Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas, Wynn Macau, Raffles in Singapore, a Four Seasons in London and the Sandy Lane in Barbados. Much of this cooking involved the lobster, a lodestar of luxury around the world.

In advance of National Lobster Day on Sunday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal caught up with MacPherson to discuss why lobster deserves a bigger place on the plate of home cooks. Whether chilled in a salad or classically grilled or, yes, in lobster lollipops made with lobster stock.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Of all the ingredients you could have chosen, why select lobster to star in a cookbook? Isn’t lobster best left to restaurants?

MacPherson: I’m fascinated with lobsters. I think it’s a great ingredient. Lobsters are on almost every menu in Vegas, but they are not always done correctly. I also wanted to show the simplicity of a lobster.

I think it’s an interesting animal. It’s sweet, it tastes good, and you can eat it on its own or in a lobster roll. It can brighten a Tuscan minestrone, anchor a Singaporean curry or elevate humble baked beans into something extraordinary.

R-J: So why are many home cooks nervous about cooking lobster?

MacPherson: It’s not like a chicken breast or a steak. It’s live. Some people don’t want to be dealing with something that’s live. It freaks people out. I lived in Asia, where that’s just a way of life, in the markets, but not in the U.S.

It’s a good addition, cooking lobster at home — it adds conversation. It gets people gathered around the kitchen when you’re cooking lobsters. I think it’s a good talking point.

R-J: Do you have any lobster war stories from Vegas? What about Bellagio, where you were opening chef when the property debuted in 1998?

MacPherson: Years ago at Bellagio, we had some of the first shellfish towers. When you’re bringing in lots of lobsters, you need to keep them alive. We were serving 500 lobsters a day. You have to take them out of the box and put them in the tank right away.

I remember very clearly, we ran out of lobsters at Picasso. I remember we had to run out to a line of trucks, find the right trucks and grab the lobsters. Getting lobsters to the restaurant — you have a 1-pound chick, you got the big guys, 1 1/2- to 2-pounders, several sizes to deal with. The logistics of getting any product to the restaurant, especially a live product, is always a challenge.

R-J: The cookbook begins by covering what probably makes home cooks most nervous: how to handle lobsters. Can you briefly speak to that?

MacPherson: I just want people to know not to be scared of lobster. Lobsters are ready to rock, and lobsters are ready to roll. The cookbooks shows you how to clean a lobster, how to cut it, how to gril it. You want to break the claws before you grill it. It’s very light and very healthy.

R-J: The recipes range from standards, like lobster salad, to strange, like lobster lollipops. What are some of your favorite recipes?

MacPherson: Singapore lobster curry. A Scottish-style breakfast spin on the full English. Shepherd’s pie. You have got to be a little out of your mind to do that — I wanted to come up with a couple fun things.

“Viva La Lobster” (hardcover, 165 pp., full color) is on sale at Amazon.com for $38.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.