Joël Robuchon restaurant in Las Vegas celebrates 20th anniversary

When executive chef Eleazar Villanueva cooks in the kitchen of Joël Robuchon, history cooks with him.

Robuchon, named the greatest chef of the 20th century by the French food guide Gault Millau, opened his eponymous restaurant in the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip in September 2005, setting standards for culinary precision and refinement in Vegas, providing rigorous training to a generation of local chefs and helping the city to expand its presence as a global dining destination.

The chef brought prestige to Vegas, even more so in 2009 when Guide Michelin bestowed three stars on Joël Robuchon, the only restaurant here ever to be so honored. Robuchon died in 2018, but his restaurant continues to be an exemplar of artistry and opulence, of an almost sacral commitment to ingredients, of modern takes on French classics shorn of their stodginess.

Villanueva began nine years ago at the restaurant as a cook. Today, he leads a 50-person crew responsible for carrying on Robuchon tradition while also making their own mark at the restaurant.

“I’m very proud to take the torch and keep his legacy continuing,” said Villanueva, 32, a James Beard Award nominee this year. “It’s a big, big, big, big undertaking. I’m glad I have the whole team.”

For the past two years, the team has been planning two special menus to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Joël Robuchon and L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, the creative countertop sibling next door that also opened in 2005. The menus, one for each restaurant, are being served Friday through Monday.

The 16-course Joël Robuchon menu replicates the tasting menu the chef prepared for opening night two decades ago. Re-creating that menu, Villanueva said, has been part homage, part puzzle.

What am I missing here?

The recipes, perhaps not surprising, were all written by chef Robuchon in French. That was the easy part, it turns out. Villanueva reads and speaks some French, and two French servers (who have been at Robuchon since day one) assisted with the translation. But with each rendering into English, a mystery emerged.

“All the recipes he ever made, there was always something missing: a spice, a certain way of cooking the sauce, a certain way of breaking something down,” Villanueva said. “He wanted to keep some of these things to himself.”

Which means to fashion the menu, Villanueva discussed the 16 dishes with several chefs who had worked at Joël Robuchon over the years, learning exactly how each course was cooked and plated.

‘Refreshing and light’

Le Caviar Imperial dates to the beginning, fashioned for the anniversary menu as a round of Ossetra caviar resting atop crab in a golden pool of crustacean gelée dotted with cauliflower purée, perfectly spaced. La Tomate, another dish leading off the menu, offers a mille-feuille of king crab and fresh tomato laked by tomato coulis.

“The recipe does not say what type of tomatoes,” Villanueva said. “For the coulis, we use Early Girl tomatoes. They mix sweetness with bitterness with saltiness with tartness.”

For La Grenouille, frogs legs are deveined, marinated in tamari, stuffed with parsley Échiré butter, fried in tempura batter and swaddled in kataifi. A delicate leg bone, clean and smooth, rises from the fritter. This dish seems as much conjured as it does cooked. “It’s very refreshing, very light,” Villanueva said.

The 16-course anniversary tasting menu at Joël Robuchon is $525, plus optional wine pairings, with reservations at mgmgrand.com.

Popular dishes

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, the more relaxed counterpart to the flagship, has functioned as something like a workshop for the Robuchon organization, combining approachable ingredients with food-forward preparations. L’Atelier’s anniversary menu encompasses nine courses that guests have enjoyed over the years, Villanueva said.

The famed foie gras ravioli wet their bottoms in herb consommé. La Cebette white onion tart calls on smoked bacon, a quail egg and Parmesan. Le Black Cod features Alaskan cod that arrives whole; the fish is broken down, marinated for two days in house miso to absorb excess moisture and concentrate flavor, then glazed in miso.

“We’re able to cook it very slowly in the salamander,” Villanueva said. “The fish starts caramelizing on the outside, which gives it an umami, sweet flavor.”

The nine-course anniversary tasting menu at L’Atelier is $255, plus optional wine pairings, with reservations at mgmgrand.com.

Training chefs

The other afternoon, Villanueva led a run-through of some of the dishes from the menus in the dining room of Joël Robuchon, with its soaring ceiling and swagged crystal chandelier and richly purple banquettes, plush and plump. Chefs went in and out of the dining room, bringing courses that Villanueva finished with tweezing, spooning, dotting, drizzling, garnishing. Ninety percent of these chefs, he said, have been with Robuchon since the start.

“My goal for everybody here is bringing them up from the bottom and making them ready for the next job,” Villanueva said. “That got passed down from Robuchon to me.”

More important than ever

At a time when fine dining is a more casual experience than ever, when much of food culture regrettably consists of internet stunts and influencers on the take, the mission of Joël Robuchon seems even more essential by contrast.

To showcase intricate French food in the grand manner, but with an au courant approach. To offer deeply polished and professional service. To unapologetically celebrate a sumptuous setting that exists for its own beauty while also enhancing the meal.

“This type of food revolutionized what we do now, from the plating to the flavor combinations,” Villanueva said. “For me, this type of cuisine is the base for what everybody is doing now. The Robuchon name means a lot — not only what it has offered to me but what it has done for the culinary community.”

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