Scrumptious food marked second Gourmet Games

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 | 9:10 a.m.

Everyone partied hard at the mouth-wateringly delicious, second annual Gourmet Games held Saturday in the Palace Grand Ballroom in Caesars Palace hotel-casino.

No one left hungry.

This is far more than just a wondrous culinary event. Proceeds from the admission benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Nevada, and also the Muriel Stevens UNLV Scholarship Fund.

The foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting one of our most dreaded childhood diseases. The Muriel Stevens scholarship fund, named after the Sun food editor/columnist, benefits culinary students at UNLV's William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

At precisely 11:30 a.m. sharp the doors of the ballroom swung open for those who purchased a $100 ticket. At 12:30 the doors opened to the general public, who spent a modest $35 each for their tickets.

They got a deal.

The spangled, balloon-filled room was lined from wall to wall with food-filled booths and displays set up by some of our leading hotels and restaurants, as well as an array of participants from the world of wine. Having the chance to taste only a few of these dishes in a restaurant would cost well more than the Gourmet Games price of admission. Having it all, at this price, is a downright steal.

The booths were a huge success, both from an artistic and a culinary standpoint. All of them raised people's awareness that this city is blessed with a wellspring of talent in the kitchen.

Perhaps the most impressive booths belonged to Bellagio, headed by Chef Grant MacPherson, a native of Dundee, Scotland. Here, a team of chefs busied themselves serving deliciously smooth rillettes of salmon topped with caviar, Fanny Bay oysters with a Hawaiian mignonette, smoked trout scones, and the piece de resistance, Peking duck cappuccino.

Picture a white porcelain cup stocked with duck and mushrooms, topped with a foamy hot broth, and served with a tiny pastry "spoon" seasoned with Chinese five spice powder. Brilliant.

Harrah's, in the same row, also seemed to be a crowd favorite. This hotel and casino has an executive chef named Jeffrey Frederick, an American who worked for several years in Hong Kong. Two of Harrah's restaurants, Asia and the Range Steakhouse, were represented.

The gently artistic Asia table served a spicy tuna handroll with wasabi, cilantro, garlic and pickled ginger, all wrapped up in a cone of crunchy nori seaweed. From the Range came wonderful smoked lobster and white truffle tamales made out of green, red and yellow masa, each one a work of art poised for consumption. Chef Frederick served his tamales on a black bean mole dappled with fraiche. What a treat.

It was also fun to see a whole roast pig, snout and all, behind the Emeril Lagasse display. Emeril's booth made sure that copies of his many cookbooks were also prominently in view. And the pig eventually got to kick it up a notch, not in a poke, but on the plate. Porky ended up as a topping on Emeril's deliciously authentic jambalaya. This reporter had seconds.

Two of the most popular dishes with the crowd were the lamb chops from Malibu Chan's and the famous Nevada Nick's Special Salad. The lamb chops were served on a bed of mashed potatoes. The salad was a blend of finely chopped Romaine lettuce, diced avocado, bacon, tomatoes, cooked egg, Stilton cheese and a shallot and chili dressing.

Another delicious dish was Samba Grill's rodizio barbecued filet of Angus beef, served on a bed of pork pineapple confit, paired with a black bean roasted banana empanada. One of the easiest to nibble was a spring roll stuffed with crayfish, from Rio's Voodoo Lounge.

Station Casinos had the largest booth, at least in terms of sheer variety. Chef Daniel Pfeiffer, a giant of a man in his own right, brought in a team of 25 chefs to serve his German-theme buffet, which included three kinds of German sausages, German potato salad, strudel and enormous hand-rolled pretzels. All were dishes featured at the Station's annual Oktoberfest, which begins in late September and lasts nearly a month.

Nor was the sweet tooth neglected. Two talented pastry chefs, Mary Bergin of Spago and Christophe Ithurritz of Mirage, were there. At the Spago table, Bergin prepared an outstanding apple strudel, and handed out homemade chocolate cloud and almond cookies in half-pint Chinese take-out boxes.

Over at a display called the Roasted Bean (the coffee pub opens April 1 at the Mirage), the affable Ithurritz was handing out tiny pastries like lemon macaroons, baba au rhums, caramel crusted mini-cream puffs and approximately a dozen others, all of them as good as the law allows. People lingered and nibbled, until nearly 3 o'clock. Mariachis strolled around the room, playing Mexican songs and spreading the fun. As the crowd thinned down, one of the event organizers, Rino Armeni of Southern Wine and Spirits, looked content.

"I'm just a lucky man," Armeni said, "lucky to live in a town filled with people who like to put something back into the community."

For more information on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, contact the foundation office, 2785 E. Desert Inn Road., Suite No. 240, or call 383-8500. You can also check out the foundation website at www.cff.org.