April 30, 2009
Now we're cooking
Top Chef is filming its latest
season in Vegas—could it be the answer to our prayers?
By STEVE FRIESS
We’ve been waiting for a lifeline. The obituaries
are being written and, unless you’re Oscar B. Goodman or Pollyanna
or someone allergic to statistics, they hardly seem premature.
Las Vegas is drowning in debt and in red ink, our houses are
rapidly approaching worthless, our unemployment rate is speeding
toward a record, our casinos are echo chambers and our taxes
are, regardless of what the Review-Journal thinks, are going
up. Pretty soon the obits are going to become autopsies.
Something needs to change. Something big. Something game-changing.
And late last week, I broke news via my blog that might just
be that wished-for antidote.
Top Chef began filming Season 6 in Las Vegas on Monday. This
could easily be the start of the recovery.
Stop. Do not turn the page yet. Hear me out. It’s not as ridiculous
as it sounds.
Remember how seminal that 2002 season of MTV’s “The Real World”
at the Palms turned out to be not just for George Maloof’s nascent
themeless off-Strip resort but for kicking off the What Happens
Here Stays Here decade? Remember how watching those silly characters
cavort and mate in that fantastical suite imprinted upon a generation
the impression of Vegas as the coolest, most creative place
on the planet to party?
Yes, one phenomenally successful TV show did all that. And
it could happen again.
Sure, there have been plenty of other reality TV shows that
have used Las Vegas as a backdrop. “America’s Got Talent” films
its finales here each summer, has so far even birthed at least
two Strip headliners, Nathan Burton and Terry Fator. “Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition” was just here helping pick up the pieces
of a family’s shattered lives, “Clean House” engineered its
trademark garage sale somewhere on the west side and no fewer
than three reality shows (The Casino, American Casino and Caesars
24/7 come to mind) attempted to explore the inner workings of
the gambling business. Surreal Life, Fear Factor, Cops and an
endless number of poker permutations all have spent time here.
All of that’s great in terms of reinforcing and enhancing
the Vegas brand as it’s generally known. You know that drill:
adult playground, gambling Mecca, platform for all sorts of
stage performers, city of broken dreams, hipster hangout. Nothing
since that “Real World” season has made any sort of new impression
on the public, taught them anything they didn’t already know
about the destination.
The Bravo cooking competition Top Chef is very different.
For one thing, it’s a widely respected show, one of the few
reality programs snooty TV critics on the coasts proudly admit
watching. As with Project Runway and the fashionistas, Top Chef
is admired, appreciated and obsessed over by the intelligensia
of the culinary universe. With Craftsteak and ‘wichcraft owner
Tom Colicchio, a five-time James Beard Award winner, as the
head judge, it is taken seriously.
That right there is the news for Vegas. Serious people will
watch. Cultured people. People with money. People who wish Steve
Wynn would just open a nice place in the Hamptons or La Jolla
so they could partake in his lavish offerings without having
to pass a demonic neon clown or dodge gaggles of drunken frat
boys slurping Eiffel Tower-shaped margaritas.
No doubt, Top Chef will exploit the shlockier side of Vegas,
too. I held a brainstorming session on Facebook to see what
some folks might come up with and PR queen Heather Krug of the
Rogers & Cowan firm suggested a challenge where “each dish has
to have carrots as ingredient and its made in honor of special
celeb judge Carrot Top.” Can’t blame her, though. I’ve already
got visions of one where contestants must make a snack to go
with Mayor Goodman’s martinis or something in which they’re
limited in ingredients to whatever’s on the Circus Circus buffet.
And all that’s fine, so long as nobody asks Perez Hilton to
judge.
But this is Top Chef, and it didn’t get its top-shelf rep
by dwelling in camp. More likely, the viewers will learn how
seriously Las Vegas takes food these days, will see some of
the sensational architecture created to serve those meals, will
realize that the restaurants bearing the names of Robuchon,
Savoy and Trotter are tremendous achievements in their own rights
and not just pale knockoffs or sellouts.
Las Vegas’ dining world certainly gets its share of attention
on the Travel Channel and the Food Network, but Top Chef fans
can see through the obvious bought-a nd-paid-for hype of the
shows on those stations. Top Chef certainly isn’t pure – they’ve
had challenges involving Red Robin and T.G.I. Friday’s for God’s
sake -- but in five seasons they’ve built a brand that is trusted
by an important and lucrative demographic who still feels Las
Vegas is beneath them.
Is it too much to demand of one TV show to make a difference
in the fortunes of a community? Oh, probably. But if that brainy
gang over at R&R Partners can find a way to build on it the
way What Happens Here built on the Real World, it could be the
start of something. Up to now, the most refined offerings in
Vegas --Wynn, Bellagio, Four Seasons, Palazzo -- have had to
carry their promotional water all by themselves. Those places
were never selling What Happens Here Stays Here, they were trying
to sell an elegant experience on par with Paris, London and
New York. They’ve received virtually no support in that pursuit
from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority except
on the convention bookings side.
It’s possible. It’s exciting. It’s something out of the norm.
And, knowing Bravo, it’ll be run and rerun ad nauseum until
Sasha Obama graduates high school.
As they say on Bravo, what what happens.
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