For the Vegas foodie: a story on Brett Ottolenghi

LETTER FROM LAS VEGAS about Brett Ottolenghi.

Ottolenghi is the proprietor of Artisanal Foods, which supplies top Las Vegas chefs with foie gras, truffles, caviar, saffron, vinegars, cinnamon, oils, salts, and ham. He often says that he is on a first-name basis with three-hundred and seventy chefs in Las Vegas. To the chefs, he is “the truffle kid”—for his first product—or Hamleg, owing to his tendency to walk through casino lobbies carrying the hairy, hoof-on hindquarters of a pig. He specializes in the small run, the vaguely regulated, the hard to come by, and the near-banned.

Read more at the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/16/100816fa_fact_goodyear#ixzz0wnk3QiNZ

It's a great story about the chefs of Vegas and their demands to top each other, and how one man serves them in a city where everything is on sale for the right price.