Central at Caesars Palace Adds Enticing New Offerings
In Vegas, restaurants always strive to keep their menus as fresh as their ingredients. Central Michel Richard restaurant at Caesars Palace recently added nine new dishes to its already wide-ranging menu, and we couldn’t resist dropping by for some photos to share.
Yes, we're starting with a side salad. Hey, when you read a mystery novel, do you skip to the last page? Exactly! This experience needs to be savored.
Chef Todd Harrington (pictured below), who works closely with the restaurant’s James Beard Award-winning chef Michel Richard to develop menu items, gave us the low-down on Central’s new offerings.
Chef Todd Harrington missed his prom to have his portrait taken. We kid! He looks young, but he knows his stuff.
New to the menu is a tasty appetizer, the seared scallops. They’re U-10 scallops (signifying 10 scallops per pound, the biggest you can get), over white bean chili with a roasted red pepper sauce.
We're sticking to the story that we already knew "U-10" wasn't a band name.
On to the entrees!
First, the pecan-crusted Atlantic salmon with cauliflower, celery root and parsnips, served with a butternut squash sauce. Chef, you had us at “pecan-encrusted.”
Objectivity, schmobjectivity. This was our favorite.
Also prepared to exacting specifications is the Chilean sea bass with crispy-fried noodles and radishes, served on a lentil chili. Yes, we actually took notes this time. We are a professional. Probably.
Told you he knows what he's doing.
Another winning dish is the Famous Fried Chicken.
Chef Harrington says, “The fried chicken is done with a natural chicken tender mousse that we spread on the outside, and outside that is our rustic bread. We hand-bread our chicken with fresh bread crumbs, every day. No eggs or buttermilk are used.”
Our other favorite new dish. Yes, we have multiple favorites. So, sue us.
“The fried chicken takes three days to make,” says the chef. “The chicken gets slow-poached, then we mousse and bread it and it sits for another day, so the breading becomes part of the chicken. Then you deep-fry it on the third day.”
But don’t take our word for how good this fried chicken is. Yahoo Travel recently named Chef Michel Richard’s fried chicken one of the best in the country.
No Central meal is complete without dessert, of course (Chef Richard is French-born, after all), and the restaurant recently added a three-layer cake to its already dizzying selection of desserts.
It’s a three-layer chocolate cake with chocolate mousse, dried cranberries, chocolate sauce and vanilla sauce, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, with pralines on top.
Oh, my. We probably should've mentioned you'll want to save some room.
Since our last visit, a new pastry chef, Gilbert Peña, has joined the Central team, and after tasting his cake, we’d be remiss if we didn’t pass along his photo. He’s the one we’re blaming for our need to purchase pants with an expandable waistband.
Gilbert Peña, like so many great chefs, has one of those squiggly things in his name.
Filling out the rest of the new items are Chicken Schnitzel, house-made Angus chili, Oysters Rockefeller and Philly Cheese Steak Sliders, which we are currently kicking ourselves for not ordering. Next time!
Let us know what you think of these new dishes after your visit to Caesars Palace, and we’re happy to take care of any leftovers, because this blog is accommodating like that.
