Champagne Wishes, Caviar Dreams Buffet-Style

Oct. 20, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- When Wolfgang von Wieser first visited Las Vegas as a 21-year-old budding chef, he looked down his nose--and the sneeze guard--at the city's iconic buffets.

"I saw those chunks of ham and roast beef and it was all such bad quality, I thought 'I could never work as a chef in Las Vegas,'" recalls von Wieser.

Now 49, von Wieser is the executive chef at the Bellagio, where he oversees all the hotel and casino's culinary operations, including its legendary buffet, which feeds 4,000 people a day.

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The Austrian native doesn't know which is more surprising: That he is very much a Las Vegas chef, or that those oft-maligned buffets are finally getting some respect--and deservedly so.

"The buffets here have become so much more sophisticated," says von Wieser. "It's the whole culinary landscape in Vegas that has changed."

Indeed, much of the food news coming out of Las Vegas in recent years has been about the star-studded chefs who've ridden into the desert--from Guy Savoy to Joel Robuchon to that "other" Wolfgang.

Meanwhile, the buffets have been quietly working hard to shed their image as feeding troughs for the gluttonous and palate-challenged, offering dishes like coq au Vin (at the Village Buffet at the Paris) and top-shelf sushi–now featured at just about every buffet worth its salt. They've traded their cafeteria look for something that looks and feels a lot more like a casual eatery.

Christina Clifton, vice president of food and beverage at the Mirage, says rather than chase the buffets out of town, these big name restaurants have forced buffets "to elevate themselves into being a real dining experience."

So when the Mirage decided to update its buffet, Cravings, they tapped none other than designer Adam Tihany, better known for such stunning destination restaurants as Per Se and Le Cirque 2000.

"We wanted the buffet to have a little more style," Clifton says. "We have a lot of international business guests, and we didn't want them to feel as though they were coming to a lesser restaurant."