FAST 5-STAR FOOD

HOW THE BELLAGIO'S FOUNTAIN CLUB BECAME LAS VEGAS'S HOTTEST FORMULA ONE TICKET

- Story by CALUM MARSH / NYT

A line-up of celebrity chefs help to cook at the Fountain Club.

At US$7,750 (250,000 baht) a head, tickets aren’t cheap.

But neither are the ingredients on the plate. Soy-cured eggs and caviar, Wagyu beef carpaccio and Hokkaido snow crab were some of the small plates. Luxury ingredients topped everything, from Basque cheesecake (with truffles) to soft serve ice cream (also with truffles) to VSOP Cognac (also, improbably, with truffles).

This wasn’t merely fancy finger food — the Fountain Club's menu was put together by its VIP chefs, including James Beard Award and Michelin star winners and well-known TV personalities. These chefs were there to cook, serve and glad-hand with customers, dividing their time about equally between adding a swig of olive oil to a freshly prepared batch of pasta and indulging requests for selfies with fans.

José Andrés and Michael Mina posed for photos on one side of the room while Tom Colicchio and Alex Guarnaschelli carefully adjusted garnishes on the other.

It might be tempting to imagine that a popup catering menu would be a cheaper or simpler version of what these chefs typically offer, but according to Wolfgang Puck “it has to be up to the same par”.