Five talented tastemakers from Wynn Las Vegas share their industry secrets. Do you decant every bottle of wine? You should. Does it matter what scissors you use to cut flowers? Yes it does. What should you do with the "extra" pasta? Please don't throw it away. What's the sweetest thing you should have in your cupboard? Vanilla sugar, naturally. In a pinch? Make your own simple syrup and kick it up a notch.
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Secrets of Wynn “Pasta” with Enzo Febbraro
Allegro Executive Chef Enzo Febbraro recommends using every piece of pasta.
“Maltagliati is the kind of pasta that is wrongly shaped. When you have a lot of leftover pasta in Italy, we don't throw [anything] away. Everything goes in here, and the day after, even better. Your guests can see that you really made it. You didn't buy it. It's beautiful. You can eat this forever. Look at the mess. How beautiful is this? Don't throw away any leftover pasta; just roughly cut.”
Secrets of Wynn “Floral” with Evelyn Herrera
Wynn Las Vegas Director of Horticulture and Floral Evelyn Herrera recommends using the right tools to cut your flowers.
“One of the things that everybody knows is you cut your stem at an angle. That's not a secret. But what most people don't know is that the tool you use is 100 percent the most important thing. If you're going to use paper scissors, your flowers are not going to last. The way the stem of a flower is built, it has this outer edge, but if you see the inside, it's a little foamy. Those are hundreds, if not thousands of little veins bringing the water to the bloom. Paper scissors will squish your flowers and break them rather than cut them. My knife and my thumb are one. They move together. If you see me cut something, I hold the stem and move my hand. It took me many years and many cut thumbs to learn that. If you're not comfortable with a knife, that's okay. There are gardening shears, there are bonsai scissors, there are many tools you can use.”
Secrets of Wynn “Cocktails” with Mariena Mercer Boarini
Wynn Resorts Master Mixologist Mariena Mercer Boarini shares how to make simple syrup.
“Simple syrups really can be that simple. Equal parts sugar to water, and you're going to mix those. You can do it the traditional way, on the stovetop, stirring, making sure that the syrup is properly dissolved. Or if you want to be a cocktail hero, you're in a pinch, you have some guests coming over, put it in a coffee mug, and microwave it 30 seconds at a time. Stir until the sugar is properly dissolved, 90 seconds or so, and you have a simple syrup. [If you] want to inject a lot of flavor into that and you have some raspberry jam, [put] a spoonful in, or even your favorite tea, like a chai, makes an incredible Old Fashioned."
Secrets of Wynn “Pastry” with Michael Outlaw
Michael Outlaw, SW Steakhouse's executive pastry chef, recommends always having vanilla sugar on hand when baking or flavoring drinks and dishes.
“When using vanilla bean pods to open them up, scrape out all the seeds—but don't throw away the pod,” he says. “Mix [the pods] with sugar, put in your cupboard, and next time you need vanilla sugar, there you go.”
Secrets of Wynn “Wine” with Brian Weitzman
Wynn Las Vegas Executive Director of Wine Brian Weitzman recommends decanting every bottle of wine.
“When you put the wine into a decanter, it starts the aging process. With age, wine becomes more complex. From your first sip to your last sip, the wine in the decanter could age the equivalent of several years. So the wine is very different from when you started drinking it to when you finished. It's almost like drinking an entirely different wine.”