Trotter Sets Place for Vegas High Rollers

Desert Trotter: Both Wolfgang Puck and Mark Miller already have restaurants in the MGM Grand. Now the Las Vegas mega-hotel and casino is adding a small, exclusive establishment for its high-rolling clientele. They’re spending $3 million to build the young Chicago chef Charlie Trotter his second restaurant. Trotter is excited about taking his stylish French cooking to the glitzy desert city. “Las Vegas now has a budding AIWF (American Institute of Wine and Food) chapter. And with Wolfgang and Mark Miller to pave the way, I think in the next couple of years, there’s going to be a real gastronomic explosion.”

Charlie Trotter Las Vegas will have much of the look and feel of his elegant eponymous Chicago restaurant, the chef said. Like the original, the decor will be based on the Viennese Secessionist period of the early 1900s. The plates will be Limoges, the silverware Christofle, the linens Pratesi, the flowers grand. Even so, it all sounds a little understated for Las Vegas. The format is definitely new: The 70-seat restaurant will have a single six-course tasting menu each night (with an option for vegetarians). No buffet?

New Year’s Eve is the official opening date. “We’re working around the clock,” says Trotter. To get a preview, sign up for Trotter’s cooking class Oct. 9 at Let’s Get Cooking in Westlake Village. His cookbook titled “Charlie Trotter” should be out in October from Ten Speed Press.

California Cache: The chef behind California Frog Cafe Inc., the corporation that now holds the liquor license for the old Champagne Bis site on Little Santa Monica, does indeed turn out to be Jean Francois Meteigner. Just as suspected. The former L’Orangerie chef will open his new French-California restaurant for dinner on Oct. 1; lunch starts the 11th. Its name is “La Cachette”--”hideaway” in French.

The menu runs the gamut from bistro dishes to more sophisticated fare, but the emphasis, says Meteigner, will be on natural, light cooking. “Ninety-five percent of the recipes will not have any butter or cream. Instead, I’ll be using natural jus and reductions.” A sneak peek of the menu reveals Dungeness crab and lobster bisque with rouille and croutons; homemade smoked whitefish salad with warm potatoes and capers; rotisserie-roasted chicken with Provencal herbs and roasted garlic potatoes. Appetizers are $3.50 to $14; entrees $11 to $20. “The concept is good value, light cuisine and a great atmosphere,” says Meteigner.

Meals on Wheels: Break out those chaps, those snakeskin boots and that dusty ride-’em-cowboy chapeau. For the 12th year, Wolfgang Puck and his wife and partner, Barbara Lazaroff, are putting on the ritz for the American Wine and Food Festival on Sept. 24. This year’s theme is “A Western Night”--outdoors at the “Roman Forum” on the back lot of Universal Studios. Does that mean togas and ten-gallons?

Old L.A. hands like Jonathan Waxman, Lydia Shire, Hiro Sone and David and Annie Gingrass are flying in to cook for the event. Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme are coming from New Orleans, Dean Fearing from the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, Larry Forgione from An American Place in NYC and Mark Miller from the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe and more. L.A.’s finest will lend a hand too: Joachim Splichal, Piero Selvaggio, Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton, Makoto Tanaka and the newly bi-coastal Nobu Matsuhisa. And some 75 California wineries will be pouring their latest vintage.

Tickets to the mega-event are a steep $175, but the cause is eminently worthy: It’s a benefit for Meals on Wheels, the organization that delivers hot meals daily to the elderly and homebound throughout Los Angeles. (For tickets, call (310) 652-3706.)

Trader Tang: Thai restaurateur Tommy Tang is in the money now; he recently signed a deal with the budget-gourmet grocery Trader Joe’s. Starting next week all 57 stores will be offering two of Tang’s fried rice dishes at $2.49. Now when you get that hankering for Jasmine Fried Rice or Spicy Basil Fried Rice, you can whiz on over to your local trading post and grab some take-home. Add a couple of the line-caught tuna steaks and it’s a meal.

Kathie Jenkins, who usually writes this column, is on vacation.