September 11, 2025, marks the 10th anniversary of Chef Kerry Simon’s death.
Shortly before his death, Kerry asked me to contribute the memoir portion of a book he was hoping to publish. Because time was short, and his condition had left him unable to speak, I interviewed as many of his friends as possible, collecting stories about his life. Unfortunately, Kerry died before it could be completed.
The short stories in this series are precisely what I presented to Kerry a few weeks before his death, receiving a thumbs-up and nod of approval. They have not been updated. The video trailer in these stories represents preliminary work on a documentary about the chef’s life, which I discussed with him during our final meeting. I still hope to complete that project.
The Move to Sin City
Kerry moved to Las Vegas, which he would call home for the rest of his life, to open Prime Steakhouse at the newly opened Bellagio in 1998. But that wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen. Casino magnate Steve Wynn and the head of his restaurants, Elizabeth Blau, were planning a restaurant program for Bellagio that would go on to change the culinary landscape in Las Vegas. But Blau felt they should also add a new high-end restaurant in The Mirage that would serve a sister restaurant to Bellagio’s fine-dining jewel Picasso. So they approached Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York and convinced him and Kerry to fly back to Las Vegas with them.
When they got to town, Wynn gave them a tour of The Mirage, but also took them to see Bellagio, which was still under construction. When Vongerichten made it clear he wanted to operate a restaurant in that property, the only openings Wynn and Blau had available were a steakhouse and a seafood restaurant, which they had planned to manage themselves.
“And Jean-Georges said, without a drop of a hat, ‘Steak? The French invented the original steak frites,’” Blau reminisces about the meeting. “And he started rattling off this menu. And that was the end of the story.”
“’And,’ he said, ‘On top of it, my partner here, Kerry Simon, will move to Las Vegas and he will live here and run the restaurant.’”
The Bellagio quickly became the most popular place in Las Vegas for visiting celebrities, and Kerry once again found himself cooking for the A-list stars.
“I think that his interaction with celebrity was at its all-time high,” Blau says of Kerry’s time at Prime. “Because in Las Vegas, there’s always an award show or something going on. So there was nobody [who] didn’t come through Bellagio.”
Of course, being in a casino also meant dealing with the so-called whales, or high rollers, whose demands could be greater than even the biggest-name celebrities.
“It was the first time I had to deal with people who could have whatever they [wanted] whenever they wanted it,” says celebrity chef Wylie Dufresne, who served as Kerry’s Chef de Cuisine at Prime.
Dufresne recalls one particular set of brothers: “They were big boys. They spent a lot of money. And they had the private dining area for like 25 people. And we’d gone back and forth with their people on the menu. And then they arrive with their entourage, and they immediately go off the reservation. They wanted wagyu and this and that, and I didn’t have the food they were saying they wanted. We had a pre-set menu for 25 people that we had prepared. And they just completely went off the grid. And I had to call the executive chef of the hotel, because I knew I wasn’t allowed to say no.”
But Dufresne also had the pleasure of getting access to Kerry’s rock and roll connections while in Las Vegas.
“Chef Grant Macpherson and Kerry were kind enough to take this wide-eyed chef of Prime and show him a good time,” he says. “And we had fun. I got there, and within three days, I had met Blondie backstage at a Led Zeppelin concert at the MGM Grand. And I was like, ‘Wow, this is cool!’”
What Happens in Vegas
When Kerry arrived in Las Vegas, it was no surprise that Sin City provided a new playground for his rock and roll appetites. His business relationship with Elizabeth Blau was growing into a lifelong friendship. But it was Bellagio’s Executive Chef Grant MacPherson who almost immediately became his new partner in crime. MacPherson had moved to town from Singapore at virtually the same time Kerry arrived from New York.
“Me and Elizabeth and Kerry used to hang out,” MacPherson says of those days. “But when Elizabeth was doing other stuff or going to Connecticut, Kerry and I used to go to concerts. He’s a big music fan like myself, and we’ve probably seen over 100 shows together. We were at the opening of the House of Blues, Deep Purple, Jeff Beck, George Carlin. Late ’98, before Bellagio opened, that’s really how we started hanging out.”
And hang out they did – for the rest of their lives.
Ask Grant about their most memorable backstage experiences, and he hesitates momentarily before confessing it was “probably backstage at David Lee Roth and watching a girl get right up close to him below the belt.”
He’s quick to emphasize it was “not that we wanted to see that, but we didn’t have much choice.”
Their backstage experiences together also inspired Grant’s long-running nickname for Kerry.
“Ted Nugent has a song called ‘Great White Buffalo.’” He explains. “And that’s sort of a name I used for Kerry. Because we were at that concert one night, perhaps slightly impaired, and I used that nickname for Kerry for a long time. Because Kerry is the original rock ‘n’ roll chef in my mind.”
Grant and Kerry also insisted on having rock star-style fun after a show.
“We were at the strip joints every night! Every time we went to a show, we’d go to [Las Vegas topless club] Crazy Horse Too. And we’d leave there about 2:00 or 3:00.”
After that, he says, they’d generally shoot pool until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning at a now-closed club called Pink E’s.
“We always had a lot of fun together,” Grant says of their party days. But he adds one caveat you would want to keep in mind if planning a party with the Great White Buffalo.
“The big thing about Kerry is, if you were meeting him at 7:00, Kerry was not coming there at 7:00. Kerry was coming at 7:50.”
Rock ‘N’ Roll Chef Meets Rock ‘N’ Roll Casino
In 2002, Kerry split from Jean-Georges with his mentor’s blessing to open his own restaurant at The Hard Rock Casino. Partnering with his good friend Elizabeth Blau, they opened Simon Kitchen. The hotel was the center of cool in Las Vegas. A rock and roll slap in the face to the staid establishment, it had struck a unique chord with celebrities and Middle Americans alike. And it was just what the rock and roll chef was looking for.
“Every day he’d go to work [at Prime] and his maître d’ was in a tuxedo. And the music was selected by the hotel,” Blau explains. “But the Hard Rock just embodied everything that was Kerry: the rock ‘n’ roll, the waiters wearing blue jeans, the music. He would spend hours and hours selecting the music to be played.
“The approach was very straightforward. We wanted to give people an experience that was on the same level [as] what he was doing at Prime in terms of really great service and really great quality food, but in a totally casual environment.”
Tobias Peach, who joined the team as general manager during the restaurant’s first year of operation, says the atmosphere, while unheard of at the time, set the stage for a new generation of quality dining.
“He was taking the tablecloths off the table. Anything you see now at places that play rock and roll or loud music, and people are pulling their tables together – allowing people to turn it into their own party – we did there.”
The atmosphere wasn’t the only thing that would rock the Las Vegas dining scene. His brand of upscale comfort food, which he’d pioneered in Miami, was entirely new for the town. At the time, most casinos were focused on bringing in celebrity chefs to run their high-end formal dining rooms.
“Kerry, without really saying a word, went in the opposite direction,” says Robin Leach. “He was convinced that you could present fun, contemporary, American food at a lower price point and still have great food and a very casual attitude. Kerry brought an element of fun to food. Not frivolity, just fun. And hidden under the fun was a serious take on American food.”
The concept was such a fantastic success that today you can find high-end chefs offering comfort food in restaurants across the country.
“You can give Kerry a lot of the credit for a lot of that comfort stuff that came after him – the mac and cheese that’s now on everybody’s menu and the cotton candy that you see everywhere – just bringing that stuff that’s kind of thought of as American country food, bringing that to the forefront,” says Peach.
Celebrity Chef Cat Cora agrees that the direction in dining that Kerry introduced to the world at The Hard Rock was trendsetting, noting, “It just shows he was ahead of his time.”
He Sells Sanctuary
Given Kerry’s rock ‘n’ roll reputation, his numerous rock star friends, and the Hard Rock’s rock ‘n’ roll attitude, it’s no surprise Simon Kitchen became a favorite hangout for rock stars. Kerry was also always willing to open the kitchen late to cook for an artist after their show. So within the first few days of its opening, The Rolling Stones played the casino, and Kerry found himself making burgers for Mick Jagger at one o’clock in the morning.
But the restaurant’s appeal to musicians was based on more than attitude and flexible hours. Kerry made them feel comfortable and welcome, as if they weren’t under a spotlight. He never sent out press releases announcing that a star had dined there. And the staff never bothered them for autographs or allowed other customers to do so. They were treated like any other customer. General manager Tobias Peach describes the restaurant as “a little sanctuary” for stars where everyone “just let them have fun.”
Guitarist Slash, who has dined at numerous Simon restaurants, agrees they all shared that appeal.
“One of the things that was great,” he says, “is that he respected artists’ privacy. You could actually find a booth or a table and hang out pretty anonymously, even though there were a lot of other people there, which is pretty hard to do.”
He also believes Kerry appeals to rock stars because “he works to the beat of his own drum, which is a little bit of what rock and roll is all about – freedom of self-expression and going against the rules”
Alice Cooper says that for all of those reasons, “If you went to Las Vegas and you were a rock and roll guy, you either went to Nobu or you went to Kerry’s place.”
He says one of his favorite memories of being at the restaurant was with his son, on his 16th birthday. “I said, ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to go to Pebble Beach? Do you want to go to L.A.?’ And he said, ‘No, let’s go to Vegas. Let’s go to Kerry’s.’ And that was part of his birthday present.”
Alice wasn’t the only star who saw the restaurant as a family destination.
“We were in there one night having dinner, and Dave Grohl was there,” recalls famed rock photographer Robert Knight. “And he came over to the table, which is strange for a rock star to come over to your table. And then he said, ‘I’ll be right back,’ and he came back with his wife and new baby.”
Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, who knew Kerry long before he opened his restaurant at The Hard Rock, threw one of his band’s record release parties there. He says Kerry has a personality that just endeared him to countless musicians who passed through his doors.
“He’s just a great guy,” he explains. “And he could handle stress. I mean, you see all these TV shows where these chefs are mean and nasty and jumping all over people. He wasn’t like that at all.”
Whatever the appeal, Robin Leach believes that after all of his years hanging out with celebrities, it was the unprecedented celebrity draw of The Hard Rock that pushed him to the next level, on par with them.
“Kerry became a celebrity out of The Hard Rock. That’s what Vegas did for him.”
Kick Out the Jammies
Kerry’s success at The Hard Rock inspired numerous other Las Vegas ventures over the years, including the brothel-themed Cathouse at Luxor, his KGB burger spot in Harrah’s and dining at the Sapphire Pool & Day Club (adjacent to the Sapphire Gentleman’s Club). But none was as influential as the move of his flagship to The Palms.
In 2006, Hard Rock founder Peter Morton sold the hotel to Morgan Hotel Group. And as often happens when an eclectic visionary exits a company and a massive corporation takes over, the resort lost a bit of its “hip” factor. Nonetheless, the Hard Rock was expanding and building new towers, and they wanted Kerry to relocate his restaurant.
In the meantime, another off-Strip property had become the new go-to spot for the young, the hip, the beautiful and the famous. The Palms was at the top of its game, and owner George Maloof was building a new condo-hotel tower called Palms Place. And Maloof wanted Simon to helm it as the resort’s only restaurant.
“I first met him at The Bellagio,” George recalls of Kerry. “And then he went and opened up The Hard Rock. And despite not liking to go in there, because it was The Hard Rock, I did go to his place frequently and was able to enjoy his great food. And then I heard [Peter] Morton wanted some other concept there, and that moment I called Kerry. And we worked a deal. And it was great timing for Palms Place.”
Celebrity photographer Robert Knight attended the grand opening with his wife and was shocked by the crowd. “The guy from Fall Out Boy was there, Nicole Richie. It was like a who’s who!”
Simon Kitchen and Bar continued Simon’s emphasis on comfort food. But it added a sushi bar to the mix. And despite all the indulgent treats, fruit and vegetable juices were available for the health-conscious. The dining room and bar were located poolside, and guitarist Slash describes the atmosphere as “very festive.”
“It was airy,” he explains. “And it had all these floor-to-ceiling windows all the way around. And it was just Vegas!”
While condo sales suffered after the housing bust, celebrities still came to enjoy Kerry’s food. One of his biggest fans, George Maloof says, was Lady Gaga.
“The first time she performed in Las Vegas was at The Palms, and she stayed at Palms Place. Very quiet, but she enjoyed just sitting at the window in the back. And she would return quite often, even when she was playing at other venues.”
“And there were a lot of people like that,” George continues. “Cheap Trick. They were there all the time. Tera Patrick, the [adult] actress, was in there all the time. She had a thing for Kerry. Paul Stanley [of Kiss] was there a lot, he enjoyed Kerry’s food, and he had a condo at Palms Place.”
Kerry’s most successful event at Palms Place was the Sunday pajama party brunch, where the gorgeous staff dressed in pajamas, and the crowd was invited to do so as well. Bartenders dressed as sexy nurses and poured vodka from IVs. And the crowd on any given Sunday was likely to include NBA players (Maloof’s family owned the Sacramento Kings), musicians, movie stars and porn stars. But locals also loved it.
“Anybody who was anybody in this city was here,” Robin Leach says of the weekly party. “From bankers and state officials to hotel executives and hotel presidents, it was a case that if you weren’t at the Sunday brunch, you were an odd man out in this city.”
Leach says the event led to a trend in which nearly all of the major resorts now offer their own twist on Sunday brunch.
“I never heard of people in Vegas saying, ‘We gotta go for brunch on a Sunday.’ And I don’t know that we had many brunch places to go to other than buffets. And because of what went on there, brunch became an event on the hotels’ weekly calendars.”
The Sweets
Kerry’s whimsical desserts have always drawn as much attention as his savory courses. His interest in pastry dates back to his time at The Lafayette, when he asked Jean-Georges Vongerichten to let him take a turn at the pastry chef position. And Jean-Georges says his creativity in the field was evident even then.
“At one point, I did a whole asparagus menu, where each course was asparagus,” his old boss says. “And he came up with an asparagus cookie and asparagus ice cream that would blow your mind – totally out of the box, totally genius.”
Throughout his solo career, Simon dedicated considerable time to offering gourmet junk food in his restaurant’s dessert section. If you bought it as a kid from a convenience store counter, whether it was a Hostess Cupcake or a Sno-Ball, the odds were good that the chef had recreated it on one of his dessert menus. And if he hasn’t, the sugar high you got from the others probably convinced you that he had.
“I loved all his crazy desserts, they were very kind of carnival style,” says Slash. And while he can’t remember all of them, he says, “I keep thinking of these donut holes on a stick that I used to get.”
Donut holes are one thing, but the chef’s most famous dessert creation may also have been his simplest.
“He was the first guy I ever saw make cotton candy in a restaurant,” says Sammy Hagar. “And I’m thinking, ‘Cotton candy, everybody loves that shit. But who the hell in a fine dining restaurant would put cotton candy on their menu?’”
Robin Leach, a haute cuisine fan who admits he “never was a fan of Kerry’s attitude over desserts with packaged candy and popcorn and sugar,” happily admits “it led to fun at the dinner table, with people making mustaches and beards out of the cotton candy.”
Mustaches, beards, and even wigs were all made out of Kerry’s infamous cotton candy. Palms Place ran an ad campaign with Kerry in rock-star sunglasses and waitresses in cotton-candy beehive hairstyles. But Sammy Hagar may have put it into the best rock and roll terms when he describes an admittedly R-rated evening in Vegas, where he saw a lot of very attractive women playing with Kerry’s cotton candy.
“It ended up as facial and pubic hair,” he laughs, in a story that might not be appetizing to everyone, but is quite definitely rock and roll!
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: ERIK KABIK
FOR MORE POSTS IN THIS SERIES, PLEASE SEE:
Remembering Kerry Simon: Intro & NYC
Remembering Kerry Simon: The Miami Years
