David Robins: Turning Las Vegas fine dining in to a sure bet

Nation's Restaurant News, July 28, 2003 by Amy Spector

At the tender age of 41, David Robins is considered by many to be the culinary grandfather of fine dining along Las Vegas Boulevard. Mentored by Jeremiah Tower and Wolfgang Puck, two of the icons of California cuisine, Robins came to town to open Spago Las Vegas in late 1992 when the so-called Strip's culinary landscape still was a mosaic of low-priced buffets. The allure of Puck's reputation and Robins' food at Spago Las Vegas reputedly inspired casino impresario Steve Wynn to create his chef-driven Bellagio resort. The rest, Robins says, is history in Las Vegas, noting that there are at least 34 celebrity chefs currently staking a claim on the boulevard's casino corridor.

Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group -- Las Vegas, under the watchful eye of Robins and senior managing partner Tom Kaplan, has grown to four restaurants at three separate resorts. Spago Las Vegas and Chinois can be found at The Forum Shops connected to Caesars Palace; Trattoria del Lupo was created for Mandalay Bay; and Postrio, a branch of the San Francisco flagship, serves Italian-accented California cuisine at the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian resort. The enterprise is continuing to expand, Robins discloses, hinting at two projects along Los Vegas' main drag that are in development.

Title: corporate executive chef and partner, Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group -- Las Vegas

Birth date: Aug. 14,1962

Hometown: San Francisco

Education: Radio and television studies, San Francisco State University

Career highlights: Las Vegas Life 2003 Chef of the Year Award; cooking at James Beard House in 1996 and 1999; participating in worldwide charity events for Meals on Wheels and March of Dimes; partnership with Wolfgang Puck

Your culinary career splits almost evenly between two influential chefs, Jeremiah Tower and Wolfgang Puck. Compare their approaches.

The 10 years with Jeremiah Tower was culinary school. It was an education about life. I really learned how to cook working for Jeremiah Tower. He was a great showman, and Stars in its heyday was a spectacular party every night.

To learn how to cook quality and do volume was a real tool for me when I went to work for Wolfgang Puck. I ended up spending six months at Postrio (in San Francisco), Spago in West Hollywood and Granita (in Malibu, Calif.) to learn Wolf's style. It has become a friendship and a partnership now. He supports autonomy, but, at the same time, what Wolf has taught me is not only to be passionate about cooking but also to be a good businessman. You can't be open 10 years unless you know how to run the business.

Teamwork seems to be your forte. The executive chefs at Chinois, Postrio and Trattoria del Lupo have been with you at least 10 years. How do you retain a talented staff?

You must treat people with respect, build their careers and make (their) goals (blend) with the company's. I'm interested in being a farm system for Wolf. I pride myself in rearing young kids into young adults and turning them into not only good chefs but also good business people.

Do you still work the cooking line at your restaurants?

I'm on the line every day, depending on how busy the restaurants are and when VIPs come in. Having four properties does not allow me to be on the line all the time. I'd love to cook every day, but if I cooked every day, I'd hinder the growth of my chefs. It's not about me; it's about Wolf and about building (the chefs') careers. I made a conscious decision three years ago to move out of daily cooking and into operations. I had to grow. I want to be knowledgeable about every aspect of the business.

Spago now has five locations, including Chicago, Maui, and Palo Alto, Calif., with five different menus and chefs. How do you define that brand?

We've really worked hard over the past two years to protect the brand name. Lee Hefter in Beverly Hills, Francois Kwaku-Dongo in Chicago, Aram Mardigian in Palo Alto, Adam Condon in Maui, we all know each other. Lee and I work together to make sure five or six dishes, from the cote de boeuf to free-range chicken to tuna sashimi to foie gras, are the same. At the same time the menus differ because we have to play to our markets as businessmen.

You originally pursued radio and television arts in college, studying on a baseball scholarship. How did cooking enter into the picture?

I went to San Francisco State on a baseball scholarship, but after two years I realized I wasn't going to be playing centerfield for the (San Francisco) Giants. I was working as a deejay (for several San Francisco stations), and I got disillusioned playing Michael Jackson 20 times per day. I went to work at Santa Fe Bar and Grill for two and a half years, and then I moved to Stars.

Did you carry any lessons forward from your other interests?

The team building comes from my sports background. I can tell who is the leadoff hitter, who is the homerun hitter, who is the guy at the bottom of the order. The ego is taken out of (a team), and teamwork is what builds the business.

I live my fantasy every week with our softball league. All the restaurants in town participate. It's an eight-man league, and we play two games every week on an eight-week schedule. I take a few people from every (Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group -- Las Vegas] restaurant. It builds camaraderie.