Campfire cooking now cowboy cuisine in Las Vegas

July 7, 2000
Web posted at: 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 GMT)

LAS VEGAS (CNN) -- Texas-sized braggadocio is old news. Today, things are bigger in Las Vegas.

VIDEOS CNN Travel Now Anchor Carolyn O'Neil Talks with Chef Stephan Pyles of Star Canyon restaurant in Las Vegas about the glitter, the glamour and cowboy cooking Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Carolyn O'Neil looks at some of the top chefs in Las Vegas QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

"Everything's bigger," says Stephan Pyles, who, along with Wolfgang Puck and Charles Palmer, is among a handful of celebrity chefs now putting up stakes -- and ribeye steaks -- in America's fastest-growing city.

Noted as founder of the Star Canyon restaurant in Dallas, Pyles is astounded by the creative food energy swirling in the desert here.

"It's a completely different city than it was five years ago," he says. "People actually come here today for the food."

But what food it is. Cowboy cuisine, Pyles calls it. Steaks marinated for 12 hours and grilled with three different kinds of chili, salmon salad with Serrano chilies, flaked with fried tortilla chips and avocado, and smoky vinaigrette.

"People ask, are the days over where you can get a $6 buffet and a $90 hotel room? Absolutely not. They're there. There is just a whole new level."

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