Alessandro Stratta and Tapas – Las Vegas, NV

Alessandro Stratta was born in 1964 in Marquette, Wisconsin as a fourth-generation hotelier, to parents from locales well known for their culinary traditions.  His Italian father is from the Piedmont region, and his French mother from Nice, on the Côte d’Azur.  His father was the President of Giga and Princess Hotels & Resorts, so Alex grew up living in resorts including France, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan and Singapore. One would not be surprised if young Alex didn’t spend a little time with the chefs in those kitchens.  He then went to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and graduated with honors in 1983.

Chef Alex began his apprenticeship as a Pâtissier-in-training under Great Chef Jim Dodge, (Great Chefs of San Francisco), at the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco. President and General Manager, Jim Nassikas, later arranged an internship for Alex at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, and soon after, Great Chef Alain Ducasse invited Chef Alex to join his Louis XV restaurant in the hotel. Two years later, at the recommendation of Ducasse, Chef Stratta went to work for Great Chef Daniel Boulud when he was at Le Cirque in New York City. Both Ducasse and Boulud acted as mentors with their creative influences and business skills.

In 1989, Chef Stratta took on the position of executive chef at Mary Elaine’s at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. While there, the restaurant earned many awards and was voted the Best Restaurant in the Phoenix area.

In 1998, Steve Wynn hired him as the executive chef of the new restaurant in his Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, and called it Alex Stratta’s. At the same time, Wynn was preparing to open his Bellagio Resort down the strip, and was buying a lot of artwork for that property. He ended up buying more Renoirs than he needed, so he changed Chef Alessandro’s restaurant name from Alex Stratta’s to Renoir at the Mirage. It garnered 5 stars from the Mobil Travel Guide within six months after opening.

Great Chefs Television showed up two years later in 2000 to tape Chef Alessandro Stratta preparing a Braised Lobster appetizer with Potato Gnocchi, Black Truffles and Oven Dried Tomatoes (episode #163), and a Baby Lamb with Sweetbreads entrée (episode #177).

When Chef Stratta married, he spent his honeymoon at the Great Chefs Villa on St Croix, and in 2005, Steve Wynn made it up to Alex, by bringing him over to his new Wynn’s Resort and naming the restaurant “Alex”. Restaurant Alex was billed as a “triumph” and was extremely well received with 5 Mobil stars; 5 AAA diamonds and 2 Michelin stars.

In 2007, Chef Alex opened Corsa Cucina & Bar, and in 2008 opened another restaurant, Stratta. In 2011, Chef Stratta left the Wynn organization for personal reasons, but continued his consulting for Jeff and Rhonda Wyatt’s Marche Bacchus in Las Vegas.

He moved to New York for a year to be chef and partner at Bigoli Ristorante, then out to San Francisco and Los Angeles to be with his children.  Early in 2014, Chef Alessandro Stratta returned to Las Vegas to help his friends again at the French Bistro “Marche Bacchus”, and look for a place to settle down. In 2015 he settled down to open Tapas, in Las Vegas, NV