THE ARTISAN: CHANGING COURSE
Bryan Emperor, new executive chef at Mizumi at The Wynn Las Vegas, journeyed far east to find his culinary home.
Bryan Emperor, Mizumi’s new executive chef, journeyed far east to find his culinary home.
THE PATH WE SET FOR OURSELVES IS RARELY THE ONE THAT TAKES US TO OUR TRUE DESTINY. Take Bryan Emperor, for example. The new executive chef at Mizumi in The Wynn Las Vegas began his career as an investment banker for Lehman Brothers in Japan, a country he f irst v isited as a college foreign exchange student. It was a job that exposed him to some of t he best restaurants in t he world, entertaining high-level investors in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Australia. But when he went home at night, he didn’t f ind himself analyzing spreadsheets. Quite the opposite, in fact. “I found myself t rying to reverse-engineer t he dishes I ate, sometimes with modest results, most t imes with complete failure,” Emperor recalls. “I decided t hat if I really wanted to pursue it, I’d have to quit t he bank and go to cooking school, which I d id. Long story short, I left t he bank and went back to Japan for my apprenticeship. And t he rest is history.”
That history has been 30 years in the making, taking Emperor from his hometown of Brooklyn to Asia and now to the Las Vegas Strip. His journey to culinary mastery has required complete Japanese culture immersion, not just in its food, but also in its language and history. But Japan, a traditionally closed society, was not an easy sell on a foreign-born sushi chef. “It was many years before I was invited to Washington, D.C., for a sushi championship, where I earned the right to represent North America in the world championships in London. I was scrutinized by the Kyoto Kaiseki association for two to three years before finally being invited to train in Kyoto,” Emperor says. “So it was a lot of years of training and hard work.” At Mizumi, Emperor is taking all those lessons learned on the Far East shores, now perfectly rolled into his own culinary philosophy. “A central tenet is using the very best ingredients from sources he’s cultivated abroad, such as small-batch artisanal sauces and pastes and rare No. 1 grade tuna from Tokyo. Classical techniques like sous vide get a twist, too: His short ribs are cooked for 72 hours and braised in a special sauce he learned to make as a trainee in Tokyo. But the most important lesson the chef learned in Japan is adhering to seasonality and availability, something that guests will find in the omakase. Trust him with your palate and you will experience something truly unforgettable, if f leeting. “I want to take authentic ingredients and apply traditional techniques and methods to create a product that is real,” Emperor says. “I want guests to leave with a sense of satisfaction and a yearning to come back.”