Las Vegas Italian Restaurant Olives

This Las Vegas offering of a Todd English favorite features a Mediterranean-style experience set against the breathtaking backdrop of Lake Bellagio. House-made pastas, steaks, rotisserie dishes, brick oven pizzas and sommelier-recommended wines complement the dining atmosphere.

Todd English

Owner/Chef

One of the most decorated, respected, and charismatic chefs in the world, Todd English has enjoyed a staggering number of accolades during his remarkable career. English, a father of three, is so much more than a restaurateur, though it was his first restaurant Olives that helped catapult him to stardom. He now owns and operates 17 restaurants across the country, has just launched a line of cookware products and is foraying into casinos and lifestyle categories. He has been recognized by several of the food industry's most prestigious publications, established one of the best-known culinary brands in the nation, published three critically acclaimed cookbooks and was recognized as one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People."

In Spring of 1991, English caught the culinary world's eye when the James Beard Foundation named him their National Rising Star Chef. English followed through on that promise, as the James Beard Foundation subsequently named him Best Chef in the Northeast in 1994. Nation's Restaurant News named English one of their "Top 50 Tastemakers" in 1999. In 2001, English was awarded Bon Appetit's Restaurateur of the Year award. Also was English has recently been named to the James Beard Foundation's "Who's Who in Food and Beverage in America."

English is currently the chef and owner of Olives in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Olives opened in April 1989 as a 50-seat storefront restaurant. It has drawn national and international applause for English's interpretive rustic Mediterranean cuisine. Olives now occupies a larger space down the street from its original location in Charlestown, Massachusetts. In recent years, English has established Olives as one of the most prestigious names in the nation by opening other locations around the world: Olives New York in the W Hotel in Union Square, Olives Las Vegas inside the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Olives DC in the heart of Washington, D.C. and Olives Aspen at the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, Colo.

English also has two Figs restaurants in the greater Boston area and a location at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Figs serves traditional and eclectic pizzas and handmade pastas. Among English’s other restaurants are Tuscany at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut which serves Italian inspired foods and pays homage to his Italian roots. Bonfire, a steakhouse in Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel, is a celebration of ranch cooking around the world from the U.S. to Australia and KingFish Hall is his first seafood concept located in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall. English’s second seafood concept, Fish Club, at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront, opened in the spring of 2003. In early 2004 English added two more locations to his repertoire: the restaurant Todd English on Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2 and BlueZoo at the Walt Disney World Resort’s Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Fla. His first addition for 2005 was another New York establishment called English is Italian in Manhattan. The restaurant is a prix fixed, menu-less concept where diners can sample an array of Italian cuisine for one price. English opened his newest restaurant and first-ever French bistro, Riche, in New Orleans in September 2006.

Like English himself, his restaurants have received numerous accolades. The original Olives opened to immediate acclaim, as it was voted Best New Restaurant by Boston Magazine. Since then, it has been honored as Best Food and Top Table by Gourmet Magazine and is consistently named Boston’s #1 Favorite Restaurant by Zagat. Figs was given the “Hot Concept” award from Nation’s Restaurant News. KingFish Hall was named “Best of Boston” by Travel + Leisure Magazine.

Todd English began his cooking career at the age of 15 when he first entered the doors of a professional kitchen. At 20, he attended the Culinary Institute of America and graduated in 1982 with honors. He continued to hone his craft with Jean Jacques Rachou at New York’s La Cote Basque and then relocated to Italy where he apprenticed at the well-established Dal Pescatore in Canto Sull O’lio and Paraccuchi in Locando D’Angello.

Drawing from his Italian heritage while in Italy, English developed his unique style and approach to cooking. English returned to the United States at 25 and was asked to be the executive chef of the award-winning Northern Italian restaurant Michela’s in Cambridge, Mass. He served as executive chef for three years, garnering high praise from both the press and the public.

Some of English’s television credits include the national public television series, Cooking Under Fire, produced by WGBH-TV in Boston; Public Television’s Cooking in with Todd English, Iron Chef USA, Martha Stewart Living, Food Network’s Opening Soon, Bobby Flay’s Food Nation, and The Main Ingredient, Good Morning America, the Tony Danza Show, Extra, CBS This Morning, Live with Regis and Kelly, NBC’s The Today Show, VHI’s My Coolest Years, Discovery Channel’s Party Planners, B Smith Style, Great Chefs of the Northeast, and Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends. Todd was the executive chef of the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards in Miami. In 2005 he teamed up with TV Shopping Network HSN to introduce a creative new culinary cookware and appliances and gourmet foods – The Todd English Collection. So successful was the launch, English completely sold out all of the products during one air debut.

Also to his credit, English has authored the critically acclaimed cookbooks, The Olives Table, The Figs Table and The Olives Dessert Table published by Simon & Schuster.

Todd’s boundless philanthropy finds him contributing his time and celebrity to a host of charitable organizations throughout the year including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Men With Heart, The Anthony Spinazzola Foundation, Community Servings, Share Our Strength, Boys and Girls Clubs and City Year.