OUR TEAM

Some of the important players who make the service and food what is . . .

Emeril Lagasse, Executive Chef/Proprietor

Chef Emeril Lagasse received his first culinary experience from his mother, Hilda, when he was a boy growing up in the small town of Fall River, Massachusetts. As a teenager, he worked at a Portuguese bakery where he mastered the art of bread and pastry baking. Upon high school graduation, Lagasse was offered a full scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music, but decided to pursue a career as a professional chef.

Read complete biography in the Emerilology Section »

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Ronnie Rainwater, Chef de Cuisine

Ronnie Rainwater was born and raised in Southern California outside of Los Angeles. He grew up in the kitchen, shadowing his Southern grandmother at the stove; anxious to taste anything he could get his hands on.

Chef Ronnie attended Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon and obtained a Culinary Arts Degree in 1999. One of his early jobs in the industry was an internship in the kitchen at The Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, where he helped prepare dinners and private events for guests.

In June 1999, Ronnie was offered a position as a cook at Emeril Lagasse’s Delmonico Steakhouse at The Venetian and moved to Las Vegas. In 2007, he was promoted to executive sous chef at the restaurant.

In January 2011, after working with Emeril for over 11 years at his restaurants in Las Vegas and on the East coast, he was tapped to become the next chef de cuisine of Delmonico Steakhouse.

Today, he leads the kitchen at Delmonico and oversees all facets of its culinary operations, from sourcing products, to managing the restaurant’s in-house dry-aging program for prime U.S.D.A. beef, to crafting ambitious nightly tasting menus for guests at his kitchen table. His love of simple fresh ingredients has helped him cultivate close relationships with local farmers who supply the restaurant with their best products including beets, heirloom tomatoes, squash blossoms and seasonal herbs. A local orchard provides him with fresh apples and cider, along with the apple wood used to brine and smoke the restaurant’s house cured bacon.

One of his favorite dishes on the menu, Delmonico’s dry aged bone-in ribeye, may best represent his cooking philosophy and style in the kitchen: taking top quality products, preparing them simply and expertly, and pairing them with the comfort and hospitality that makes Delmonico Steakhouse’s guests feel right at home.

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Michael Olsen, General Manager

Mike Olsen was born in Mesa, Arizona and moved to Las Vegas in 1979. He attended the University of Las Vegas 1992 to 1996, after which he was hired at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. After just four months as a server, Olsen was promoted to dining room manager. In 1999, Olsen was promoted to assistant general manager at Emeril’s Delmonico Steak House at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. In March 2003, he was named General Manger.

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