Andre Rochat is Las Vegas' original celebrity chef. And, today, although he shares the limelight with some of America's most celebrated toques, Rochat remains the dean of Las Vegas chefs, with three award-winning venues and a dedication to standards as high as the 56th floor perch of one of his grandest restaurants, Alize, which overlooks the city from the top of the Palms Casino Resort.
Rochat, was born in the French Alps, where his family owned a charcuterie in the village of La Rochette. After learning the business - and inheriting the gift of cooking from his mother - he left home at 14 to apprentice at Leon de Lyon, the renowned Michelin two-star restaurant in the heart of Lyon, the cradle of French gastronomy. Andre's first professional cooking job was close to his home, at the Hotel du Mont-Blanc in Megeve, and was shortly followed with a military assignment as chef to a French naval commander, a prestigious appointment for a rising culinary star.