Award-winning Chef Julian Serrano turns a discerning eye to the cuisine of his Spanish heritage as Executive Chef of his eponymous restaurant, Julian Serrano.

A native of Madrid, Serrano is a graduate of the Escuela Gastronomie P.P.O. hotel management school in Marbella, Spain, and has pursued his affinity for French cuisine in some of Europe’s most celebrated kitchens. He has spent time at Lucas-Carton in Paris, Hotel de France in Auch, France, Chez Max in Zurich and L’Aubergine in Munich.

Following brief positions in Miami and Nashville, Serrano moved to San Francisco, where in 1983 he helped open Masa’s restaurant under the personal tutelage of the restaurant’s renowned founding chef, Masataka Kobayashi, and Bill Kimpton, who was opening his first Kimpton Hotel on the site.

The Great Chefs team first discovered Chef Julian at Masa’s, while they were taping Masa for the Great Chefs of San Francisco series in 1983. Then in 1999, Great Chefs caught up with Chef Serrano at Picasso’s in the Bellagio in Las Vegas for their Great Chefs of America series for the Discovery Channel.

In 1998, Serrano brought his memorable Mediterranean-French cooking to Bellagio in Las Vegas as Executive Chef of Picasso. The Michelin two-star restaurant has won the AAA Five Diamond Award every year since 2002, and its wine list has received the coveted Grand Award from Wine Spectator magazine.

At his latest venue in the dazzling CityCenter, Serrano satisfies a long-held ambition of sharing the secrets of his own Spanish cuisine. In 2010, Esquire magazine named the restaurant Julian Serrano one of its Best New Restaurants of the year. The restaurant also received the Best of Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine in 2011.