Chef Biography
Grant MacPherson was born in Dundee, Scotland, and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Alberta, Canada, then moved with his family to St. Catharines, in southern Ontario, Canada. He went on to graduate from the Niagara Rainbow Center, Culinary Arts Program in Niagara Falls.
After school, he was a typical rock and roll groupie, listening to Kiss and The Who, and started his culinary career working in little restaurants chopping chicken wings. He then took an apprenticeship at a motor inn restaurant, which was a step more refined, and went from chicken wings to quality cuts of beef, lamb and even lion.
In 1983, he was working at a restaurant further north in Canada and was told that he would have to debone an entire lion to cook lion consommé for a large party. Today, one would go to prison for that, but back then, he did it and the pelt went to the manager’s office.
Eventually, he landed a position at the Four Seasons in Vancouver, and his career took off. He moved to similar positions at their Toronto and London properties, and then with the Regent Hotel Chain, working in Sydney, Australia, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In 1993, he became the Executive Chef of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore and was cooking for luminaries like President George H.W. Bush, Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.
In 1998, he was recruited by Steve Wynn and Elizabeth Blau, to leave Raffles and head up the culinary operations as Executive Chef, at the soon to be opened Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. It was there that Great Chefs caught up with Chef MacPherson to tape a Chilled Sago Soup with Banana Fritters dessert for their Great Chefs of America series (episode 142). For the next 10 years, while with the Wynn organization, he opened and ran “Wynn’s”, “The Encore” next to Wynn’s in Las Vegas, and “Wynn Macau” in China.
In 2010, Chef MacPherson founded his own consulting firm, Scotch Myst, implementing such projects as the Grand Hotel Europe by Orient Express in St Petersburg, Russia; and overseeing the Merry well gastro-pubs in Australia in collaboration with Chef Sammy DeMarco. In addition to Scotch Myst, which is headquartered in Las Vegas, he has been the Executive Chef for Viking Commercial Range, and wrote the book “In the Viking Kitchen”.
He can be seen at such events as the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival that’s chaired by Great Chefs Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong. He has just released a new book titled “Word of Mouth” which shares tales of his colorful experiences, mentors and storied accomplishments. We will just call it “Volume I”. Ian Coughlan, President of Wynn Macau, describes Chef MacPherson as “An inspirer, innovator and perfectionist….he leads from the front with a pan in his hand”.
Recipes
Restaurant Information
Phone :702 919 0808
Address : 7762 Roaring Springs Cir Las Vegas, NV 89113