Quick Facts
Biography
Julián Serrano (Madrid) is a Spanish chef.
Biography
Born in Madrid, he studied in Marbella.
He worked in several restaurants, Caribbean cruise liners, Nashville and San Francisco before being hired at Masa's.
He is executive chef of the restaurantPicasso in Las Vegas.
Serrano also has a restaurant at Aria named after him serving tapas and other Spanish food, as well as molecular gastronomy. It was noted as one of Esquire Magazine's "20 Best New Restaurants in 2010". In April 2015, he opened "Lago" at the Bellagio.
Award-winning Chef Julian Serrano, a two-time winner of the Prestigious James Beard Foundation Award (Best Chef Pacific 1998 & Best Chef Southwest 2002), and the Executive Chef of Picasso at Bellagio, now turns a discerning eye to the cuisine of his Spanish heritage as his eponymous restaurant, Julian Serrano at ARIA.
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-Carlton 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.
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 ARIA, 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.
Restaurants
- Julian Serrano Tapas, Las Vegas, Nevada
- LAGO, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Picasso, Las Vegas, Nevada