Bankruptcy Du Jour

The man who pitches himself as Las Vegas’s “original celebrity chef” filed for bankruptcy protection along with his two French restaurants.

France native Andre Rochat, his Alizé restaurant at the top of the Palms Casino Resort and Andre’s at Monte Carlo filed Chapter 11 petitions Friday, Vegas Inc. reported. So did Rochat’s restaurant-management company, Gastronomy Management Group.

Court papers show Alize lost $93,000 last year while Andre’s lost $290,000. They took on too much debt while the economy tanked, Joseph Marsco, Gastronomy’s director of operations told Vegas Inc.

Rochat and his three companies all listed $2.3 million in claims held by Plaza Bank in their Chapter 11 petitions, court papers show. Vegas Inc. reported that Plaza Bank has alleged that the borrowers are in default on the loans. And Plaza has raised its voice in the bankruptcy that Rochat affiliate A&A Inc. launched in January, objecting to the sale of the site of the original Andre’s restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip (that closed at the end of 2008, according to the Las Vegas Sun).

Food, according to Rochat’s website, has been in the chef’s blood since his birth to a family that owned a charcuterie in the French Alps. He arrived in the U.S. in 1965, furthering his culinary career in the kitchens of such places as Washington’s famed Mayflower Hotel and a commercial airline–he was the in-flight chef for United Airlines. He opened his namesake restaurant in 1980, “long before Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse and Charlie Palmer arrived in Las Vegas.” Andre’s at the Monte Carlo came next in 1997, followed by Alizé in 2001.

Dinner guests at Andre’s at the Monte Carlo can start off their meals of with such French staples as a foie gras terrine ($24), escargots ($16) or French onion soup ($13) before ordering their imported Dover sole ($67) or branching out to rack of Colorado lamb ($52) or Scottish salmon ($37). Diners at Alizé–so named for “the gentle trade winds that sweep the French Caribbean Islands”–can find some of the same dishes as well as a roasted veal loin with sweetbreads ($47).