Brisson was born into a restaurant family in upstate New York, trained in Florence and Tuscany, and is now a major culinary figure in Las Vegas. She’s more than a cook: she’s a regular on Food Network shows such as Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay, and is launching her own line of dry-aged steaks—but she tells SAVEUR she rarely has time for a power lunch to cut deals. (When she does, the Four Seasons suits nicely.) Not only has Brisson run kitchens on and off-Strip, but she also served as culinary director for B&B Hospitality Group’s entire Las Vegas operation, responsibilities that included opening the city’s cavernous Eataly outpost. 

Brisson’s long career in restaurants has made her appreciate the tight-knit nature of the Las Vegas restaurant community, which she says is hard to come by. In other cities, she says, it’s as if food service workers are “training to be somebody else, maybe an actor” or another profession. “Here, I feel like we’re kind of lifers. It’s what we’ve really put our blood, sweat, and tears into,” Brisson explains. She gets a charge out of working alongside cooks and servers who have been with her for more than a decade: “We really curated this family.” Along those lines, some of Brisson’s favorite food memories come from sharing hometown recipes at family meals with her kitchen crews or watching old friends open new neighborhood restaurants. 

She says that hometown feeling is available to visitors, too—she tipped us off to where to find that—and where to find a couple of lavish tasting menus.  

“Honestly, I wish I had the opportunity to eat breakfast and lunch more,” she says. “But I always gravitate toward Asian [cuisine].” That could mean dim sum at Ping Pang Pong or tonkatsu at Katsuya Ton Ton. (“All they do is katsu. They’ve got fish, shrimp, and heritage-breed pork. They do one thing and do it really, really well.”) 

More in the mood for soup dumplings? Try China Mama or Shanghai Taste. Next on her list is Chamana’s Cafe, a breakfast and lunch destination from the team behind local raw bar institution Other Mama.   

Brisson seldom has time for leisurely multi-course meals, so when she goes out for a tasting menu, it has to be truly exceptional. Off-Strip, she just celebrated her birthday at Sgrizzi with eight courses, including charcuterie, pasta, dry-aged beef, “not one of which was a sleeper.” Then, at Komodo in the Fontainebleau, she welcomed the Year of the Snake with a duck-centric tasting menu and an enormous snake-shaped dessert—an auspicious way to ring in the Lunar New Year.

Brisson lives west of the Strip, out toward the hiking and climbing at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and recommends visitors hop in a car and head out her way to eat well. “When I moved to Vegas 21 years ago, the culinary community wasn’t what it is now—now there are a lot of people my age who have their own restaurant groups and restaurants,” she says. “So I’m lucky that when I finally get a day off the Strip, I really don’t have to venture back onto the Strip. And I have these restaurants that feel like Cheers, where I know the servers, I know the owners, and it just feels like I’m stepping into my home, you know?”

Depending on the day, that might mean live fire cooking at Sparrow + Wolf, where the octopus gets an intense char and the wild boar lasagna comes out bubbling, or the Vietnamese American spins on ceviche and steaks at The Black Sheep. Her current favorite? Smoked hamachi, Spanish-style cured meats, and a stiff Negroni at Anima by Edo. 

Brisson loves a stogie. Why cigars? “It’s literally an opportunity to just stop for 45 minutes—and to network. And it’s a great network. If you don’t golf, you smoke cigars,” she explains. Brisson is part of an industry club that meets on the first Monday of every month. They choose a new location each time—and the city has no shortage of options. Recents picks include Tap N’ Ash Social Club, Smōk Cigar Lounge, and Eight Cigar Lounge, which is in Resorts World, so she runs the food.

All three of these locations offer heavy pours of brown liquor and aged and rare cigars, but the real appeal is the people. “It’s almost like a men’s sewing circle—with a couple women,” she says. “The cigar community ends up being very close knit because a lot of people aren’t really welcoming of cigars. But if you love them, it’s like people who love good wine—it’s a passion.”