Michael Mina

Guests love to be 'wowed' in Las Vegas. They enjoy and embrace new tastes, new flavors, and they come to expect the unexpected in Las Vegas.

I did want to share with you one of the greatest lessons I've learned over the years cooking for my kids - there is enormous value in bringing children into the kitchen.

There are two ways to look at how life works and how people find their paths. One way is you take your time and try different things out. The other is you settle in early. I was into cooking very early.

When your parents are Middle Eastern immigrants, you have three choices. You can become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer.

When designing a kitchen, always keep in mind the social aspect.

There's always room to improve in a restaurant. A restaurant is better or worse every day than it was the day before. It's impossible not to be, because it's human.

Food is all about balance; it is all about taste.

When restaurants start to mature - and usually the five-year time is the time when the restaurant starts to settle in and have its own personality - your job is to grow it.

From a young age, I understood the idea of balanced flavor - the reason you put ketchup on a hamburger. I was that kid who wouldn't eat something if there was something missing. I never really understood it until I began cooking professionally, balancing acids, sweets, spicy flavors and fat.

My last two years of high school, I did work-study half the day, and I ran the restaurant. It was just this little restaurant, but it was just so cool. I had 35, 40 employees.

If I'd never gone out and done more than one restaurant, my food wouldn't be as good as it is today. I've learned a lot from people who work for me.