Blue Ribbon Executive Chef Bruce Bromberg helms the Cosmopolitan hot spot—an offshoot of his New York City mainstays. We caught up with him for some thoughts on the local scene and beyond.

Local restaurant tip: Sam Woo BBQ (4215 Spring Mountain Road) “When I first moved out here, I somehow hit Sam Woo four days in a row, and I learned one very important fact: You need to get there kind of earlier in the day, because the barbecue case gets a little bit sketchy towards the end of the day. If you can time it right, and the ducks and pork butt have come out, it’s as good as any you’ll find anywhere—including Manhattan.”

Current culinary obsession: pickling “We’ve been kind of experimenting with the Japanese style of pickling with kombu and the different dried seaweeds. We’ve just been playing with the times and the fermentation. Toshi, my partner here [at Blue Ribbon], is a master of this and uses all his grandmother’s recipes. In Japanese pickling, it’s all about how the seaweeds play into the different flavors and how they age over time. It’s pretty fun stuff.”

Most memorable dining experience: Cyrus Restaurant (Healdsburg, California) “Recently, my dad had a heart attack, and we flew out to Northern California to see him. We figured we would just order in at the hotel, but he decided we needed to go to Cyrus. [So] about 36 hours after his third heart attack we went to Cyrus—and had the full degustation menu with the caviar course. It was a fantastic meal, but more than anything it made me realize who we are and why we are who we are: It’s because our dad is so friggin’ obsessed with food.”