If you ever find your way to one of the restaurants tucked inside Reno’s The Row, the premier Caesars Entertainment resort, you will quickly discover that the starring attraction is the cuisine. The Row, coupled with neighboring Tahoe’s resorts, boasts world class entertainment and unrivaled skyscapes of the Sierra Nevadas.

Caesars is rapidly seeing the success of adopting the celebrity chef concept with restaurants like Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, where dinner guests can be heard telling their own daily adventures. Similar to what Mark Twain once said about San Francisco summer being the coldest winter he has ever known, a popular adage that is said of Reno is that it is the cheapest trip to Europe anyone can ever take.

Bay Area residents understand both of these concepts and readily flock to the Northwest corner of Nevada for a change of pace and, most definitely, a change of scenery!

The man behind the food stage curtain is none other than Executive Chef Ivano Centemeri who is the Vice-President for Caesars’ Northern Nevada region. With a chance meeting like no other, Ivano was picked up in Italy when Don Carano was looking to bring his best pasta making machines back stateside for a continued Sicilian type experience. 

Michael Vertucci, long-term Maitré d for the empire formerly known as El Dorado still recalls the day he and Mr. Carano arrived at the airport to fetch Centemeri and his assistant Massimo Riggio. Neither spoke English well and beside the language barriers, once they were inserted into the kitchen they were also baffled at what the Americans called Italian food. Paraphrasing during a recent interview was Centemeri who recalled looking at Massimo and saying something in Italian that resembled, “What the heck!?” 

Completely overhauling the entire food preparation process for all the in house restaurants under roof at The Row, Centmeri is proud of his prep kitchens where everything is made from scratch. He is proud to admit that there is no place like it, only there is: home in Italy. 

Today, Centemeri has spent decades in Northern Nevada. “I go back to Italy to visit, but when I think of going home, I think of Reno.” Massimo can still be seen in the kitchen at La Strada where Michael Vertucci will greet you at the door.