Vol. 3, No. 3, March 2007
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Only the Best
Atlantic City casino executive remembers fondly his Vegas experience
It began in his native Argentina, with a mother who required all six children to help make dinner.
“One of us would clean something, one of us would peel potatoes, we would all work together,” he says. “I credit a lot of what happened after that to her.”
What happened was dynamic. Arancibia came to America, became a distinguished chef and once cooked in the White House. He also spent 13 years in Las Vegas, primarily at Excalibur, and now operates as director of food and beverage for the Motor City Casino in Detroit.
Though his mother provided inspiration, Las Vegas symbolized the perspiration of Arancibia’s journey. He witnessed a huge rise in service demand here as food and beverage grew from an amenity to a revenue source for casinos.
The volume of business for us in Vegas was incredible, it was like nowhere else,” Arancibia says. “It was a great training ground. For people who were committed and had a vision, it was a great place to work. For me, that meant making sure the menus worked in our 11 restaurants, keeping them in conjunction with our medieval theme.
“We would plan the menus 15 days in advance. There were daily meetings with the sous chefs and the assistant executive chefs. We kept it all diversified, whether that meant prime rib, Italian, full buffet, etc. It was exciting. You are ordering food every day for a lot of people. That’s a lot of food. At one time, we might have 3,000-4,000 pounds of potatoes.”
The process impressed Araucaria, already armed with substantial personal and professional experience when he came here in 1987. Arancibia had served in the Argentine Army and taken classes to understand building construction in Argentina before leaving to be near his sister in New Jersey. The career odyssey would span hotel stints as a chef in New York, Kansas and Tennessee.
Then came the big show. Arancibia, who worked briefly at the old MGM, walked into another world at Excalibur. His department served waves of customers, including an all-time record of 34,000 on July 4, 1995. Amid the traffic, he maintained a kitchen presence while serving as executive chef.
“We routinely did 25,000 covers a day then, or about 8 million a year,” he says. “At that time, we were also the only property serving food in the showroom. That went nicely with the nightly jousting show, which was sold out. Having a system and putting the people in place to make it work was quite a challenge.”
People flooded through the establishment, helping Excalibur enjoy the Vegas revolution. It became prominent along with Luxor, MGM, New York, New York and Mandalay Bay in forming a new corner of the Strip.
“I saw Las Vegas grow from 900,000 people to almost 2 million,” Arancibia says. “The market was also growing at a tremendous rate. It was all big hotels. When we opened Excalibur, we were the first major resort ever to have more than 4,000 rooms; we had 4,140.”
During his Nevada tenure, Arancibia retained his distinction for cuisine. The prestigious American Culinary Federation named him Las Vegas’ top chef in 1995. Arancibia raised $300,000 for the Ronald McDonald House the year he was honored. Compassion for people extended into the casino. Arancibia developed his own employee-relations handbook, based upon interaction.
“Traveling around in several states teaches you a lot about diversity,” says Arancibia, now responsible for about 700 employees at Motor City. “I think it’s important to help people become better in their life. Eliminate barriers that would prevent them from being self-motivated.
“You should engage your employees daily, make them involved. When there is a lack of engagement, people feel that they don’t exist. You also want to focus on the positive. We all want recognition; it’s more important than money. Recognize a person in front of 10 people and it works wonders.”
Arancibia left Las Vegas for Tunica in 2003 and went to Detroit in 2005. After watching Las Vegas grow a city around gaming, he sees Detroit using gaming to revitalize its city. Previous commitments have resulted in large, first-class hotels for Motor City, Greektown and MGM properties, perhaps by the end of this year. Arancibia awaits increased business and his department’s contribution.
The live cooking thrill, however, never leaves. He will always remember preparing a pastry dish for Vice President Cheney at the White House in 2003.
“You whip up something special, and people go ‘wow,’” Arancibia says. “You can barely describe that feeling. I get it in gaming; I think that’s one reason I’ve stayed in the business so long. It’s always expanding throughout the world. There will always be restaurants. There will always be importance in what we do.”
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