They call it “Paella for the people.” Valencian Gold is a brand new fast-casual eating place in the Las Vegas Strip suburbs. It’s also the brainchild of Jeffrey Weiss, a proud Mission College graduate.
“[Mission College’s] facilities are better than rattling close to any cooking college,” said Weiss. “To me, Mission College is a gift…yes, you get the culinary foundation and education, so if you need to move that way, you could pass that manner; however, past that, you’re additionally uncovered to the commercial enterprise practices and the kinds of matters that you need to know about the basics of business, and that’s big.”
Weiss took what he learned at Mission College and continued his education at Cornell University. After Cornell, he met his now-business partner, Chef Paras Shah, while the two of them studied in a specific culinary program in Spain.
The software invited cooks worldwide to live in Spain for a year and immerse themselves in Spanish cooking. As the only Americans, Shah and Weiss were thrown a lot collectively.
“It was kind of like The Perfect Strangers component,” said Shah with a laugh. “I turned into Balki Bartokomous to Jeff’s Cousin Larry. The whole component changed into what we met over there, and we didn’t realize each was different in any respect.”
But they grew close throughout that year abroad. The subsequent year, they returned to America and went their separate ways; however, they stayed constant. When Weiss called up Shah some years ago with his concept for a fast-casual paella restaurant, Shah didn’t hesitate to mention, “I’m in.”
“I consider Jeff a family member. He’s my brother,” stated Shah. “There’s no one else with whom I’d need to go through this loopy state of affairs.”
Valencian Gold opened on July 12. The concept is to build your own paella bowl, using your preference of paella, vegetables, protein, and other additions. Weiss and Shah hope it begins a series of speedy informal paella restaurants.
Weiss says he and Shah desired to open in California but couldn’t discover the proper region. When buddies instructed them that Las Vegas had become a superb choice, they were skeptical before everything. They came up with the idea once they started traveling to the Vegas suburbs and determined a very supportive hospitality community.
“The greater we began talking to humans, the greater we met cooks, and we met people that work inside the commercial enterprise, we realized, that is in which these guys stay and while they arrive domestically at the cease in their shift, there isn’t plenty for them, and there’s this each want and choice for principles like Valencian Gold,” stated Weiss.
Weiss credits a large deal of his success as a chef and his flow into this new enterprise mission to what he discovered right here in the Bay Area. While attending Mission College, Weiss also worked at Lion and Compass; the nicely-appeared Sunnyvale restaurant closed in 2017.
Weiss worked with Chef Steve Shannon at Lion and Compass, whom he now proudly calls his mentor.
“I became lucky enough to be in [Steve Shannon’s] kitchen and study on the elbow of someone who has been a master of the enterprise,” said Weiss. “He instilled in me a lot of the skills but also the passion for hospitality, and all the things that have been handiest being reinforced every day even as I become in training at Mission College.”
Valencian Gold is located at 7960 South Rainbow Blvd, in Las Vegas. While the eating place is in its first few weeks, Weiss says he’s already happy with the effects.
“We’re setting out food and a product that we agree within and that we’re very passionate about, and that, to me, is the large part of what we worry approximately is ensuring that it’s something we can stand at the back of and love and all that and then the rest will come,” stated Weiss.
