Joël Robuchon at the Mansion, MGM Grand

The waiter sets a clear glass cup on a gold-leaf saucer in front of me. Inside is a cool white cream, its surface smooth as glass and decorated with a circle of precise green dots the size of pinpricks. It looks mysterious and inviting. I dip in my spoon and take a bite -- that silken cream carries the earthy flavor of cauliflower, beneath it is a chilled gelée that tastes like the sea, and below that, a thick layer of caviar that bursts against the tongue. All that, all at once, how incredibly sensual.

It's unmistakably the touch of Joël Robuchon, the three-star Michelin chef who closed his Paris restaurant and retired almost a decade ago at the height of his fame.

And yet here I am, in the most unlikely place on the planet having one of the greatest French meals I've ever had in this country. And Robuchon's name is above the door.