James Benson

Wynn/Encore

Executive Chef of Catering & Special Events

James Benson is Executive Chef of Catering & Special Events at Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, the new signature resort in the Wynn collection. He was previously Chef de Cuisine of Catering and Special Events at Wynn Las Vegas and now oversees banquets and catered events at both hotels. Benson collaborates with James Beard award-winning pastry chef Frédéric Robert to develop dessert menus. Together they bring a five-star dining experience to all of the events at Wynn Las Vegas and Encore.

“We don’t use the same systems that other banquet systems use,” said Benson. “We try to use the same principles that a large restaurant uses. That means the filets go in the oven when the salad goes out, so they don’t sit on a plate in a hotbox somewhere for three hours.”

Prior to joining Wynn Resorts, Benson held the position of Chef de Cuisine at Circo at the Bellagio. In this role, Benson was honored to have been a guest chef at the James Beard House, the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, and at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, Germany for the 2002 Davidoff Gourmet Festival.

A California native, Benson was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended the City College of San Francisco where he was introduced to the culinary arts.

While attending culinary school, James worked at the highly acclaimed Oliveto in Oakland, California. Inspired by this experience, he traveled to Italy to begin his culinary apprenticeship. His first job abroad was at Gran Gotto in Genoa, Italy. From there, he worked his way west along the Riviera where he landed a job at the restaurant Balzi Rossi in Ventimiglia, Italy. After nearly a year on the Riviera, Benson felt it was time to go back to the United States.

Upon returning he met Sottha Khuhn and Marc Poidevin, who offered him a position at the soon to be opened Le Cirque 2000 in New York. After training and working there for two years, Benson was given the opportunity to relocate to Las Vegas and become the Executive Sous Chef of Le Cirque and Osteria del Circo at the Bellagio, where he would work again with Poidevin and the late Enzino Secci.

At Circo, Benson and his colleagues received numerous accolades in publications such as Gourmet Magazine, Wine Spectator’s “2004 Top 10 Restaurants of Las Vegas” and Las Vegas Life Magazine’s “Best Restaurant on the Strip” at the 2004 Epicurean Awards. Benson has also been featured on the Food Networks “Best of” series for pasta making.