Roy Choi to reveal new Las Vegas restaurant menu on Facebook Live

The world will get its first glimpse of Roy Choi’s new Park MGM restaurant, Best Friend, in a Facebook Live event at noon Wednesday at facebook.com/bestfriendvegas. The chef will demonstrate one of the restaurant’s signature dishes as part of the 30-minute menu reveal.

While preparing to open his new restaurant, Choi took the time to cook for the resort’s employees Tuesday in the Park MGM employee dining room. He jokingly referred to it as “the busiest restaurant in Las Vegas.”

Best Friend is set to open Dec. 19.

More Brawling

The Back of the House Brawl food truck cooking competition will launch a new season March 23. This time around, however, the late-night battles will take place on the Strip, in The Park near Toshiba Plaza and T-Mobile Arena. Another big change is that the five monthly battles will be team competitions, with each team featuring one chef from a Strip restaurant and one from an off-Strip eatery. Among the teams confirmed so far are Shaun King (Momofuku) and Brian Howard (Sparrow + Wolf); Justin Kingsley Hall (Kitchen at Atomic) and Josh Smith (Bardot Brasserie); Jennifer Murphy (Hell’s Kitchen) and Emily Brubaker (Urban Seed); and Chris Conlon (Hakkasan Group) and Geno Bernardo (Summit Club). The season will conclude with a 2019 championship round on Nov. 16.

Benefit for Kerry Clasby

Rooster Boy Cafe’s Sonia El-Nawal will host a pair of dinners for local farmers market organizer Kerry Clasby Dec. 14 and 15 at the Lakeside Event Center, 2620 Regatta Drive in Desert Shores. The recent Woolsey wildfire destroyed several structures and both business and personal property on the farm Clasby leases in Malibu, California.

Local restaurants Esther’s Kitchen, Sparrow + Wolf, Top of the World at the Stratosphere, Other Mama and Cured & Whey, and Urban Seed, which is committed to fresh-food access, all have agreed to donate food and/or manpower for the dinners, which will run from 6:30 to 10 p.m. both evenings, priced at $75 per person. El-Nawal describes the menu as “like a big ‘Chopped,’ ” adding, “it’s a buffet meal, both pastry and food, family-style eating.”

Top TripAdvisor honors

Four Las Vegas restaurants have been named to TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Restaurant awards of establishments nationwide and around the world.

The winners from Las Vegas were Mon Ami Gabi at Paris Las Vegas, second in U.S. everyday dining category; Earl of Sandwich, which has four locations in the valley, second in U.S. fast casual; Tacos el Gordo, with three locations in Southern Nevada, ninth in U.S. fast casual; and Le Cirque at Bellagio, 11th in U.S. fine dining.

To compile the list, the travel website, which uses member-generated reviews, utilized an algorithm that analyzed the quantity and quality of reviews over a 12-month period.

Have an item for Kitchen Confidante? Email hrinella @reviewjournal.com or amancini @reviewjournal.com.