LAS VEGAS — For chefs, the kitchen of a three-Michelin-star Parisian restaurant is the Carnegie Hall of cooking. To create dishes in a place where every plate, glass and fork needs to be filled with the finest the world has to offer is a chance to be a culinary star. It’s an honor just to get a job interview.

So imagine the pressure to perform that pastry chef Uyên Nguy?n, 26, faces as she creates confections in the state-of-the-art kitchen of Restaurant Guy Savoy, the Paris-based powerhouse that opened in Las Vegas in May. The dessert courses, and there can be several at the end of a meal here, spotlight her work — her pastries, her sauces, her candies, her puddings, her sorbets.

Nothing short of extraordinary is acceptable. Guests pay dearly for the privilege, spending as much as $290 to experience the 10-course tasting menu. For an additional charge, wines can be paired with each course.

Nguy?n grew up in Costa Mesa, Calif., the youngest of six daughters. She was born in Biên Hóa, Vi?t Nam, which her family left when she was not yet 2. And although she holds a degree in international relations from the University of California at Irvine, her passion for cooking fueled the desire to seek a culinary career soon after graduation.

It was a four-month student-exchange program in France that lit the flame. She was 18 and a sophomore in college when she left the U.S. to live with a family in Lyon. There she gained seven pounds and a love for the cuisine and culture.

“I cried the first week,” said Nguy?n, recalling her memories, sitting in the sleek leather sofa on the restaurant’s glassed-in patio overlooking the Vegas skyline. Her voice is calm and warm. Her hands rest confidently in her lap.

“I’d had two years of high school French, but books don’t really relate to real French life. I had so much to learn. I grew older in those four months, and I saw the world differently.

“Every day we had traditional three-course family dinners that included a cheese course. At first, the food was awkward. All I knew was Vietnamese food. How was I going to cope with unpasteurized, real cheese?”

Dairy products, especially odiferous cheeses, aren’t a part of traditional Vietnamese cuisine. So at first, Nguy?n struggled to choke down a wedge of Laughing Cow, an ultra-mild processed cheese.

Now, she’s an aficionado, relishing her favorite, a Sainte-Maure goat’s milk cheese. It’s log-shaped and covered in black ash.

“And every street corner in France had a bakery,” she said. “It became a ritual to stop and sample. I admired the precision of everything, especially the party cakes garnished with currants.”

Nguy?n accepted an entry-level position at a Mission Viejo, Calif., bank soon after college graduation. She knew that she wouldn’t stay. Before long she was back in France, enrolled in the nine-month professional pastry program at Ecole Lenotre in Plasir, 17 miles west of Paris. She put in long, hard days, renewing her language skills, learning kitchen jargon, and mastering the art of patisserie.

At first producing flawless tart shells was a challenge. She wanted shells with uniform shape that were flush with the tart ring. The dough needed to be pushed in “just right” to prevent air bubbles. But perfection eluded her.

So one day, she doggedly prepared them over and over and over. After that, she says, she was the tart master of her class.

That combination of determination and optimism helped her succeed in her first restaurant job in Las Vegas in 2002, as a pastry cook at the Bellagio’s tony Le Cirque.

“The first few months were horrible, I didn’t know how to deal with the stress of how a restaurant works,” she said. “I got screamed at several times and that shook me up. So after two months, I organized myself so I didn’t get yelled at any more.”

For her, getting organized boiled down not only to knowing when to do what, but also to working lengthy hours — getting there early and leaving late. She says she is grateful to her parents for giving her a strong work ethic and providing her with so many opportunities to learn the skills she needed to become a chef.

Pastry jobs followed in other prestigious Las Vegas kitchens, including stints at Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys (Mandalay Bay) and Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak (MGM Grand). In March she accepted the job as pastry chef at Guy Savoy, two months before it opened. There she works with a team of two morning pastry cooks, two evening pastry cooks and a sous pastry chef.

For the opening, most of the desserts were part of the repertoire of Hugues Pouget, the executive pastry chef at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris. Temptations such as Chocolate Fondant with Crunchy Praline and Chicory Cream, or Grapefruit Terrine with Earl Grey Tea Sauce.

The dessert trolley, a cart that is moved from table to table, showcases several of Savoy’s classic favorites (such as rice puddings, crème caramel and chocolate mousse). But it also afforded Nguy?n a chance to highlight her original creations. She added her elegant two-bite Lemon Meringue Tarts: 1 1/2-inch rounds of crisp Breton tart dough topped with a central mound of sweet-tart lemon cream. Petite peaks of meringue ring the bright-yellow centers.

And to give additional color, whimsy and some height between the desserts arranged on the trolley, she placed clear glass vases filled with lollipops. Granulated sugar held the candy in place, making fancy look fun.

One vase brimmed with bright-pink raspberry pops that look like sprung mechanical springs, each attached at one end to a long white lolli stick. Another with semi-spherical dark chocolate pops filled with chocolate-raspberry ganache.

And in what she calls “baby steps,” three new Nguy?n desserts are now on the menu, including a stunning Watermelon Soup. Served in a glass, fish-bowl like vessel, very cold (and very small) spheres of watermelon and cantaloupe are capped with delectable lime-basil sorbet. A light dusting of Maldon sea salt tops the perky sorbet, and a white chocolate stick provides a sweet garnish. For a final flourish, a server pours a small pitcher of ice-cold watermelon juice over the melons just before the dish is eaten.

The flavors and textures balance beautifully: the sweetness of the crunchy-cold melon balls, the smooth, tartness of the citrus sorbet and the herbal counterpoint of the bright-green basil. Plus the undeniable appeal of the flaky salt and creamy chocolate. Delicious.

Asked if she is sleep deprived, she responds that she’s accustomed to work days that often begin at 10 a.m. and end at 1 a.m.

She may lack sleep, but she says she doesn’t lack support from her family.

“Parents from Vi?t Nam often think they want their kids to be doctors,” she said with a half smile. “I wanted my mother to be equally proud of me, and now she thinks it’s the coolest thing. She is thrilled.

“I wanted to do this and do it RIGHT, to show my parents that their sacrifices were worth it.”

One bite of any of her sweet sensations prove a success of the highest degree.

RECIPES
LEMON MERINGUE TARTS

Yield: About 100 small mini tarts
For lemon cream:
Zest of 3 lemons (finely minced colored part of peel)
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup plus 5 tablespoons sugar
7 ounces (1 stick plus 7 tablespoons) butter,
cut into small pieces
6 eggs
For dough:
8 ounces (2 sticks) soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
5 egg yolks
For meringue:
3 egg whites; see cook’s notes
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

Cook’s notes: To be safe about raw egg consumption, children under 10, pregnant women, and those whose immune systems are compromised should eat only dishes made from fully cooked shell eggs or pasteurized eggs. You can purchase pasteurized egg whites in the refrigerated dairy case of most supermarkets. When using pasteurized egg whites to make meringue, it will require longer amounts of time for beating egg whites to make mixture stiff.

Procedure:
1. To make lemon cream, combine zest, lemon juice, sugar and butter in large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to full boil on medium-high heat and melt butter, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
2. Whisk eggs in large bowl about 30 seconds. Whisk in about 1 tablespoon of hot lemon mixture into eggs. Whisk in about 1/3 of hot mixture into eggs, adding in thin steam (this will slowly heat up eggs without curdling them). Whisk egg mixture into lemon mixture in saucepan. On low heat, whisk constantly until mixture thickens, about 3 to 5 minutes. Pour thickened cream through sieve into bowl. Cover and refrigerate.
3. To prepare dough, place butter and sugar in large bowl; stir with wooden spoon until creamy. In separate bowl, sift flour, salt and baking powder; stir to combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Stir to combine. Stir in egg yolks. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or up to 8 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Divide dough into three disks. On 3 sheets of parchment paper, roll disks as thin as possible, dusting rolling pin and top of dough with flour to prevent sticking. Dough should be about 1/8-inch thick. Transfer each dough-covered sheet of parchment paper to baking sheet. Bake each in middle of preheated oven for 6 minutes. While still hot, cut dough into 1 1/2-inch rounds using cookie cutter (leaving dough in place). Return to oven and bake until golden, about 8-12 more minutes. Cool.
5. To make meringue, place egg whites in large, clean bowl of electric mixer. Beat until soft peaks form on high speed. Lower speed and add sugar 1 teaspoon at a time, beating 20-30 seconds between additions. Beat until stiff and glossy.
6. Fill pastry bag fitted with 1/4-inch plain tip with cold lemon cream. Pipe mounds of lemon cream into center of each cool tart disk, about 1/2-inch high. Place meringue in another pastry bag fitted with 1/4-inch plain tip. Pipe small peaks of meringue on border around edge of each disk.

Nutritional information (per tart): Calories 150 (29 percent from fat), fat 4.9 g (saturated 0.5 g), protein 1 g, carbohydrates 26.5 g, cholesterol 20 mg, sodium 82 mg, no fiber

Source: Pastry Chef Uyên Nguy?n, Restaurant Guy Savoy, Las Vegas

SAVOY’S
VANILLA RICE PUDDING

One of the rice puddings that Chef Nguy?n prepares is a rose praline pudding. The milk is boiled with crushed caramelized almonds to infuse the milk with flavor (the milk is strained before rice is added). For home cooks, Nguy?n recommends adding chopped fresh fruit to the pudding. Or roast bananas in their skins, then peel and slice them over individual bowls of pudding.
Yield: 5 to 6 servings
3/4 cup Arborio rice
1 whole vanilla bean, Tahitian vanilla bean preferred; see cook’s notes
4 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar

Cook’s notes: Tahitian vanilla beans can be ordered at www.vanillafromtahiti.com

Procedure:
1. Place enough water to cover rice by about 2 inches in large saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat and add rice. Boil 7 minutes and strain.
2. Slice vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape out seeds with back of a paring knife; reserve seeds. In large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or large pot, bring milk, cream, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds to boil on high heat. Add strained rice and lower heat to gently simmer. Cook until rice is tender and liquid is nearly absorbed and thickened, stirring frequently. Discard bean pods and transfer pudding to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding to prevent “skin” from forming. Refrigerate until cold.

Nutritional information (per serving): Calories 270 (46 percent from fat), fat 13.7 g (saturated 6.1 g), protein 6.1 g, carbohydrates 31.4 g, cholesterol 36 mg, sodium 348 mg, fiber 1.9 g

Source: Pastry Chef Uyên Nguy?n, Restaurant Guy Savoy, Las Vegas

Uyên Nguy?n

Age: 26
Born: Biên Hòa, Vi?t Nam
Residence: Las Vegas
Family: Parents Tu?c “Duke” Nguy?n and Cân Dòan, five older siblings
Favorite culinary ingredient:
Fresh basil. “Basil complements everything fruity, especially citrus-based desserts, but chocolate, too. We have a local woman (in Las Vegas) who grows several kinds of basil — purple, Thai and green Mediterranean basils. She hand-cuts them, and we use what she is growing.”
Favorite cookbook:
“Sweet Seasons: Fabulous Restaurant Desserts Made Simple” By Richard Leach (Wiley). “I love how it’s organized by season. You can see the contrast of what to make in winter and what to make in summer.’’
Favorite place to go on days off:
Colorado River. “I go with my friends, and we rent a boat, fish and hang out. Sometimes we catch striped bass. My friends are cooks, so we enclose the fish in salt and stick them in the oven.
Favorite dessert:
Tarte Tatin, the classic upside-down caramelized apple dessert. “Nice and warm, just plain.”
Chef you would most like to bake with:
Oriol Balaguer. “He’s the Spanish chef and the author of “Dessert Cuisine” (Montagud Editores). The book has a different twist. He’s the first chef to write about ingredients ... chapters deal with sugar, or flour or salt. I’d like to make something sweet and something savory with him.’’
10 years from now:
Uyên’s Shop. “I’d like to have my own shop somewhere on the coast of California.”

Michelin Who?
Many contend that The Michelin Guide’s restaurant star ratings are the most famous and influential gastronomic ratings in the world. Stars are awarded sparingly and a three-star rating is the highest a restaurant can achieve. Three stars are only awarded to restaurants with “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” Brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin — tire makers — launched “Le Guide Michelin” in 1900 when they realized the connection between automobiles and travel needs. They created the guide so that motorists could find the finest restaurants and hotels along their chosen routes.

This feature was reported and funded through a news partnership with Ngu?i Vi?t Daily News and The Orange County Register.