Tyler Florence is among the chefs who told me they had massively cut down on their meat intake. Even Michael Lomonaco, the chef of the Manhattan steak joint Porter House New York who recently knocked off 10 lb., eats a lot of simply cooked proteins surrounded by vegetables. "I do a slow-roasted salmon--there's no oil, no added fats--roasted on cedarwood in an oven. It's served with big white beans, fresh tomatoes and tarragon," he says. "What a great steak house this is: the chef is telling us to eat salmon."

But Jacques Torres, the New York City--based chocolatier, still eats his chocolate. Through Weight Watchers, he knocked off 20 lb. and then another 12 lb. in September in a charity competition for chefs that was sponsored by the weight-loss program. He stocks up on 70%-cocoa chocolate bars, with the goal of always having a low-sugar option on hand. Because when a craving hits, not even a Weight Watchers--trained, insanely talented pastry chef with a refined dessert palate can get in its way. "Last Sunday I was craving so much for sweets, I went to buy a cheesecake." Even worse, he confesses, "I bought it at the supermarket. I was in Jersey."

But in the desert restaurant universe, a mirage has now arisen that could mean either salvation or doom: the $8.5 billion CityCenter project. Bristling with construction cranes and gleaming in the 100-degree sun, the CityCenter casino, hotel, convention center, mall, residential and entertainment metropolis looks like a hallucinogenic 67-acre Red Grooms parody of the Las Vegas Strip. The development spans a quarter-mile, from the Bellagio to the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, and is scheduled to open in December.

Some 30 restaurants are to inhabit the jumble of seven buildings — from tapered towers to crystalline shards — designed by eight celebrity architects, including Sir Norman Foster and Daniel Libeskind. On display, and on trial, will be the concepts of lionized chefs, among them Pierre Gagnaire, Michael Mina, Masayoshi Takayama, Wolfgang Puck and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. For some, CityCenter, developed by MGM Mirage and Dubai World, will offer treasures that transcend buzz and hype: 4,000 food and restaurant jobs, a third of the complex's 12,000 new jobs. But if it cannibalizes existing restaurants it could further wound this once-sleepy railroad watering stop beset by a sere immensity of sand.

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Last year, "the sky was falling, and people were terrified," said Elizabeth Blau, a restaurant consultant. "Now things have stabilized." But for many Las Vegas restaurateurs, flat is still the new up, and for some, "being down 10 percent, that's the new flat," said Joseph Bastianich, Mario Batali’s partner in three restaurants at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino. Mr. Bastianich said his Carnevino Italian Steakhouse in the Palazzo at the Venetian was projecting $18 million in revenues this year but now "we expect to do $13 million to $14 million."