Chef Alex Stratta Joins Bike Riders in Tuscany

Bike Riders, the luxury adventure travel company located in Boston's historic North End welcomes back celebrity chef Alex Stratta of ALEX & Stratta at Wynn Las Vegas to its signature Guest Chef Adventures. Chef Stratta returns to Tuscany with Bike Riders to create a delicious culinary adventure as he headlines Cucina Toscana in Tuscany Guest Chef Adventure, Oct 11-18, 2009.

With 18 years in the making, a Bike Riders Guest Chef Adventure offers travelers the chance to combine their interest in food & wine while biking through culinary landscapes with award-winning chefs. Destinations include Italy (Tuscany, Umbria, Puglia, Sicily), France (Provence and Burgundy, Dordogne) and Spain (Andalucia). Like all Bike Riders trips, the group size is small (max 16), the pace is your own and the experience is true.

Alex Stratta joins a roster of some of the countries best award-winning chefs to have headlined a Guest Chef Adventure. Chefs hail from top American restaurants including 2009 James Beard Best Chef Northeast, Rob Evans of Hugo's in Portland, Maine, Jody Adams, Chef/Owner of Rialto in Cambridge, MA, Brad Steelman, Executive Chef of The River CafJe in New York, Rick Moonen, one of the world's most celebrated seafood chefs of restaurant rm seafood at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV; Sanford D'Amato, Chef/Owner of Sanford in Milwaukee, WI; James Boyce, James Beard Award Nominee and Executive Chef of Cotton Row in Huntsville, AL and formerly Studio at Montage Resort and Spa in Laguna Beach, CA and Chef Roberto Donna of the award-winning Galileo in Washington, DC and Bebo Trattoria in Arlington, VA.

Alex has previously joined Bike Riders in Burgundy, Provence, Umbria and Tuscany.

About Bike Riders
Since 1991 Boston-based Bike Riders has been offering small, luxury biking trips to in North & South America, Europe & South Africa. A Bike Riders trip features off-the-beaten path itineraries, world-class inns and celebrated restaurants, many of which are Bike Riders' exclusives. Privately owned and operated by Eileen Holland and Lorenzo De Monaco, a husband-and-wife team who share a passion for travel and good food, as well as roots in many of regions they visit. Bike Riders keeps travel parties small (max 16) and saturates travelers in the locale. Being small allows Bike Riders to gain access to places larger travel companies cannot and avoids the generic tour feeling. Bike Riders has been recommended by such publications as Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, Vogue, USA Today, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, Fodor's, Departures and Italia Magazine. Bike Riders also offers self-guided and private tour s. More information can be found at www.bikeriderstours.com.

Alex Stratta - Cucina Toscana in Tuscany Guest Chef Adventure, Oct 11-18, 2009
Award-winning Chef Alessandro Stratta showcases his talents at Wynn Las Vegas as executive chef of two namesake restaurants: ALEX, featuring French cuisine, and Stratta, an Italian-American restaurant. ALEXhas been awarded two stars in the 2008 Las Vegas Michelin Guide and is one of only 14 restaurants in North America to receive this distinction. In 2005, ALEX was selected as one of the "Best New Restaurants in America" by Esquire, magazines and in 2006, 2007 and 2008 it was recognized by AAA as a Five-Diamond restaurant and by Mobil as a Five-Star restaurant, one of only three in Las Vegas. Chef Stratta was formerly the executive chef of Renoir Restaurant at the Mirage. Stratta brings a lifetime of work and experience to ALEX & Stratta at Wynn Las Vegas. Graduating with Honors from the California Culinary Institute, Chef Stratta's first experience was under the tutelage of pastry chef Jim Dodge at San Francisco's Stanford Court Hotel. Soon after accepting an internship at t he Michelin Three-Star Hotel De Paris in Monte Carlo, Stratta was invited by Alain Ducasse to join his team at the Louis XV. Chef Ducasse was he did for two years. In 1989, Stratta was hired as the executive chef at Mary Elaine's at the also the mentor who advised Stratta to work with Daniel Boulud at Le Cirque in New York, which Five-Star Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona and established it as the finest dining destination in Arizona during his tenure there. In 1998, Steve Wynn, Chairman of Mirage Resorts, Inc. asked Stratta to become part of the expanding Las Vegas culinary circle as executive chef of Renoir at the Mirage.