LAS VEGAS -- It's said that if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. That may be fine for some, but most people still have to get dinner on the table.

To beat the heat, you may have tried microwaving food and grilled burgers until you can't stand the sight of another ground beef patty. You may have made reservations at local restaurants. Now what?

Take a few tips from the chefs and restaurateurs in Las Vegas, where the desert climate makes 100-plus degree temperatures common this time of year, and evenings rarely cool off below the mid-70s.

"The one thing they've perfected here is air conditioning," says Jeffrey Chodorow, who owns several Las Vegas restaurants, including China Grill and rumjungle.

"It's 116 outside and 60 inside. It feels like Antarctica. Because of that, we can have indoor barbecues."

True, restaurants here all have cooled kitchens. But, once home, chefs, like everyone else, head for their outdoor grills or stove tops and avoid anything that involves cranking up the oven. They know how to put zest back into dinner time, with or without the AC.

In a nutshell, their secrets for making food more appetizing for listless, heat-affected eaters include relying on flavorful marinades, using exotic spices, varying food temperatures, choosing brightly colored foods and always having an abundance of cold drinks.

Soups, salads and marinated fish and chicken are the staples.

But before the chefs even step into the kitchen, they make sure the dining area is conducive to eating.

The first thing that Four Seasons Hotel executive chef Wolfgang von Wieser did when he moved to Las Vegas from Berlin was to install a swimming pool in his back yard. And then he borrowed a few ideas from his hotel, which has an outdoor terrace restaurant, a rarity in this hot desert climate. The hotel made alfresco dining bearable by placing the tables near the pool, shading everyone with large white canvas umbrellas as well as olive, lemon and palm trees, and periodically spritzing the air with cool water misters, which temper the desert heat.

Von Wieser liked the misters so much that he borrowed the idea for his own back yard.

"Misters take the temperature down and block the heat like a curtain," he explains.

After the stage is set, keep in mind what makes hot weather eating different from eating in winter.

"In Berlin," says von Wieser, "people eat more meat and there's more grease involved -- from cooking to serving. There are more calories. They eat three meals a day and people drink more alcohol, including wine at lunch.

"Here," he says, "all the recipes are lighter, and have more vegetables and less starch. Lunch is very light. Or if someone has a good lunch, they might skip dinner. People go for grilled items. They drink more liquids of all kinds, but they don't drink alcohol at lunch. At dinner, they might have a light rose, spritzer or white wine."

When planning your menu, says Robert Oliver, consulting chef at rumjungle, think carefully about temperature -- the food's temperature, that is, not the soaring mercury.

"Alternate the temperatures of the food," recommends this Fiji- and Samoa-raised chef who created the restaurant's South Pacific-influenced menu based on his own experiences in tropical climates. Items include meat grilled on sword-sized skewers and Bahamian conch fritters with hot banana ketchup.

"Serve an icy cold first course, maybe cold marinated fish like ceviche, or gazpacho, then a hot course that can be simple grilled food. Then go back to cold with a dessert like fruit or ices," he says.

Contrasting temperatures also can be contained in one dish, like a cool, crisp bed of greens with hot grilled food on top, he says. One of his featured salads contains chilled ripe tropical fruit topped with prawns that have been grilled in a guava/sweet chili sauce mixture.

For hot or cold courses, don't shy away from soups and stews, he adds. "You'd think stew would be out in a hot climate, but it's not. India has curry, and oxtail stew is everywhere in Jamaica."

One of his favorites is the Fijian Fisherman's Stew, which is a curry and fish mixture that's light, exotic and colorful.

"In hot countries, people eat hot, spicy foods," he says. "Spicy foods make your capillaries dilate and make you sweat, which cools you down and wakes you up. Also, cook with aromatics, like ginger, lemon grass and kaffir lime. They give a citrus life to food. They're flavors that wake you up."

Things to avoid in the heat are heavy bread and dairy products, says Oliver. "I think they make you tired."

"You need to follow the seasons and you need to cook light," recommends Jean-Louis Palladin, the celebrity chef who came to Las Vegas three years ago after running his self-named restaurant in Washington at the Watergate Hotel for 18 years. His Las Vegas venture, the Napa Restaurant in the Rio Suite Hotel, features country French gourmet cooking, and his just-opened New York restaurant, Palladin, is a brasserie. Palladin splits his time between New York and Las Vegas, both inhospitably hot this time of year.

"The summer is very tough in Las Vegas. It will be 100 degrees today," he sighs.

Palladin's remedy to beat the heat: "I'm going to do a lot of cold things now. I love chilled Maine lobster corn cakes with a salad of mache, or a salad of Dungeness crab, or carpaccio."

Palladin, who personally resorts to a diet of fish and vegetables when the weather sizzles, says all cooking should start with the produce of the moment.

"We have great farms all around this country. Use the maximum amount of vegetables you can right now. They're beautiful. There are so many things we can play with -- radishes, peppers, summer squash, peas, favas. Think of all the salads. Think of the tomatoes. I can get 22 kinds of tomatoes. I love tomatoes, and I'm starting to do a lot of cold tomato soups."

If you have a handful of ripe, flavorful, yellow tomatoes, try his summer soup below. The color of the soup -- bright yellow, with dots of red cherry tomatoes and a sprinkle of green herbs -- is very important, he says.

"You feel like eating when you have something like that in front of you. It's because there's a flush of different colors."

His perfect summer menu would start with the soup, or perhaps "a beautiful tomato salad with young onions," he says. "Then do a medley of vegetables on the grill and grill a piece of fish, like cod. Or you could do a light meat, like chicken or guinea hen."

At the Four Seasons, chef von Wieser's favorite starters include cold Minted Pea Soup and a cold Mediterranean antipasto salad that features eggplant tartar, hummus and pickled vegetables.

He also likes to head to the grill because he says flavorful marinades take the boredom out of grilling.

His simple formulas can be adjusted to one's own tastes:

For chicken, combine equal parts of olive oil and lemon juice. Add herbs and spices, such as shredded basil and cracked black peppercorns, to taste.

For fish, combine two parts lime juice with one part maple syrup (which will caramelize nicely on the grill later) and add freshly grated pepper to taste.

Either chicken or fish can take on an Asian flavor with one part soy sauce, two parts mirin (sweet rice wine found in the Asian section of the grocery store) and generous sprinklings of lemon grass and grated ginger.

For all of the above marinades, combine ingredients in a glass dish, cover and refrigerate for two hours before grilling.

While food is being prepared, keep guests well hydrated, say the chefs. Fruit juices with rum are obvious choices, but anything slushy is also welcome. China Grill serves one of the best cold drinks in town, the Junk Boat.

One of the most popular treats at the Four Seasons pool side are frozen grapes.

"They're very refreshing," says von Wieser. "But don't try it with the green ones, which get too solid. Use red flame grapes because they have the right amount of sugar and don't get rock-solid frozen."

Over at the Rio, chef Palladin has specific ideas about the perfect end to a summer meal.

"For dessert," he declares, "I believe you need to go to Haagen-Dazs."

Minted Pea Soup

Serves 4

4 cups English peas, shelled, reserve shells

1/2 cup coarsely chopped leeks

1/2 cup white wine

2 small bay leaves

1 garlic clove

2 cups water

12 very small fresh mint leaves, from top of stalk (if only larger leaves are available, use half the amount)

3 tablespoons lemon juice (or 4 tablespoons if you like it more tart)

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream

4 sprigs tarragon or mint, for garnish

optional garnishes: reserved blanched peas, chopped tomatoes, cooked corn kernels

Rinse pea shells and place in large pot along with leeks, wine, bay leaves and garlic. Add 2 cups water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour. Strain and chill broth. (You should have 1 1/2 cups.)

Blanch shelled peas 2 minutes in boiling salted water and chill in ice-cold water immediately. Reserve 2 tablespoons peas for garnish.

Place remaining blanched peas, 3/4 cup pea broth, mint leaves and lemon juice in blender and blend 3 to 4 minutes. Add remaining 3/4 cup pea broth and blend 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour into chilled bowls. Drizzle creme fraiche around top of soup and place 1 tarragon sprig in middle. Arrange reserved blanched peas, chopped tomatoes and corn kernels in center, if desired.

-- Adapted from recipe by Four Seasons executive chef Wolfgang von Wieser

The Junk Boat

Makes 1 drink

1/2 ounce melon liqueur

1/2 ounce peach schnapps

1/2 ounce raspberry schnapps

1/2 ounce sour apple schnapps

4 ounces cranberry juice

ice cubes

7-Up

Combine liqueur, schnapps and cranberry juice. Pour over ice in 9-ounce highball glass. Top with 7-up.

-- From the China Grill

Fijian Fisherman's Stew

Serves 4

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon curry powder, preferably Jamaican or Madras

1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk

3 cups clam juice or seafood broth

1 tablespoon chopped lemon grass

1 kaffir lime leaf, optional (available in Asian markets)

8 ounces monkfish or other firm fish

4 sea scallops

4 jumbo shrimp, shelled and deveined

1 cup diced fresh pineapple

1 cup squid rings

1/2 cup diced plum tomato

1/4 cup finely diced green onions

salt and pepper to taste

2 fresh green coconuts, split, to use as bowls, optional

To make sauce base, saute ginger in oil 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute 2 minutes longer. Add curry powder and saute until aromatic, 2 to 3 minutes. Add coconut milk, clam juice, lemon grass and lime leaf, and cook until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes.

In saute pan, sear fish, then scallops, then shrimp. Combine fish, shellfish, sauce and pineapple, and cook until seafood is cooked, 3 to 5 minutes, depending on thickness of seafood pieces. Add squid rings, tomato and green onions. Season with salt and pepper. Serve curry in coconut shells, if desired. Accompany with mango couscous, if desired (follow couscous package instructions; fold diced mango into cooked couscous).

--From Robert Oliver at rumjungle

Jean-Louis Palladin's Cold Yellow Tomato Summer Soup

Serves 2

4 yellow tomatoes

dash of salt and pepper

4 to 5 drops red wine vinegar

1/2 small onion, chopped

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

3/4 cup chicken broth

8 red cherry tomatoes

1 bunch mint, chopped (chopped chives or basil also works well)

Plunge yellow tomatoes into boiling water 1 minute, then plunge into cold water. Peel tomatoes and core and squeeze out seeds. Place tomato sections in blender along with salt, pepper, vinegar, onion, turmeric and chicken broth. Blend and strain. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and chill.

Plunge cherry tomatoes into boiling water 1 minute, then plunge into cold water. Peel.

To serve, place cherry tomatoes in shallow soup plates. Pour soup into plates and sprinkle with chopped mint.