What You Missed at L.A. Loves Alex’s LemonadeGiada DeLaurentiis, Jennifer Garner, and Jim Belushi joined a dream-team of national chefs and great L.A. restaurants at Culver Sutdios on Sunday.
ByHadley Tomicki
Chef Shuffle
Church & State Has An Even Newer ChefSeeking the astute touch with French cuisine that Manzke had, the Downtown restaurant hires Jeremy Berlin, a veteran of Le Bernadin and Payard Patisserie.
One Star Seals the Deal for Irving Mill; Ilili Surprises in a Good WayThe story on Irving Mill was written before Frank Bruni delivered the coup de grâce — an ambivalent one-star review that pointed out the restaurant’s odd inconsistencies. At this point, a one star was probably a best-case scenario for the place. [NYT]
Speaking of best-case scenarios, we bet that Gordon Ramsay had higher hopes for Bruni’s rereview of his big restaurant than the one that runs in Dining Briefs. Bruni finds Gordon Ramsay at the London still excellent but boring, and Peter Meehan isn’t too crazy about Bun. [NYT]
We heard that Ilili was a disaster, with bad service and worse food. So did Paul Adams, who was surprised to find that the word on the street was dead wrong. Adams even calls the food was “far, far better than it needs to be.” [NYS]
VideoFeed
Gordon Ramsay Even a Jerk on Other People’s TV ShowsA very contrite Gordon Ramsay was on display in Scotland’s Sunday Herald about a week ago — “We got screwed,” he says of Gordon Ramsay at the London’s opening, begging for sympathy because the ceiling caved in. No matter, Gordo is on to other things, like a restaurant in L.A. that will open in May and might — according to a rave review of Ramsay’s New York eatery in the Sunday Times of London — be backed by the Beckhams! The Times also mentions that Gordo might appear on The Simpsons, but will his cameo match his walk-on in the Extras Christmas special, in which a washed-up Andy Millman begs Gordo to get him into London’s Ivy restaurant? Click on the image above to watch.
To Hell’s Kitchen and Back Again [Sunday Herald of Scotland]
Gordon Ramsay in New York [Sunday Times of London]
Mediavore
Chang Has Big Dreams for Vegas; Nobu to CaterDavid Chang plans to open a Momofuku in Vegas where everyone “wants you to do well. [And] there are no government officials who go after you and none of the bull[bleep] that’s in New York City.” [NYP]
Nobu heads to the Sundance Film Festival this January as the first push to establish a catering arm of the company. [NYP]
Gordon Ramsay at the London, Insieme, and Toloache are some of the newer restaurants spicing up pre-theater dining. [NYT]
Back of the House
Could Gordon Ramsay’s Act Get Any More Tired? Apparently So.
It’s not any breaking news that Gordon Ramsay’s act has been wearing pretty thin. But Thursday’s appearance on the Tonight Show was so bad, and Gordo’s patter so labored, that he may have actually gone back in time and become twenty years over the hill, rather than just a month or two. Ramsey’s stilted, scripted spiel made a point of calling out such of-the-moment targets as snooty French people, cops, and even women drivers. (We kept waiting for him to start in on hippies, but maybe he’s saving that for Dick Cavett.)
Mediavore
A Happy New York Ending for Gordo; Bruni Thinks Michelin Ratings ‘JustGordon Ramsay at the London is the only new restaurant in town to earn two stars in the Michelin Guide, a conquest that’s especially sweet here where the chef is often maligned and/or mocked — by us, for example. [NYP]
Related: Gordon Ramsay, Gay Icon
Two of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s “lesser lights,” Vong and JoJo, have received the same Michelin rating as Café Boulud, and according to Bruni, “that’s just nutty.” [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Jean-Georges has promoted a 24-year-old star sous-chef to be chef de cuisine at Perry St. [Eater]
Beef
Gordon Ramsay’s Exhausts, Neighbors Still FumingGiven how much grief Gordon Ramsay has had lately (a seared testicle, lawsuit, etc.), we thought we’d add to it by inquiring after the status of his battle with his New York neighbors. Last year, they were up in arms about the noise and stench Gordon Ramsay at the London brought to them, and this year, they are too. “Imagine your house being inundated with dirty bacon and duck smells,” says resident Karen Sharf. “We cannot sleep and cannot basically breathe in our apartments.”
Mediavore
Ex-Ramsay Chef Taking Over Allen and Delancey; High-End Chinese Fading FastNeil Ferguson, the former chef at Gordon Ramsay, will be in charge of the kitchen at Allen and Delancey when the place finally opens in September. [NYT]
Related: Allen and Delancey Tripped at the Finish Line, Won’t Open
The city’s Chinese fine-dining restaurants are on the run, the victims of changing tastes, high costs, and slim margins. The East Side’s Sichuan Pavilion just went under, and even the genre’s grande dame, Shun Lee Palace, is now peopled mostly by seniors. [NYS]
Organic chef Matthew Kenney, best known for his acrimonious exit from Pure Food and Wine, is back in town and preparing to open a retail prepared-organic-foods business. [NYS]
Related: Raw Foodist Sarma Melngailis Drinks Grapefruit Sake Mojitos Before Noon
Mediavore
Alain Ducasse Hates Molecular Gastronomy; BLT Market Pushed Back to AugustAlain Ducasse speaks out on his restaurants, his rivalry with Joël Robuchon, and the challenge of running a global empire. But his most pointed remarks are about molecular gastronomy: “I prefer to be able to identify what I’m eating.” [Bloomberg]
BLT Market, Laurent Tourondel’s entry into the Haute Barnyard sweepstakes, has been pushed back to August. [RG]
“Hipster chef” Sam Mason’s new Internet TV show gets love in the Daily News, which swooningly describes him as “witty, goateed and extremely good-looking.” But you already knew that. [NYDN]
Related: The Launch
The Launch
Sam Mason Gets His Own Special IslandWelcome to the latest installment of the Launch, where Sam Mason, former pastry chef at wd-50, relates the ups and downs of preparing to open Tailor, the swanky restaurant and lounge coming together at 525 Broome Street.
Mediavore
Gordon Ramsay’s Dark Side Revealed; Staten Island Pizza Conquers the WorldAccording to a revealing new profile by Heat author Bill Buford, Gordon Ramsay isn’t a bad guy, “but he does get angry, helplessly and uncontrollably angry — not an earthly anger but something darker — and has trouble knowing how to stop.” [NYer]
State legislator proposes an A through F system of grading restaurant hygiene, but the Department of Health is against it. [amNY]
A Staten Island pizzeria beats out a field of 65 from six countries to win the 23rd International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. It’s Denino’s, right? Joe and Pat’s? No. It’s Goodfella’s Brick Oven Pizza. [NYDN]
Back of the House
The Great Chef CrisisRecently, apropos nothing much, a prominent young chef we were chatting with launched into a tirade about the restaurant world’s “labor problem.” “None of us can get enough good cooks!” he exclaimed, by way of explanation. Between 2000 and 2006, only a handful of high-end restaurants — Lespinasse, Meigas, Quilty’s — have closed, and there has been an avalanche of major openings: Robuchon, Ramsay, Per Se, Masa, Craft, Del Posto, Morimoto, A Voce, the Modern, Lever House, Buddakan, Cafe Gray, Alto — the list goes on and on. “And it’s not just the massive boom of restaurants,” Adam Platt tells us. “They also have to be either bigger, or chefs have to open multiple places, so that they can enjoy the economies of scale they need to compete.”
NewsFeed
Gordon Ramsay Chef Has Tomorrow (and the Next Day, and Day After That…) OffGordon Ramsay at the London chef de cuisine Neil Ferguson — basically, the guy running the kitchen — has apparently been canned. According to our source, as well as Eater, the staff was informed last night.
Ramsay Dismisses Neil Ferguson [Eater]
Update: Representatives confirm the move, saying that Ramsay veteran Josh Emett has taken over, with Ferguson returning to London to “focus on upcoming projects for Gordon Ramsay Holdings.”
NewsFeed
Gordon Ramsay Now Wants to Please YouIt’s no secret that Gordon Ramsay’s hasn’t exactly set New York on fire: As Adam Platt noted, his food is expensive and not very exciting. Ramsay must’ve been listening, because he’s introduced a prix fixe menu priced to rival the $28 lunch being offered at nearby Jean Georges.
The Other Critics
Ssäm Bar Vindicated; Haute Cuisine Gets No LoveMomofuku Ssäm Bar wins two stars (!) from Bruni and completes a success story that seemed pretty unlikely a few months ago, when the place was selling Asian burritos to a handful of customers. The review is also a watershed in the changing culture of restaurants: Formal is now officially out, casual now officially legit. [NYT]
Related: The I Chang [NYM]
Meanwhile, Randall Lane is a lone dissenter, calling out Ssäm Bar for its unevenness, lack of focus, and the steep prices of some of its main dishes. On the whole, though, he seems to have missed the point — David Chang’s loose, unfettered approach to good cooking. [TONY]
Steve Cuozzo joins in the chorus of approval greeting Wayne Nish’s transformation of the stuffy March into the swinging, fusion-y Nish. The message: Remain formal at your own peril. (See reviews of Dennis Foy and Gordon Ramsay.) [NYP]
Related: Bedeviled [NYM]
The Other Critics
It’s Final: Ramsay’s Dull; March Gets RomanticBruni goes to Gordon Ramsay and finds common ground with everyone else, saying it’s well executed, flawless even — and totally uninspiring. Even the paint is dull! (Two stars.) [NYT]
In keeping with his recent interest in the international, Meehan visits a Romanian restaurant with garlicky spreads in Sunnyside. Still, despite the Sphinx, the place still doesn’t sound all that interesting. [NYT]
March reborn as Nish: It’s more romantic, thanks to more intimate seating, exotic ingredients, and dishes that “broadly evoked the cuisine of chef Gray Kunz: international spices used with local ingredients and French technique.” Who isn’t doing that these days? [Bloomberg]
NewsFeed
We Spot-Check Gordon Ramsay’s StinkWe recently noted that the notoriously truculent Gordon Ramsay has finally pissed someone off with his new Gordon Ramsay at the London. His neighbors in the apartment building behind the restaurant have been complaining bitterly about the noise and smell produced by the restaurant’s air exhausts, among other things. We decided to see for ourselves just how bad they really have it. Our correspondent, who shot the photograph above, was led into an apartment right across from an apparently unfiltered exhaust vent. “A steady, noticeable hum is apparent,” he reports. “This becomes much louder when the windows are opened. I can definitely see how it would impact people living on that side of the building within a few floors of the vent.” Then there’s the smell. Shirley Lemmon, the residence manager, told our reporter that, “We know what they’re having for dinner. Sometimes it’s bacon, which I don’t mind. I like bacon. But sometimes it’s duck, and the smell is terrible.” (Lemmon also claims that Ramsay’s air-conditioning unit has been measured at 75 decibels. History’s loudest rock concert — the Who at Leeds — peaked at 120 decibels.) Ramsay’s people told us that “the hotel has addressed the problem and is working to resolve all issues.” Something tells us they’re not taking duck off the menu.
Earlier: Gordon Ramsay Finally Pissing Someone Off
Back of the House
Gordon Ramsay Finally Pissing Someone OffThe famously pugnacious Gordon Ramsay has managed not to alienate the entire city of New York — just his neighbors. The residents of 150 West 55th Street, the building that sits behind the recently opened Gordon Ramsay at the London, claim that the restaurateur has plunged them into what their spokesperson Elizabeth Hulings tells us is a “nightmare.” “The smell of the third-floor exhaust fan guarantees that everyone in the building knows just what’s being served that night,” Hulings says. “The noise has people sleeping on their couches.” According to an official release, two tenants “had to seek medical attention for respiratory problems” caused by “particulate matter” given off by garbage trucks. Ramsay’s people didn’t return our call right away, but Caterer and Housekeeper, a Website that covered the story earlier, quoted them as saying, “Such challenges are not uncommon during a major construction project such as undertaken at the hotel and restaurant,” and added, “when brought to the attention of Gordon Ramsay Holdings by the hotel, the complaint was immediately addressed.”
Kitchen Nightmare for Gordon Ramsay in New York [Caterer and Housekeeper]
Back of the House
Another Tapas Joint, Another Noodle Bar, and Another Club CrackdownWant a table at the Waverly Inn? Meet your new friend Fritz. [NYO]
Flo chart: Tocqueville’s Marco Moreira “just plans to work a little harder” now that his chef de cuisine has left; Park Ave. Cafe bites the big one. [NYT]
Eighty cooks (presumably none of them from Hell’s Kitchen) to work in Ramsay’s kitchen. [NYT]
