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Jean Georges Vongerichten

  1. NewsFeed
    Will Soba Be Another Japanese Crossover Hit?What Japanese specialties find success in New York, and which ones don’t.
  2. NewsFeed
    Vongerichten Bets on SobaRamen be damned. Jean-Georges Vongerichten opens a soba restaurant.
  3. In the Magazine
    Summer Eats: Lobster, Popsicles, Beer, and SobaCold noodles, cold beer, and hot lobsters: a summer guide to food.
  4. NewsFeed
    Vongerichten Soba Palace Matsugen to Open TomorrowGet ready for another soba temple.
  5. NewsFeed
    Private Time With Jean-Georges and a Park View for Only $9,000Trump International is offering a two-hour Jean-Georges Culinary Master Course, in which he’ll show the ropes to two to four deep-pocketed aspiring cooks.
  6. NewsFeed
    Nolita House Gets Less Cheesy Chef and MenuDarryl Burnette brings French, Italian, and Thai influences to a revamped menu at Nolita House.
  7. NewsFeed
    Amanda Hesser Out at the ‘Times’Food editor Amanda Hesser took a buyout from the Times, but does her departure involve more than money?
  8. Back of the House
    Beatrice Inn Provides Valuable Sociology LessonAt some point in your undergrad days, you probably learned the basics of sociology. If you didn’t, just stand in line at the Beatrice Inn.
  9. Back of the House
    Josh Eden: Dead HeadMetromix’s “Kitchen Radio” feature on Shorty’s.32 chef Josh Eden is a fine spin on a tired gimmick. The most believable bit? The Dead Head chef claims that the multicolored sea bass with beets and green oil is a psychedelic tribute to his favorite band. But forcing Jean-Georges to listen to bootlegs from 1968? Torture. Kitchen Radio: Josh Eden [Metromix NY] Related: Chefs Continue to Rock, and We Reach for the Earplugs
  10. Mediavore
    Anne Burrell Is Riding High; Jean-Georges’s Foot ProblemCentro Vinoteca chef Anne Burrell’s inspirations? Why, only the people she’s worked for, including Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali. [NYDN] Crowds gathered at Cafe La Fortuna, the small 71st Street storefront once patronized by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, for its last day. [Lost City] Bobby Flay has a new TV show, and you can have a small part of it. [Eater]
  11. Mediavore
    Per Se Raises Prices; Shill for Whole Foods, Win FoodYou’re going to regret not going to Per Se the last time you had a chunk of change to burn: Thomas Keller’s luxe restaurant has raised prices for both the regular and vegetarian menus to $275 for nine courses. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch] Violence continues in the Flatiron club district, as two men were arrested for stabbing a patron and a bouncer at Club Spy after a fight erupted in the VIP room. [NYP] As part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Green the Capitol project, the cafeterias are getting a locavore makeover, with the goal to sell as much locally grown, organic food as possible. [WP]
  12. Mediavore
    A Hip-hop IHOP in Brooklyn; Grant Achatz Beats CancerMary J. Blige and Foxy Brown’s producer, known to fans as Don Pooh, owns what is already being called the “hip-hop IHOP” that opened in downtown Brooklyn yesterday. [NYDN] Related: The Phantom IHOP of Midtown West Meatpaper magazine is a popular read with both carnivores and vegetarians, which is how the founders learned that bacon, delectable treat of treats, “is how vegetarians change their minds” when they revert to their meat-eating ways. [NYT] Today in unsubstantiated rumors: David Bouley’s forthcoming Japanese restaurant/cooking school will open across the street from Upstairs at Bouley. [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine] Related: David Bouley to Open Restaurant With Japan’s Top Cooking School
  13. Engines of Gastronomy
    Jean Georges’ CVap Oven Is ‘Better Than the Bag’ Jean Georges isn’t a restaurant known for its attachment to experimental cuisine; if anything, J-G Vongerichten’s highly formal flagship is considered a bastion of old-school tablecloth dining. But Vongerichten has always been in the gastronomic vanguard, and he and chef de cuisine Mark Lapico are among the city’s most ardent admirers of the CVap oven, a controlled-humidity technology they use so much that there’s three of them in the kitchen.
  14. NewsFeed
    Vongerichten’s Soba Plans Back On; Japanese Food Superstore Coming Too? Though a deal is not yet signed, we can report that Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s partnership with Japanese restaurateurs the Matsushita brothers is back on. The building that used to house 66will become a long-awaited soba restaurant and maybe something even better: a three-story Japanese megamarket. The soba restaurant, Matsu Gen, is envisioned as the anchor to what one source familiar with the project described as a “Japanese Zabar’s.” (A similar Japanese megamart, the Mitsuwa Marketplace, exists in Edgewater, New Jersey, and is a mecca for Japanese cooks and aficianados from all over the greater New York area.) It’s not definite that the full three-floor bazaar will come to pass, but the restaurant, at any rate, seems to be coming into focus. Earlier: Vongerichten’s Soba Plans May Be in the Soup Vongerichten May Deep-Six 66, Serve Sushi and Soba Instead
  15. Mediavore
    Bloomberg’s a Cookie Fiend; L.A. Resists Cupcake TrendMayor Bloomberg calls the oatmeal-raisin cookies served up at Gracie Mansion “addictive,” an opinion not shared by Giuliani, who didn’t care for the in-house baker’s sweets. [NYDN] Fresh owner Eric Tevrow pleaded guilty to pocketing more than $1 million in sales and payroll taxes from his restaurants. [NYP] Tickets for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s tribute dinner at next year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival have already sold out, despite being $500 a pop. Naturally, scalpers are already reselling them on eBay. [NYP]
  16. Mediavore
    No Plaza for Graydon; Mr. Rachael Ray Drops $35K for LunchboxGraydon Carter won’t be taking over the Plaza’s Oak Room, so you’ll still have to head downtown to the Waverly Inn for that truffled macaroni and cheese. [NYP] Jean-Georges Vongerichten seeks the elusive fifth taste by serving “umami bombs” at his restaurants. [WSJ] Related: Waiter, There’s a Fifth Element in My Soup It’s possible that locally grown products have a comparable or even greater carbon footprint than food that travels long distances, so you can stop patting yourself on the back for being a greenmarket fanatic. [NYT] Related: Local Schmocal [NYM]
  17. Mediavore
    Citywide Truffle Shortage; A New Eastside Fro-Yo FoeA citywide truffle shortage can explain why “the Waverly Inn jacked up the price of its infamous truffle-topped mac & cheese from $55 to $85. The dish was an amusing punch line at $55; at $85, it’s just obscene.” [NYP] Related: Le Cirque Bids High for Monster Truffle Bruni eschews all the courtesies one suffers at the dinner table, which he refers to as restaurantspeak: “Would I ‘enjoy coffee with dessert?’ I don’t know; it depends how good the coffee is. I’ll have some, yes, then we’ll see.” [NYT] FR.OG has now lost Jean Georges alum chef Didier Virot to the Plaza’s new restaurant-to-be, the Palm Court, set to open later this year. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
  18. Openings
    The Lenox Room Re-creates Itself As T-Bar Now that the Lenox Room has remade itself as T-Bar, a highly polished steakhouse on the Upper East Side, let’s have a moment of silence for its former identity. The Lenox Room was one of those very grown-up New York places. Opened in 1995, it wasn’t one of the top restaurants in town, but it was pure New York Establishment, thanks to owner Tony Fortuna, former manager of Lafayette (when Jean-Georges made his New York name) and Lespinasse (under the original stellar stewardship of Gray Kunz). Fortuna is one of those guys who really know how to run a restaurant, and although the times have called for a more casual, steak-centric approach, the restaurant still has something of the old cool. The food, a modern steakhouse menu with extensive fish, veal, and chicken selections, is as solid as before, no accident since the chef, Ben Zwicker, is still in place. But, as Fortuna says: “The Upper East Side is changing; it’s not where your father lives now. It’s gotten younger, and we needed a new vibe.” We liked the old one, but we understand.
  19. Mediavore
    De Niro’s Tribeca Grill Sued; Fines Talk in City’s Trans-Fat FightDe Niro’s Tribeca Grill is the latest restaurant to be sued by ex-waiter complaining that managers skim tips. [NYP] Kiwis consider the real key to Gordo’s New York success to be “Waikato farmboy” chef de cuisine Josh Emett. [New Zealand Herald]
  20. NewsFeed
    Vongerichten’s Soba Plans May Be in the SoupIs Jean-Georges Vongerichten reconsidering plans for a soba restaurant? We’re hearing from sources within the Japanese restaurant community that Vongo’s deal with the Matsushita brothers has collapsed. The idea was to turn 66 into a Matsu Gen, a temple to the art of buckwheat noodles. The place was slotted to open this spring, but expectations are low. So will the 66 space get a new concept, or will Vongerichten do a soba restaurant with somebody else? We’ll let you know when we hear. Related: Vongerichten May Deep-Six 66, Serve Sushi and Soba Instead
  21. 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]
  22. Trimmings
    Jean-Georges’s $40,000 Light Makes You Look Like a Million Bucks When Jean-Georges Vongerichten retooled his namesake restaurant, his lighting designer Herve Descottes wanted, in his words, “to bring a little bit of attention to the center of the room” — and boy did he! The Frenchman spent six months and over $40,000 working with Seattle firm Neidhart Lighting to create a steel fixture that looks like a shitake mushroom and is also “a little bit sensual.” Each lamp is trimmed with reflective gold leaf. Three 35-watt halogen bulbs are controlled by a computer, with different settings for lunch, early dinner, and post–8 p.m., when the light is softest because there’s no competing sunlight. Installing the arms wasn’t exactly a breeze: “They were dancing a little bit,” says Descottes. It looks like they still are — but then maybe that’s just the Mouton buzz.
  23. Neighborhood Watch
    Calling All Casseroles; Jonathan Waxman to Cook Southern on the UWSGreenpoint: Casserole fanatic turned cookbook author Emily Farris is hosting a cook-off at Brooklyn Label on October 16. Register now! [Brooklyn Based] Midtown East: The Tao formula should fit right in on Lincoln Road in South Beach. [Down by the Hipster] Tribeca: Bubby’s owner Ron Silver is finally giving up his pie recipes in a cookbook out this month. [NYS] Upper West Side: Barbuto chef-partner Jonathan Waxman turns to southern fare this fall when he opens Madaleine Mae on Columbus Avenue at 82nd Street. [NYT] West Village: In comparing Bay Area restaurant trends to those in New York, critic Michael Bauer concedes: Blue Hill chef Dan Barber “does Chez Panisse one better by growing most of the food at his farm in Hudson Valley.” [Between Meals/San Francisco Chronicle]
  24. NewsFeed
    Jean-Georges Schools Chodorow in the Art of BloggingSo it’s not anywhere near as dishy as Chodorow’s site, but it seems Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s two-week-old blog is at least sticking to its promise to update us every Tuesday on “what I’ve been cooking, where I’ve been traveling, and what I’ve been thinking.” (It’s a Blogger site with a pretty standard template — did Jean-Georges make this himself?) Even if he isn’t slamming Bruni and Platt, Vongo is at least confessing to cooking with a machine developed for Kentucky Fried Chicken (scandalous!) and getting his daughter’s birthday cake from a bakery instead of from his dessert man Johnny Iuzzini (c’est impossible!). Another shocker: “I love eating in New York. From the tacos and margaritas at Los Dados (where I often stop after a night of cooking at Spice Market).” Jean-Georges is still cooking at Spice Market? Jean-Georges Vongerichten [Blog]
  25. The In-box
    What Do You Mean? We Love the Upper East Side! Dear Grub Street, The Upper West Side is teeming with activity, as is every other area of Manhattan, but I very rarely see anything on the Upper East Side. What have you got against the several hundred thousand people who live there and their restaurants and chefs? — A reader with a valid gripe.
  26. NewsFeed
    Chef Roman à Clef: “I’m Not Abbe”Yesterday we speculated that Sympathy for the Restaurant Industry — a new site that is fictionalizing restaurant-industry players — was the work of PXThis blogger Abbe Diaz. The pillorying of Sam Mason, Keith McNally, et al sounded pretty much like e-mails from Abbe. But the author insists to us: “No, I’m not Abbe. She’s the original, the godmother of restaurant blogs and general awesomeness. I’m not worthy.” Hmm — suspiciously high praise.
  27. Mediavore
    Vongerichten Sued Once Again; East Village Cooks Nab PervJean-Georges Vongerichten is being sued by employees from eight of his restaurants, who claim he underpaid them, cheated them of overtime, and made them share tips with bosses. This is the chef’s third suit of the year. [NYDN] Two East Village cooks spot the serial groper they had previously saved a woman from. [NYP] Millions of cans of food are literally bursting with botulism, and New York is among the states where the germ bombs have turned up. [Fox News]
  28. Back of the House
    Why Is Alan Richman So in Love With Brooklyn? Given that Alan Richman has become a kind of professional debunker, the Amazing Randi of the food world, it was with some relief that we read his critical overview of Brooklyn in the new issue of GQ. The verdict: Brooklyn rules! Gramercy Tavern, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and the cities of Las Vegas and New Orleans, all victims of his scorn over the last few years, must be fuming.
  29. Mediavore
    Vongerichten Sued by Ex-Waiters; Subway Complies With Calorie LawSix former employees of V Steakhouse file a class-action suit against Jean-Georges Vongerichten for the usual reasons: sub-minimum wage and garnished tips. “We were kind of given the idea that the waitstaff is dispensable, that there were a million people who would come in and do your job.” [NYDN] Unlike the other fast-food chains, who have adamantly resisted the calorie-posting law, Subway has already started to implement it. [Consumerist] Healthy zombies should do their best to follow the zombie food pyramid, which calls for six to eleven servings of brains every day, and only sparing amounts of bones and gristle. [Serious Eats]
  30. Openings
    Saju Just Sneaked Into Midtown While no one was looking, New York just got another high-end Vietnamese restaurant in Saju, at the Hotel Mela. The place is in what could loosely be called soft-opening mode, largely because they are still ten days away from a liquor license and are still BYOB. But the food, mostly classical versions of Vietnamese dishes, shows the kind of French influence that comes from colonial occupation, rather than “fusion cooking” per se. (The fact that a Frenchman, Osteria al Doge’s Phillipe Bernard, is a co-owner underscores its Gallic pedigree.)
  31. Mediavore
    Pret a Manger Set for Huge Expansion Here; Ramsay Bans BluefinBritish sandwich chain Pret a Manger is launching an expansion of Starbucks-like proportions, announcing plans to open 33 more locations in New York — four times the current number. “If New York could support one on every corner, we’d love that,” the company’s head says. [NYS] Related: Out to Lunch [NYM] Urged by the Marine Conservation Society, Gordon Ramsay pulls endangered bluefin tuna from all his restaurants. [NRN] The Department of Health’s current closure rampage continues with Union Picnic in Williamsburg, Café Angelique, and J’adore in Manhattan. [Eater]
  32. NewsFeed
    Vongerichten May Deep-Six 66, Serve Sushi and Soba Instead Is 66, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s underperforming Chinese-themed outpost, closing? A restaurant consultant moving in international circles (whom we communicate with via self-destructing personal digital assistants) informs us that the superchef intends on partnering with a Japanese restaurant firm and executing a sushi-and-soba concept in the space. Vongerichten, meanwhile, tells us the story is “just a rumor,” and that he’s in fact considering a sushi-soba restaurant at another location. (Of course, closing announcements generally aren’t made until the last minute — they’re bad for business, and the staff needs to be told first.) Either way, we’re now craving Japanese.
  33. Back of the House
    Can Paul Liebrandt Make New York Safe for Molecular Gastronomy?The details aren’t yet clear, but it seems that one way or another, Paul Liebrandt will soon be leading a restaurant in New York. (Snack asserts that it will be Montrachet, but Vogue’s Jeffrey Steingarten tells us that it will be a new venture with Drew Nieporent; the two are searching for a space.) Add to that the launch of Sam Mason’s Tailor, the buzz around Jordan Kahn’s work at Varietal, and the mainstreaming of tropes like foams, and it looks like molecular gastronomy will have another shot with New York diners.
  34. NewsFeed
    Café Gray Loses Its LunchHow do you usually spend your lunches? If you’re anything like us, it’s hunched over your desk, scarfing down scrapple you brought from home in a Tupperware tub. Gone, in other words, are the glory days of the leisurely workweek lunch. And so this slow change has claimed another victim: Café Gray. After March 5, you’ll no longer be able to flex your expense account during the midday hours at what Platt calls “probably the most fun” of the “self-important” food-court establishments at Time Warner Center.
  35. Back of the House
    Jean-Georges Vongerichten on His Gift for DelegationNo chef in New York restaurant history has been more successful, or more influential, than Jean-Georges Vongerichten. As he begins his third decade of cooking and running restaurants in New York, we sat down to ask him some questions about the scene: how it’s changed and where it’s going.
  36. Back of the House
    Dinner Roll, Please: ‘08 SOBE Honorees Already LeakedRestaurant Girl has dug up the 2008 South Beach Food & Wine Festival honorees. Next year’s special food people will be … Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Jamie Oliver! The ‘07 fest, which won’t even be held until the end of this month, will give props to Maguy Le Coze and Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert; Martha Stewart gets her own tribute brunch. Widely attended by the restaurant elite, if only because it’s an excuse to party in South Beach during the dead of winter, the SOBE event will likely be even more crowded this February — new sponsor the Food Network will be taping its first annual Food Network Awards there. SOBE’s 2008 Nominees Are… [Restaurant Girl]
  37. User’s Guide
    A Restaurant Week Guide to the Forgotten and UnderappreciatedThe Restaurant Week participants we’re about to endorse aren’t obscure, strictly speaking. You just wouldn’t find their names in the same sentence as the word “buzz” – not, at least, since the Clinton years. But they’re all more than worth the $24.07 you’ll pay for lunch ($35 for dinner) starting on Monday, and you might even beat the crowds.
  38. NewsFeed
    Harold Moore of March to Take Over Grange Hall–Blue Mill SpaceA reliable industry source tells us that the long-vacant Grange Hall–Blue Mill space, which our Daniel Maurer reports was recently considered by Milk and Honey owner Sasha Petraske for his new restaurant, has been snapped up by former March chef de cuisine Harold Moore, a Montrachet veteran who has cooked under both Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The lease hasn’t been signed yet, and there is no word on when Moore, who has the backing of several partners, intends on opening it or what the food will be. But given his track record, it should be pretty good.
  39. Back of the House
    Kim Jong Il’s New Jersey Barbecue Connection; Starbucks ConsolidatingNirvana 54, it turns out, is named after the table where Richard Gere dined with threesome participants back in the good old days. [NYP] American food will be better, healthier, and more “upscale” in the coming year, expert insists. [NYDN] Whole Foods stock is tanking, despite the chain’s surging growth. [Slate] Hackensack barbecuer a vital go-between for U.S. and North Korea when not tending pit. [Serious Eats] Vongerichten’s son is a chip off the old block. [New York Restaurant Insider] Eel or Amazonian superfoods? Three experts try to divine the hot ingredient of the year. [TONY] Double Seven gets a reprieve, Boxers already replaced, Gusto expanding. [Eater] Chicken-man arsonist admits he was drunk when he torched doughnut shop. [NYDN] Starbucks is winning the fight against unions: “If they had faith in me and my motives, they wouldn’t need a union,” says chairman. [Nation’s Restaurant News]