Chefs Gone Wild

Chefs Behaving Badly: Introducing the Beaujolais Biker Brigade

Francois Payard, pastry chef and bad boy.
Francois Payard, pastry chef and bad boy. Photo: Courtesy of Beaujolais Bikers

We’ve never really understood the whole chefs-on-scooters thing, and it only seems to have gotten worse — much worse — since the days of Rocco. If you’re going to ride a bike, go whole hog. Be like Chai Trivedi of Pranna and spend six months riding a Honda Nighthawk 750 across Southeast Asia. Or be like the Beaujolais Biker Brigade. That’s right —let’s say that again. The Beaujolais Bikers. On November 20 at 11:30 a.m., motorcycle-heads Marc Murphy, David Bouley, Johnny Iuzzini, Francois Payard (pictured here in full gear), and other chefs and sommeliers will ride (most of them on their own bikes, others straddling a local “Hog Club” member) from Battery Park to Secession, where Franck Duboeuf will bust open his first imported case of 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau. Really, you gotta love this, not just because it raises money for Share Our Strength, but because the list of riders, which follows, is a pretty good indicator of who today’s kitchen badasses are.

Alain Allegretti – Allegretti
Jean-Claude Baker – Chez Josephine
Jean-Michel Bergougnoux – L’Absinthe
David Bouley – Secession
Heather Branch – Eighty One
R.J. Cooper – Vidalia (D.C.)
Ariane Daguin – D’Artagnan
Kevin Garcia – ’Cesca
Johnny Iuzzini – Jean Georges
John Miele – Eighty One
Marc Murphy – Landmarc
Joseph Paulino – Café des Artistes
Francois Payard – Payard Patisserie & Bistro
Ron Pellizzi – Brooklyn Culinary Inc.
Kristie Petrullo – Daniel
Joel Reiss – Artisanal
Gregory Pugin – Veritas
Cedric Tovar – Le Rouge Vif
Alex Ureña – Pamplona
Jean Paul Zaremba – Colony Club

Our question: Will the RUB Chopper crash this party?

Chefs Behaving Badly: Introducing the Beaujolais Biker Brigade