We’re hoping this could just be a tropical fever striking our favorite French pop-up chef, as it sounds like the dude is really feeling The Big Island right now, but Ludovic Lefebvre says he’s really getting over LudoBites. He tells Honolulu Magazine that his current iteration, LudoBites 9.0, could be his last. No, like really the last, not just red herring to get you all hyped up when he unleashes LudoBites 10.
Asked whether he might be getting bored of the pop-up that unchained him from evil restaurant owners and made his Q Score skyrocket, the typically frank chef says, “Yes. I am. Maybe the last one, this one. Maybe.” Double-checking the chef’s sincerity, the interviewer asks if he says that every time, to which ‘Ludes replies, “Yes, but I think it’s really real, ok?…It was a great concept, it was a great time for me, but the thing is, it’s time for me to create something else. To reinvent myself a little…I want to have my own kitchen, my home.”
The chef goes on to describe what a royal pain in the derriere it can be setting up his pop-up during the initial week, shortly before the conversation turns, inevitably, to SPAM (Ludo placates the natives by promising to update his foie gras croque madame with SPAM, escaping with his head, for now).
In November, news broke that Ludo wasn’t exactly waiting for a brick-and-mortar opportunity to land on him as he was actively looking at restaurant space in Downtown’s Arts District. His wife, Krissy, announced that it was open-season on the city at-large, setting the stage for a Ludo brick-and-mortar to appear almost anywhere.
Selfishly, we’d love to see the final LudoBites go down on his home turf (L.A., not Burgundy), though from the tone of the article, it sounds like the surfing chef wants to stay in Hawaii, where a toque can cook all the foie gras one wants without being slapped with a penalty.
LudoBites 9.0: Q&A; with Ludo Lefebvre [Honolulu]
