Chef Leaving Aureole — Just After Valentine’s Day!Friday is the last day for Dante Bucozzi, the Aureole chef whose Italian cooking kept the restaurant popular after its New American heyday under Charlie Palmer and then Gerry Hayden. Bucozzi will be opening an eatery in Cleveland, his hometown. “It was a situation I couldn’t say no to,” he tells us. “The restaurant [I’m taking over] was an institution. We’re going to call it Dante and reopen after Labor Day.” Aureole’s corporate chef Tony Aiazzi will be promoted to Bucozzi’s spot.
User’s Guide
New Cookbooks You Might Actually Open
Back in the day, of course, most kitchens could get by with a single massive reference tome; as the Times just pointed out, it was often Joy of Cooking. Now so many cookbooks come out every season that you could spend your entire grocery budget on them. Here are an exceptional handful by New York chefs or celebrities that have come out this fall.
Back of the House
Keller Starred, Ramsay Scarred — Palmer Just Plain Buttered Up• After chilling poolside with Charlie “Sturdy, Masculine” Palmer, Brendan Vaughan gives the restaurateur turned Vegas hotelier a royal buttering. [Esquire]
• Does Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen rage stem from daddy issues? [Bloomberg]
• Michelin sizes up the West Coast, and Killer Keller becomes the second chef to hit the Deuce (two three-star restaurants, that is). [NYT]
• Bringing it back home: The lil’ guys behind S’MAC are thinking “mac and cheese is going to be the new pizza.” [NYP]