Results tagged “alainallegretti”

            

Fifty years ago, chef and food writer James Beard consulted on the very first menu at the Four Seasons restaurant. Beard's input helped galvanize the kitchen in its early days, and over the last 50 years the Four Seasons has developed and maintained its position as the city's preeminent Caesar salad and power lunch spot, complete with seating charts that are more detailed than most star maps. On Saturday afternoon, the James Beard Foundation honored the Four Seasons' co-owners Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini at their annual Chefs & Champagne event.

Following a set of mediocre reviews, Pierre Schaedelin was brought on last December as the new executive chef at Alain Ducasse’s Benoit. The 40-year-old, it was announced, would also be a partner in the restaurant, which is modeled after an archetypal bistro that’s been open in Paris since 1912 (Ducasse's restaurant group assumed ownership in 2005). Schaedelin has an old school French chef background, for sure—all terrines, torchons, and rabbit sausage. He’s also developed some serious media chops during the last decade, having first worked for Sirio Maccioni at Le Cirque and then as Martha Stewart’s personal chef. At Benoit the prices have come down—a two-course lunch is now $19; three courses are $24—and Schaedelin is happy about that. Above all, he seems to like talking about cooking more than anything else, and he does so in an unstuffy way—we spoke with him last week about the relaxing parts of Top Chef, tarte flambée, and diner food on Sundays.

Alain Allegretti is the 39 year-old chef-owner of Allegretti, awarded two stars by the New York Times last week. From Nice, and specializing in Niçois food, he's put squarely in the company of other French chefs in NY. Allegretti, who worked for Alain Chapel and Alain Ducasse in France, is representative of a kind of culinary old guard: a strange realm of butchers and cooks all named Alain. In the classic brigade style kitchen, apprentice cooks are sent from station to station within a restaurant's kitchen. Often, as part of their training program, they're sent to work at a far-flung Michelin-starred restaurant in the mountains where all the bars close early. This was Alain Allegretti's experience. And now he works on 22nd Street.