You guys, did you know that restaurant empire-builders like Danny Meyer and Daniel Boulud expect borderline-ridiculous things from their employees? Are you in any way, even slightly, surprised? Allow Page Six to pull back the velvet curtain from before your sheltered eyes! more ›

We've all been there: you stroll into the bodega that is Epicerie Boulud, casually pick up some charcuterie because you're craving some cured meats then WHAM: they add an unlawful sales tax to your country pâté. State law prevents certain foods from being taxed, but the Post reports that the tax code itself is so confusing that many businesses don't know when it applies. Want proof that the 99% is getting the shaft? A soda tax is discussed before a pâté tax is. more ›

A lawyer for a former bartender at Cafe Boulud is filing a class action lawsuit against the restaurant's parent company and famed chef/restaurateur Daniel Boulud, claiming that his client was fired after he voiced concerns about unsanitary conditions behind the bar. Specifically, Arie Ohayon says he witnessed a bar manager putting ice in customers' drinks with her bare hands. The lawsuit also alleges that the same manager put tools inside clean ice bins. more ›

Click on the images for more on Bar Pleiades, pizza at Numero 28, and dining at Juliet Supper Club. more ›

This week the new chief dining critic at the NY Times, Sam Sifton, debuts with a rave for DBGB, Daniel Boulud's casual sausage/beer/etc. joint on the Bowery. The first review from the former NY Press reporter boasts references to The Ramones, Talking Heads, and a declaration that "[Boulud's] food game, as they say in rap precincts, is tight... one bite of the crispy lamb ribs that were served in the bar area when the place first opened — sweetly glazed, grassy meat, with a dab of creamy mint-flecked yogurt sauce — ended all snark: Boulud has opened a very good restaurant. The lamb was sublime, earthy and spicy and rich, evidence of superb technique, the sort of snack that separates his empire from others in the celebrity firmament." more ›

The chef Daniel Boulud unveiled his newest space, called DBGB Kitchen and Bar, to the media this past weekend. Located on the Bowery, the 194-seat “sausage and beer” restaurant (including a 14-seat private dining room and 40 more in the more casual bar area) has a projected opening date of the first week in June and is still very much under construction: On Saturday, chairs were wrapped up in paper and buckets of Spackle were stacked behind the bar. The chef nonetheless took the unusual move of laying his plywood bare and sharing some bites from the restaurant’s opening menu. more ›

Plated delivers the origin story of a dish as told by a restaurant’s chefs and/or owners. Today’s plate is a decidedly non-vegetarian Rabbit, Foie Gras, and Bacon Terrine off the Chef’s Tasting Menu at Le Cirque. The menu honors the famed restaurant’s 1974 grand opening (perhaps you’ve seen the recent documentary); Craig Hopson joined Le Cirque as executive chef last November. This dish is one of six that Hopson cooked for the Maccioni family, and one that ultimately got him the job. more ›

Last night at the somewhat not completed luxury condo project 15 Union Square West (guests rode a construction elevator up to the entrance), chefs Daniel Boulud and Marco Moreira hosted a book party for Dining in New York City, a new, compact hardcover guide to the city’s restaurants by Dutch photographer Jan Bartelsman. Proceeds from the evening benefitted Citymeals-on-Wheels. Fifteen local restaurants—plus the 3 Michelin starred De Librije (Netherlands)—were on hand, offering small plate cityscapes of their best dishes. As the night progressed, chef Daniel Boulud appeared smiling, apparently happy with the four star re-review of Daniel published yesterday in the Times. Elsewhere, food writer Josh Ozersky—who announced to the world yesterday he has gout—showed up wearing a foot brace, albeit triumphantly. more ›

In September, the bar Apothéke opened in an unmarked space on Doyers Street, a tiny alley in Chinatown that sort of plays hangnail to Worth Street's cuticle. Apothéke is one of those semi-private venues, a bar you can't get into; that it's close to a secret tunnel makes it all the more baroque. You half expect to find a minotaur preening in the bathroom mirror with a bottle of Binaca and a comb. The name Apothéke refers to the pharmaceutical-themed nature of its mixed drink menu. The idea is that the place raises the bar for bars, and that head chef (or lead apothéker, as it were) Albert Trummer is half-and-half supertaster and chef, and one part sage. His specially concocted, spiced-tinctures-botanical-elixirs might cure your woes, homesick blues, lovelorn heart, or gnostic turpitude, if you're into that kind of thing. more ›

Last night Gourmet magazine held a big party at the soon-to-open Shang, a new restaurant helmed by the acclaimed, formerly Toronto-based chef Susur Lee. In an uncharacteristically non-restaurant world domineering move, Lee closed his Toronto flagship restaurant (called Susur) in May in order to concentrate fully on his New York opening. Shang, which means growing upwards, will open next month. more ›

Chef Ed Witt is a veteran of several acclaimed kitchens. He was part of Jardinière’s opening team, was also there for restaurant Daniel’s move to 65th Street, and he helped open Nicole’s at Nicole Fahri, which garnered two stars from the Times in 1999. Witt was executive chef of Varietal, the Chelsea wine bar/seasonal American number that ultimately closed in June of last year after a one star Bruni bedazzler, a few kitchen shakeups, and the general knell that sounds for an empty, Jetsons-style restaurant at dinnertime. more ›

Chef Michael Anthony can be incredibly emphatic about the farmers who supply Gramercy Tavern’s kitchen. He may tell you how he thinks the soil conditions at a particular farm influenced the flavors of certain vegetables. He might talk about baby turnips as if they’re long lost friends, but Anthony is also realistic about the purpose of food in our lives. more ›

On day three of the StarChefs ICC, Daniel Boulud spoke about his two American chef de cuisines: "Sometimes Damian (Sansonetti) and Jim (Leiken) cook better French food than me!" This got some laughs, especially from the French cooks in the audience, but evidence suggests that Boulud was being sincere. more ›

Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni, who's been known to lash out at critics by publicly trashing their "ugly" wives, has agita all over again. The cause this time is a perceived betrayal by interior designer and architect Adam Tihany, who did Le Cirque's current home. His crime? Taking a job redesigning Daniel, which is located in the original Le Cirque space and operated by French chef Daniel Boulud, who ran Le Cirque's kitchen until an acrimonious meltdown with Maccioni. Now Maccioni "seethes" in a great stream-of-consciousness rant to Gael Greene that "Adam Tihany will never do anything for me again. I should have 10% cent of everything Adam earns. I should have 5% from everyone who copies the crème brulee—I would be rich. And the bass with potatoes that everyone copies. People stop now to work for the glory and just work for the money. People tell me Le Cirque should do pizza delivery and crème brulée delivery. I’m a single person. I’m a family." If Sirio seems a little confused, it's probably just because he's preoccupied with the impending truffle season. more ›

This Monday, June 16th, America's world-renowned French chefs are descending upon Rockefeller Center for Crème de la Crème, Citymeals-on-Wheels Chefs’ Tribute fundraiser to honor the legendary masters of French cooking. more ›

24-year-old chef Jessica Floyd has been working between 14 and 17 hours a day for the last two weeks at Islero, the new “modern Spanish” restaurant on 50th Street. The chef, who also handles the pastry program, hasn’t had a break since the place opened 11 days ago, and things aren’t slowing down any time soon. Islero will open for lunch service on March 3rd, and Floyd’s working on a bunch of ideas, such as a tasting menu paired with Spanish and Portuguese wines and a petit four take-home bag for every guest. more ›

Bar Boulud: Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni recently lost his patience waiting on hold for 15 minutes to make a reservation, which should give you some sense of how feverish the excitement is for Daniel Boulud’s latest foray. The tony uptown wine bar, across the street from Lincoln Center, enjoyed the raging buzz of a sneak-preview opening on New Year’s Eve and now the 100 seat restaurant is open for real. Judging from the photos, the modern yet warm interior does look inviting; a long vaulted ceiling is intended to “invoke a classic wine cellar”, a backlit gravel wall echoes an old world vineyard, and three private “wine themed” dining rooms are available for the swells. more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? This Wednesday on Kitchen Nightmares (9pm on Fox), Ramsay does his thing on Finn McCool’s in West Hampton. Are we the only ones who wonder if his advice actually does any good? Most places that he revisits after his makeover revert—at least in part—to their prior ways. But if you own a restaurant you want Ramsified, now’s your chance. Download an application to be featured on the... more ›

One of the most well revered and talented chefs working in the city these days is Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park. Humm first learned his trade working at a few top rated restaurants in his native Switzerland, and credits Gérard Rabraey at the Michelin 3 star Le Pont De Brent as his mentor. Now in New York, the chef (who will turn 31 at the end of the month) continues to develop his particular style of cuisine at Eleven Madison Park, which received a 3 star rating from the New York Times in January. We sat down with Daniel Humm last week in the restaurant’s dining room to talk about influences, food television, and what happens when a bunch of chefs get together and Daniel Boulud decides to make scrambled eggs with truffles at 1 AM. more ›

This week on food-related TV, we’ve got: more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Suba, awards the restaurant two stars. “While it has definite shortcomings and at least a third of the dishes don’t measure up to the others, the best of the food here is distinctive and exciting. In a few instances it’s even dazzling,” he says. more ›

French megachef Daniel Boulud has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit that alleges he discriminated against nonwhite employees at his restaurant Daniel, according to an article in today's Times. more ›

Gothamist finally made the trip to Queens to drink and dine at Danny Brown Wine Bar & Kitchen, a stylish spot that looks more SoHo than Forest Hills. Some of you may recall that this eatery located across the street from Councilwoman Melinda Katz's office caught the attention of Daniel Boulud back in May. The French megachef was steamed that Danny Brown, the chef-owner, uses almost the same lowercase "db" on its signage as Boulud's db bistro moderne. more ›

The great divide between New York City restaurant chefs and serious home cooks is becoming narrower by the day. Chefs pen guest columns for the New York Times telling us what to look for when buying turnips and get interviewed by bloggers about where the most durable knives can be found, all in the name of improving the home cook’s game. A chef might even be followed around the city in order for us to learn, for example, which Chinatown street vendor has the best charcoal-grilled chicken hearts. These things all are well and good, but here is one product used in many high-end restaurant kitchens- up until now a well-kept secret, really- that isn’t available in many, if any, New York gourmet food stores, despite the breadth of all the cold-pressed, virgin, and refined choices to be found. Yes, it’s a type of olive oil, one that chefs don’t want you to know about. more ›

- Due to a crappy cable set-up we don’t get this, but apparently people are taking a strong shine to Daniel Boulud’s new show. more ›

Gothamist's Star Chefs report is brought to us by Regina Varolli, a Manhattan-based freelance writer. Though most of her private clients are in DC, she lives here because the food is better, in general. more ›

Jennifer Lynn, 23. I work as a Personal Chef and in the kitchen of Chef Daniel Boulud's restaurant, Daniel. As a Personal Chef, I prepare six- to nine-course tastings for up to 12 guests in the homes of my clients. I grew up all around the States, but spent most of my time in Orlando. I've lived in the Lower East Side for the last few years, and I think I'll be in New York forever. more ›

Sunday and Monday nights were the James Beard Awards annual gala events, and the results are now in. Sunday night focused on the journalists, highlighting books, broadcast media, and even websites (a new category), while Monday was all about the chefs and restaurants. The excitement was palpable in the food world, so much so that Ed Levine decided to liveblog Monday's Awards dinner, an extravagant black tie affair, for those of us not "in" enough to snag an invitation (thanks, Ed!). more ›

Savory New York, created by husband and wife team Christopher and Jennifer McBride takes the classic online restaurant guide one step further. In addition to basic facts and information about atmosphere, noise level, signature dishes, and links to other reviews, Savory New York brings us video profiles of restaurants. From the comfort of your own computer, you can watch Tom Colicchio (Craft), Daniel Boulud (Daniel), David Chang (Momofuku Noodle Bar), Jody Williams (Gusto), Wylie Dufresne (wd-50) and other top chefs share their perspectives and cooking philosophies. Neat, huh? more ›