Results tagged “francoispayard”

Famous pastry chef Francois Payard says he may have to close his flagship bistro on the Upper East Side because landlord Stephen Kirschenbaum wants to double the rent to $1 million a year. (Kirschenbaum presumably fell into a coma just as the Dow hit 14,000 and only woke up yesterday.) Payard, who came here from Paris to be the pastry chef at Le Bernardin, has told the New York State Department of Labor that he'll soon have no choice but to shut down the Lexington Avenue location (he also operates a bakery in DUMBO) and terminate 74 employees in August. The chef tells Crain's, "The maximum increase I can bear in this economy is 20%" The building is also home to prince Ertugrul Osman of Turkey, who has lived there since 1945 and paid considerably less than Payard for his rent-controlled apartment: $350 a month. Of course, he had to raise hell in 2006 just to get Kirschenbaum to repair his bathroom ceiling after it collapsed.

April 5: Italian Festa to celebrate the paperback publication of George deStefano's An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America. A reading and signing, followed by a Sicilian wine tasting, with antipasti served. Free. Hunters Point Wines and Spirits, 47-07 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens.

This week in the Times, Julia Moskin fills in for a vacationing Bruni, one-stars Francois Payard's In Tent. "In too many cases, I could see where the chef was going, but the food hadn't arrived there yet," she says. But the desserts she liked, no surprise.

September 21: Sagra del Maiale

">Bruni two-stars Little Owl, says “It has an irresistible earnestness and exuberance that explain its instant, well-deserved popularity.” Also, he really likes the pork chop. Chef Joey Campanero, formerly executive chef at The Harrison and Pace, gets kudos for “disciplined cooking,” as does manager and co-owner Gabriel Stulman, for “real hospitality.”

Gothamist was very excited to see that Matt Lauer was in Shanghai, for his November sweeps month get-me-away-from-Katie working vacation/ biological clock experiment, Where in the World is Matt Lauer? To make scary, Communist China accessible to the West, Matt explained that Shanghai is growing so fast, and referred to a graphic showing that there are twice as many skyscrapers in Shanghai than New York, 4000 to NYC's 2000, even though Shanghai is a relatively young city (around the same "age" as Los Angeles). Yay, morning world urban history! Then we turned to Fox 5 to see where Mike Woods might be, given his Where in the World is... Mike Woods? spoof on Good Day New York. But, alas, Mike was not in Chinatown or Flushing, but in Chelsea, making chocolate with Francois Payard. And, augh! The Today show has set Maria Meneunos on the people of Shanghai, doing a lifestyle piece - we're sorry, Shanghai.

March 16th: International Chocolate Panel. The folks at the at 92nd Street Y are putting together a panel discussion and a fantastic-sounding tasting of chocolate from around the world. The panel, moderated by author and culinary historian Alexandra Leaf, includes Stephanie Teuwen, special events producer for the Chocolate Show, Clay Gordon, chocolate critic and founder of the New World Chocolate Society (sign us up for that one!), Francois Payard, chef-owner of Payard Patisserie & Bistro, and Bill Yosses, executive chef of Joseph’s Citarella. Tickets are $45 and can be bought online. 7:30 PM, 1395 Lexington Avenue (92nd and Lexington), (212)415-5500.