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from the pages of
June 2006
Celebrity Chefs and Empires
by Michael Ballon
In the past generation there has been an enormous change in the status of chefs in popular culture. In the early 60’s, even among those New Yorkers who frequently ate out in the best restaurants, very few would have known, or even cared about, the chef’s name. In the hay day of the old Classic French restaurants, like Le Pavillion, it was the owner, who was frequently the Maitre’D, and who greeted guests and guided them to their tables, whose name was known. Those toiling and sweating in the back were not important enough to even bother with.
The emergence of nouvelle cuisine and chef owned restaurants changed all that. Instead of repeating the old tried and true classics, innovation and change became the hallmark of cuisine, and the importance of the chef started to eclipse that of the owner.
In the Post War period, many of those who opened new restaurants tended to be those who had experience in the front of the house, and who aspired to own their own establishment. But as chefs began to become more prominent, they began opening their own restaurants, and instead of being relegated to the back, many designed open kitchens, with the star in full view.
What a difference a generation makes. Super star celebrity chefs are now not just almost as well known as Hollywood celebrities, they are Hollywood celebrities, with their own TV shows. It’s not only on the Food Channel, where we watch our favorite talent whip up some new creation. The reality show "The Restaurant" which detailed Rocco’s travails opening and eventually departing from his namesake restaurant, was a national topic of conversation. Anthony Bourdain’s shocking inside account of the behind the scenes action in "Kitchen Confidential", was a huge bestseller, and the basis for a new career in television.
In the Global Age, the top superstar chefs now have empires stretching from both coasts of this country, with an additional obligatory outpost in Las Vegas. We are now on a first name basis with many of these star chefs, like Nobu, Mario, and Jean George. As the size of the empire increases, this top tier of chefs spends increasingly more time flying to their distant locations, to fulfill contractual obligations to make appearances in each of their many establishments. The lure of big hotel deals and casino contracts is too tempting to resist. As the empires grow bigger and the number of restaurants these chefs own increases, so too does the cost of dining, and Three Hundred Dollar per person meals are no longer unusual.
As NY Times columnist Mark Bittman recently pointed out, no one can be two places at once, and those who flock to the satellite operations of some these star chefs may find that the meal is a poor imitation of the original. When we go to Tanglewood, we want to hear Emanuel Ax or Yo Yo Ma, in person, create the music, and not hear some student trained by the master performing. Yet that is the case when with many meals cooked by those trained by the Big Name in one of his eponymous restaurants. Mario Batali now runs seven restaurants in New York, and is in the process of opening two more in Las Vegas, and one in Los Angles. Even further apart, Alain Ducasse, with nine Michelin stars, is spread out between Monaco, Paris, New York and Las Vegas
We live in an age when vast wealth has been created by consultants, traders, and managers, whose cyber activities are a mystery to many. Few of us really understand what hedge fund traders do, or how arbitrage works. In contrast, a chef’s work is accessible and transparent. We value chefs because they actually touch the food we eat, and that is a personal and intimate encounter like few others, and it is an activity we understand.
There are no out posts of superstar chefs in the Berkshires. Instead there is an unusual number of chef owned restaurants, where on a daily basis, working chefs filet fish, makes sauces, and cook the food you eat. The work requires long days in hot kitchens, and is a physically demanding job chosen because of a passion for the art, rather than for the prospect of glamorous deals. On any given night, you can be fairly certain that the chef himself has actually prepared your meal.
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