10 replies to this topic

[Michael Ruhlman]

Ms Sheraton:

Would you comment on a current trend among high profile chefs to open outposts or branches of their flagship restaurant, or casual-fine dining restaurants? What are the pros and cons? Are we in danger of creating an abundance of McHighend restaurants with menus that are good from a conceptual standpoint but erratic in execution by less experienced sous chefs? Do the name brand chefs diminish their influence by doing so? Or does it potentially increase the quality of food in America generally? And what of the epicenter of this phenomenon, Vegas?

MR

[Mimi Sheraton]

Well now, that's a big question..maybe a book..you can write it. I think it depends on the way it is done..if the famous chef opens clones - like, let us say, Olives, then I think he or she asks for big trouble becasue the implication is that all things will be the same everywhere. But if different types of restaurants are opened in each place there is more leeway for each to do what it can do best and no direct comparisons... Then it depends upon how successful the chef is in teaching and overseeing his creations..Jean Georges seems to be terrific at this ...Of course I am always skeptical of chefs spread too thin and definitely have a show me attitude going in...You'll never get a Lutece that way, I can tell you, and it remains to be seen how Tom Keller handles French Laundry and Per Se...so far so good, but I have not been back to French Laundry since 2001. Other chains of course, like The Olive Garden, are to my mind McOlive Gardens already..ditto Howard Johnsons, Outback, etc. but I don't think that's the level you're talking about.

[glossyp]

In Hawaii and through travels around Asia, I've eaten at several of the Roy's, Sam Choy's and Alan Wong's. In my experience, it appears that the quality of the food in each restaurant rests more upon the abilities and sensibilities of the chefs running the day-to-day operations than it does on involvement of the chef with the "name" as it were. The best of these outposts (some are definitely better than others!) are manned with strong chefs who are guided by the celebrity chef rather than slavishly following a set of dictates. Just my opinion and, as I stated earlier, my only experience has been in Hawaii and Asia.

Thanks to you, Mrs. Sheraton, for so graciously participating in this forum. It's an honor to read your responses, thoughts and insights.

Edited by glossyp, 29 September 2004 - 06:30 PM.

[Mimi Sheraton]

I agree about the talents of the individual chefs, but the sensibility is supposed to be that of the master chef because his or her name instills a certain expectation..otherwise why not just give each restaurant an entirely different name?

[Michael Ruhlman]

Even when the food, from a technical standpoint, is not that demanding, eg at Bouchon, Olives, Spago, etc.?

[Mimi Sheraton]

Maybe not demanding but still hard to render. Would you consider Bouchon a clone of French Laundry as it has a totally different menu?
When I was at Bouchon last in spring of 2001, I found it very disappointing not as compared to FL, but to good bistro food. FL was sensationally good. Olives in the "W" hotel on Union Sq. in NYC was, when ot opened, better in my opinion than the original in Boston, but English's restaurant in LaG airport was hideous. I have only been to the original and current Spago in Bev. Hills, do don't know how that is playing out. Wolfgang's pizza places in airport are fair..not as good in my experience as airport Calif. Pizza Kitchens...but whenevr possible in airports, I stick to hot dogs...the local variety..Brooklyn Deli in LaG, Vienna beefs in O'Hare, and Nathans wherever they appear.

[glossyp]

I agree about the talents of the individual chefs, but the sensibility is supposed to be that of the master chef because his or her name instills a certain expectation..otherwise why not just give each restaurant an entirely different name?

Your point is quite right about expectations and in my experience one finds dishes or concepts specific to the master chef but, in the better places, they will also find variations on the theme. I believe in most cases it's a marketing decision and in specific cases it's possibly the egos (?) of the chefs involved which keeps the names the same. Japan in particular is such a lucrative market and the brand makes or breaks short term success - over the long haul though I think the quality of food is what gives staying power and the meeting of the diners' expectations of what the experience should be like.

Off topic, but I especially appreciated your comments about French food. I am a newcomer to this cuisine (though in truth we are all familiar with many aspects of it even if we don't know it!) and I truly hope you are correct that French bistro fare is the next big trend. I just hope some one will open such a place in Honolulu.

[Michael Ruhlman]

Maybe not demanding but still hard to render. Would you consider Bouchon a clone of French Laundry as it has a totally different menu?
When I was at Bouchon last in spring of 2001, I found it very disappointing not as compared to FL, but to good bistro food.

I'm astonished you found Bouchon wanting. Shocked, even! I've never had an imperfect bite there. It's perfect bistro food. I bow to your authority, of course, but but if you're ever near there again or near its Vegas clone (there can be no French Laundry clone), I'd urge you to go again.

(And many thanks for all your thoughtful responses here.)

[Mimi Sheraton]

Maybe be perfect bistro food now, but not in April of 2001..neither was Jeanty, by the way...Think there may have been a major change in Bouchon since my visit...I have never been to the one in Vegas where I have not been since 2001..part of same trip and story as to FL and Bouchon...on Zagat for Food & Wine. I hate current Vegas scene but used to love the funky old one...I'm amazed at the bursting rest. scene there. Can't tell how it will turn out, but isn't everything there a crapshoot? Now dinner is too...

[Bux]

When Michael Ruhlman spoke of "Bouchon, Olives, Spago, etc.," I assumed he meant of Bouchon in Las Vegas as a clone of Bouchon in Yountville and not of Bouchon as a clone of the French Laundry. Do you see a difference between the chain wherein all the restaurants have the same name, and those restaurants owned by one chef, but operating under different names? Jean-Geroges' places come to mind as well as Keller's, although in each case at least one restaurant within the group has cloned itself as a chain. The more I think of it, the more complex the issue becomes.

Do you believe a chef has to be in his restaurant for the food to be at its best? Although I wasn't absolutely convinced I needed to eat at the Robuchon's "Atelier," I found food to be absolutely perfect in terms of conception and execution and, of course, "the chef" wasn't there.

[Mimi Sheraton]

Me too on Robuchon's wonderful Atelier..No I don't think the chef has to be in the restaurant to have perfect food if he/she does not...It depends on how personal they want their cuisine to be, a la Andre Soltner. What I object to is the PR of chefs said to have golden hands and therefore, worth the price of their meals, and then realizing they need not be there at all..it's their names that are supposed to condone the prices..That's the come-on....I say they can't have it both ways... Now if they billed themselves as owner-managers, such as Drew Nieporent or Danny Meyers, that's different.