Laurent Two, Oh
Laurent Two, Oh
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Laurent Two, Oh
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Post #1 - November 15th, 2008, 11:57 amI was dining at Takashi about a month ago and one of the staff members was explaining that Lettuce Entertain you group had moved Laurent Gras from actually working at L2o to a more managerial position for the entire organization. Has anyone heard or can anyone confirm this?
I know most of the chefs at the elite places have multiple restaurants and it would be rare for them to actually be there the night you dined but this seems a little odd given the restaurant is in infancy and the blog seemed to portray Gras as the in-house standard-bearer of their new digs.
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Post #2 - November 15th, 2008, 3:55 pmNot the first time this has been the case at LEYE vis a vis "co-branding," for lack of a better term. Jean-Georges Vongerichten has virtually nothing to do with Vong's Thai Kitchen, either, and hasn't since they dumbed down the menu a long time ago.
*sigh* I wish that Melman had just left Tucci Milan there as it was. . .Last edited by sundevilpeg on November 15th, 2008, 4:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post #3 - November 15th, 2008, 4:44 pmIn all fairness, this is an unconfirmed rumor, so I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet.
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Post #4 - November 16th, 2008, 10:05 amI'd guess this rumor is the result of the fact he's been out of the kitchen for most of the fall; scuttlebutt is that he just got back in over the last week or so.
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Post #5 - November 16th, 2008, 11:34 amsundevilpeg wrote:Not the first time this has been the case at LEYE vis a vis "co-branding," for lack of a better term. Jean-Georges Vongerichten has virtually nothing to do with Vong's Thai Kitchen, either, and hasn't since they dumbed down the menu a long time ago.
*sigh* I wish that Melman had just left Tucci Milan there as it was. . .
As was documented back on September 11, chef Gras was hit by a car while bicycling and sustained some serious injuries . . .Monica Eng via Chicago Tribune's Stew wrote:Chef Laurent Gras, an avid bicyclist, was involved in accident in Evanston involving a car over the Labor Day holiday. According to Rich Melman, his partner at the acclaimed L20, Gras suffered fractured ribs and an injured pelvis, but is recovering well. "We were worried about spine and head injuries but the scans are showing that is not a problem, which is very lucky considering his head went through the windshield," Melman said.
While the piece speculates that he would be back soon, it's quite possible that the injuries have kept him off his feet full-time for longer than expected.
Laurent Gras recovering from cycling accident. Back at L2O next week?
=R=By protecting others, you save yourself. If you only think of yourself, you'll only destroy yourself. --Kambei Shimada
Every human interaction is an opportunity for disappointment --RS
There's a horse loose in a hospital --JM
That don't impress me much --Shania Twain
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Post #6 - November 16th, 2008, 3:45 pmHe also has been a consultant to LEYE before L2O. He helped design TRU's front house menu (Faux Grois anyone)? He is close with Melman and besides his duties with L2O will most likely help with building the empire outside of L2O...
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Post #7 - November 16th, 2008, 5:26 pm
Faux Gras I believe is a Michel Richard creation...Snark wrote:He also has been a consultant to LEYE before L2O. He helped design TRU's front house menu (Faux Grois anyone)? He is close with Melman and besides his duties with L2O will most likely help with building the empire outside of L2O...is making all his reservations under the name Steve Plotnicki from now on.
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Post #8 - November 16th, 2008, 5:37 pmjpschust wrote:
Faux Gras I believe is a Michel Richard creation...Snark wrote:He also has been a consultant to LEYE before L2O. He helped design TRU's front house menu (Faux Grois anyone)? He is close with Melman and besides his duties with L2O will most likely help with building the empire outside of L2O...
I'm sure there are several versions. Both Spiaggia and Tru were serving some version of "faux gras" during the ban. From the Chicago TribuneThe interesting thing about the “Faux Gras,” a $16 dish served at Tru, is that chef/partner Rick Tramonto didn’t particularly want to develop it.
“I pushed back on this big time,” he says. “When the ban came down, Ididn’t want to deal with it; I was just going to forget that foie gras everexisted. But Laurent [famed chef Laurent Gras, with whom Tramonto haspartnered in the past] and I went back and forth, and this is the dish we cameup with. But it’s really Laurent’s dish; I was the pooh-poohing American.”
Tru’s “Faux Gras” looks very much like the real thing, at least to those familiar with foie-gras torchon (in which the liver is salt-cured and poachedto a uniformly smooth texture). That’s because it’s made of sauteed chicken livers and rendered pork fat (“like a chicken liver mousse with way more fat,”Tramonto says). It’s dusted with a little cocoa (which mimics some of the veinpatterns in the real thing) and wrapped in a clear sheet of gelatin, agar-agarand sauternes. A little sprinkling of sea salt finishes the dish.
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Post #9 - November 16th, 2008, 8:52 pmYah, there may be but the Richard version goes back as far as about the inception of Citronelle in DC- it's in the Richard cookbook as well. That said, all these guys are friends.is making all his reservations under the name Steve Plotnicki from now on.
