May 19, 2008 |
Short Order
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Chef Michael Huynh can’t quite hide at Rain as he preps for new deal. Photo: Steven Richter
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I found the peripatetic chef Michael Huynh looking a bit dazed in the kitchen at Rain Friday night. “Jet lag,” he said, just back from Vietnam and turning out charred beef on lemongrass sticks and quail atop a toss of daikon cake bits and duck confit with a tiny fried quail egg to a full house dining mostly on the house classics. It’s a temporary gig - four specials a night - till Rain closes this fall for a big makeover and new name (not yet revealed) with Huynh on stage.
Given the trail of bruised restaurateurs left behind by this shooting star who fancies himself the Nobu of Vietnam, it’s
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Shrimp salad, short ribs sticks. Photo: Steven Richter.
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possible to forget the raves for his Vietnamese home cooking at Bao III, the delicious surprise of a new sophistication at Mai House and his dazzling debut at Bun/So with wife Thao Nguyen pouting by his side as she whipped up spring rolls. But Main Street Restaurant Group’s Stephen Scher, saddled with a certain weariness at 13-year-old Rain, remembers. Undaunted by Huynh’s love’em and leave’em rep, Scher is sure the deal he’s given him will cure the chef's attention-deficit-syndrome. “We have promised each other we are committed to this project,” Scher says, gingerly choosing his words.
“We’re going to be 50-50,” Huynh tells a friend. At 43 and recently married, Huynh snaps: “I need to make money. My wife yells at me. She wants to know what happened. I had a bad partner at Bun. Now is the first time anyone gives me an even deal. She’ll be here with me when we open.” True, there is Michael’s hotel consulting job in Vietnam, but “they don’t mind if I’m away for a week once in a while.” 5-19-08
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Etherworld spies report spotting peripatetic Bunster Michael Huynh in the kitchen at Rain (100 West 82nd Street).Why don’t I hear trumpets and huzzahs? Is he on a secret mission? In March I reported here that the restless chef of Mai House, Bun/Soho and the recently expired Bao III was saying he had a deal with Main Street Restaurant Group to do something delicious on the Upper West Side. Main Street partner Steven Scher insisted then it was only talk so far. But now it could be yam soup and sweetbread pho. I’m waiting for newlywed Sher to call back. He could be on his own extended honeymoon. With Huynh the honeymoon is sometimes brief.
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