December 18, 2008 |
Short Order
Chef Christophe Bellanca, forced out of Le Cirque in October weeks after winning three stars from the Times’ Frank Bruni, is now BLT Restaurants' corporate chef for Laurent Tourondel. “Laurent is a very good chef and a very good businessman. He knows what the people want. I will learn a lot for opening my own restaurant,” said the French transplant who won his cred at L’Orangerie in Los Angeles. Bellanca, who regrets he did not have time to finish his job at Le Cirque (“the food was getting better every day”), will travel and troubleshoot for the ambitious expanding BLT empire and is already working on Tourondel’s new venture in Atlanta. “I interviewed 100 chefs for Atlanta in the new W Hotel.”
Aimless, unemployed, refusing to discuss what happened in the kitchen that prompted Sirio Maccioni to say adieu, Bellanca has been dining out all over town since he and Sirio parted. “Every night, I learn so much. I eat everywhere. Daniel. Adour. Jean Georges. Per Se, of course. It was Thomas Keller who got me the job at Le Cirque. We speak all the time on the phone. I go to Café Boulud. Picholine. I love the Gotham Bar and Grill. For me the food is perfect. I love the restaurants of New York. And I love the street food. Pastrami. We eat better here than in France. Corton, I love it. I eat probably the best pork in my life. I learn a lot.”
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