A fledgling Troisgros has arrived in the kitchen.  Caesar Troisgros, son of the reigning three-star chef Michel, grandson of Pierre, is the fourth generation at Restaurant Troisgros in what I once referred to as a little nowhere town called Roanne, one Alka-Seltzer east of Lyon. (Read “A Gourmaniacal Detour” and revel in the hijinks of the 1973 Frères Troisgros in my memoir, Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess.) In the contemporary version of junior year abroad, Caesar will do a “stage” in America. The French Laundry and Restaurant Daniel are two finishing school posts that have been mentioned. 2-8-08 

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        All we know is that Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller flew off to Dubai where surely they will check in with Markus Draxler, once the dashing eminence running the dining room at Restaurant Daniel, now heading the sales operation of a giant development in Abu Dhabi.  I remember when Daniel promised he would never open a restaurant he couldn’t reach on his bicycle.  2-8-08

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        Michael Huynh is the saddest budding star chef in town. In January he walked out of Bun, unhappy with his partners. Now just back from Vietnam, the wandering and elusive chef/partner at Mai House was back at Bun/Soho today determined not to lose his investment. It was his construction crew that built the space, supposedly he put up money too and he has a 41 per cent interest. “I want to see if I can work it out,” he said, “I have bad luck there. I worked so hard. I’m very unhappy.  Maybe I’ll buy them out,” he mused. ”I’ll know more in two weeks.” And no, he is not opening a noodle house on Hudson Street, as he told Vietnamese friends, and I reported here yesterday.  “I’m too busy. My time is critical.”  His Los Angeles restaurant opens in September or October. And he told his friends he will be working with Drew too. What about Drew Nieporent who hasn’t seen Michael lately? “Michael is my partner even though he is peripatetic. He’s free to come and go,” says Drew.”The kitchen he trained is great.”  Meanwhile, Huynh is one of ten Asian chefs signed up to market Tiger Beer…that brings him money, trips, promotion, support for his parties and all the Tiger Beer he can drink. 1-29-08

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        Michael Huynh is out at Bun -- couldn’t get along with his partner, he says. Next move: A new noodle shop with new partners in Tribeca on Hudson Street, steps from Mai House where he walked out earlier, never saying he wouldn’t be back. “I’m just opening a little noodle shop for my wife,” he told owner Drew Nieporent, running off to dominate the kitchen at Bun, abandoning the savvy entrepreneur who helped him lift his cooking to new highs of sophistication.

        “What I liked about Michael was that he was non-confrontational,” says Drew ruefully. “I guess that works both ways.” Not that Mai House is hurting since Frank Bruni named it one of his top 10 favorites of 2007. I’ve posted raves too and my guy and I bring friends every few weeks.  Huynh’s protégé Mike Mendelssohn runs the range. The joint is so jammed it hurts to shout over the torturous din, and some dishes taste less Vietnamese. As for Bun, “It’s chaos now,” a fan reports. Michael and his wife flew off to Vietnam to cash in on some property he bought there while his construction crew works on the new space. 1-28-08

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It was Hell today at the office. Yes, pour me a drink.                               Photo: Steven Richter

        Per Se’s wine director Andre Mack only had to walk a few blocks downtown to join Shelly Fireman’s team plotting a new 30 seat wine bar (plus tables) at an updated Red Eye Grill across from Carnegie Hall. Blueprints call for 135 wines by the glass, including a cut-rate Chardonnay and a pinot noir on tap in special barrels. Mack and Fireman are flying to California to work on the two custom blends with Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat.  A handful of seats at the sushi bar will be sacrificed and the lights lowered “to suit the wine bar sexuality,” Fireman says.  In true Red Eye spirit, the grill will stay open with    construction crews arriving after hours to install the rehab “like a stage set.”  Hoped-for opening: Mid to late March.  1-25-08

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        Consultant Clark Wolf is thrashing through red tape in a feverish effort to open a 15 stall artisanal food emporium across from the Fulton Fish Market by Memorial Day – “codes permitting.” His dream is to lure star chefs – Mario Batali with a tripe cart, Dan Barber to market organic milk and cheese from his Blue Hill Farm – into space belonging to the South Street seaport. “It could be an urban incubator for artisanal products,” Wolf says. “With very little investment at all Dan Barber could find out what sells. They wouldn’t have to stand on the street selling. It would be like a flea market or antique collective where a couple of people handle everyone’s merchandise.”
        Indeed Barber is a passionate fan of the idea. “Clark is a provocative character and a smart one. This could be the next generation of the farmers market. Artisans banding together to sell their products. Get a cluster of producers and sell for them. I say let’s try it out.”  Alas the timing is off for Barber’s Blue Hill cows. “We haven’t got much milk to spare.  We’re just starting to think about cheese. But Stone Barns on the Rockefeller estate might want to sell charcuterie. I’d love to look into it. I’m a great champion of farmers markets but asking farmers to grow it, pack it up, cook it, serve it, then pack it up to take home – there needs to be other ways to exploit the public’s increased consciousness of local and organic.
        Last week Wolf was in California trying to lure artisanal producers of Sonoma Valley to take a stall or two. “Really?” Barber was surprised. “Should the market be representing groups from across the country?”  We both saw the jet fuel burning.  “Clark’s neurotic energy reminds me of me,” said Barber. 1-23-08

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    Shame on you Seamus Mullen.  A tapas-smitten reader who rushed off to Boqueria the evening she read my rave in Manhattan Tapas Crawl complains that her pan-roasted brussel sprouts skimped on chorizo cubes compared to mine in the telltale photo. When you hype the pork to seduce a critic, Seamus, best be ready to go whole hog for your public too.  1-20-08

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         The density of restaurant talent crowding the tables made Bar Boulud feel like a Beard awards after-party Wednesday. “It was culinary helium,” one bemused restaurant pro said. Daniel Boulud, whirling from table to booth, was kissing cheeks and telling fans: “This is a bistro. We have to turn the tables every hour.” And he kept dispatching waves of gorgeous charcuterie to the food world troops. Barry Wine shared snails at the bar. Waiters swarmed Charlie Palmer’s table as if he were Angelina Jolie.  Daniel’s right hand Georgette Farkas counted teams from 11 restaurant groups: Babbo, Per Se, Bouchon, Chodorow’s China Grill squad, a Wolfgang Puck contingent, Le Cirque’s wine director, GM John Fanning from Accademia di Vino, San Domenico chef Odette Fada with chef Philippe Bertineau of Payard. (They’re married. He just won the prestigious Mâitre Ouvrier of France.) I can’t imagine why Jay McInerny looked so annoyed.  1-18-08