Word: chef
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Soltner's little boy Andre is still cooking, and how! Now 53, he has spent almost half of his life in the kitchen of Lutece, the luxury town-house restaurant on Manhattan's East Side that this year is celebrating its 25th birthday. The chef since Lutece opened on Feb.16, 1961, and the sole proprietor since 1972, Soltner has cooked his way to culinary glory. Despite a $100-a-person average check for dinner, and a $50 counterpart at lunch, reservations for one of the 29 tables must be made one month in advance...
...restaurant, but the restaurant. And to become famous, it had to have a short name without the word restaurant in it," he says, explaining that he finally chose Lutece from the ancient name for Paris, Lutetia. When he was making his | plans he heard of Soltner, then the chef at Chez Hansi, an Alsatian brasserie in Paris. Surmain went over, tasted Soltner's food and offered him a job with the promise of a partnership if they succeeded. "It sounded like a crazy idea, but I thought that at least I'd learn English," says Soltner. "We were a good...
...wholesalers are important purchasers and I am important to them, so I get the best of the best. If not, I call them fast -- like this," he said, phoning his fish wholesaler of 25 years to complain about a batch of less than fresh scallops. Soltner is a demanding chef, but he takes good care of his employees, paying top wages and taking an interest in them. Though competitors try to woo them away, Lutece has practically no turnover. Still there are intermittent problems and complaints from both customers and critics. "Critics aren't always wrong," Soltner says, adding quickly...
Similarly lacking in tasteful bravado were his two most recent cinematic exploits, the dull-edged Blade Runner and the utterly forgetable Deal of the Century. Thus, prior to the release of his latest chef d'oeuvre, the largely critically acclaimed Twice in a Lifetime, one had to wonder whether or not Yorkin had a chance of making it in the eighties...
Elizabeth on 37th opened in May 1981. "The first two years about killed us," the chef recalls. Understaffed, they had to stay up all night cooking. Once the electricity went off, and Elizabeth had to "cook by ear" on her six burners. Twice, after she had cooked 70 or 80 dinners, Michael stuck his head into the kitchen and announced "25 more," and Elizabeth broke down and cried. It is not like that anymore...