Word: chefs
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...tragically unmarketed. The ad crowd gathered here seems a bit smug this year. The networks raked in a record $8 billion in last year's flush times; now it's a buyer's market. So as NBC touts its new series--a dubious-looking sitcom starring high-decibel chef Emeril Lagasse, the 1,000th version of Law & Order (O.K., the third)--it touts even more its high-income viewers, the real-life Frasier Cranes who make The West Wing "the most upscale show on any network!" In other words, the people in this room. At the party, the barbecued pork...
When Charlie Palmer was a 23-year-old star chef at the glamorous River Cafe, he had the garlic to ask the owner for a piece of the place. "I felt I was an integral part of the River Cafe, and I wanted it to be my restaurant as well as the owner's," he says, jabbing a thumb toward his chest. "I got shot down." So then Palmer went out on his own--determined to treat his staff differently...
...cash bonuses for performance. As his business expanded, he gave them something better: a chance to invest with him in new ventures. That could be another restaurant, a florist, a catering operation or a cutlery maker--all part of his growing $36 million-a-year gastronomic empire. "With European chefs," he explains, "the owner owned the place, and nobody even knew whether the restaurant was making money." In his office at Aureole, he slaps on his desk a one-day balance sheet from Metrazur, his new place at Grand Central Terminal. "Here, every manager in every restaurant gets a flash...
...first three--his controller, general counsel and sous-chef--bought into a cheesemaker, Egg Farm Dairy. Later came Astra Ridge water and Charlie Palmer Steak. Most recently, the group has taken points in Astra West, a restaurant-catering operation to open this fall in Los Angeles, and the Hotel Healdsburg/Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Sonoma County, Calif., scheduled for the summer...
Once they're in, members keep their stake even if they leave. "But," he notes, "if they stay, they have more incentive to support the new ventures. I don't think we've lost anybody yet." That's what happens when the pastry chef has a piece...