The Invisible Chef

Restaurant concepts that rely on the style and personality of their chef may be on the way out

By Laura Yee, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/1/2003

Restaurant concepts that rely on the style and personality of their chef may be on the way out.

Chef-driven restaurants evolved from the culinary explosion that turned cooks into personalities, providing them groupie diners and star status once reserved for sports champions and recording artists. Restaurant-opening announcements promoted the executive chef’s cooking style and background, which often consisted more of name-dropping than work experience.

Increasingly, however, new restaurants are built around food and concept rather than personality. The shift makes sense for owners, considering the frequency with which executive chefs are fired or leave for other opportunities. Chefs, like free-agent athletes, usually are not loyal to owners but to wherever money calls.

If the name-brand chef exits, a restaurateur with front-of-the-house savvy but no in-front-of-the-stove experience is left with a “personality” problem. While installing a new chef and menu may pique media attention and bring renewed interest in the restaurant, such benefits easily can be outweighed by difficulties that come with frequent turnover.

One successful businesswoman who owns several restaurants in Cleveland once said she never thinks twice about getting rid of a head chef when conflicts or demands for higher wages arise. She believes that there are plenty of good cooks in New York City who would jump at the chance to move to the more-affordable Midwest. To this owner, serving a few inconsistent dishes until the new executive chef is in place is an acceptable consequence of astute management.

The growth of moderately priced concept menus might be another result of the economic downturn since chef-driven restaurants usually are upscale and pricier. The trend to neighborhood restaurants geared toward value and lower checks is drawing attention away from chef-driven menus as well.

Concept restaurants—whether American bistro in style, ethnic in origin or family-oriented—also have more staying power. An adequately trained cook can reproduce a concept menu that typically sticks to a set number of basic customer favorites, while a chef-driven restaurant relies on the talent, vision and creativity of one individual.

Concepts come in and out of fashion but usually outlive any one chef’s tenure. Hence, it is safer and easier to turn a concept into a brand. It is no coincidence that restaurants developed by established chefs Bradley Ogden, Todd English and Wolfgang Puck make only passing reference to the chefs who run current day-to-day operations. When San Francisco’s Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, known for its creation of chef-driven restaurants, last year announced the remake of Mossant in Chicago, it made no mention of a new chef, promoting the concept instead.

A hospitality search firm based in Chicago says that chef-driven restaurants can succeed only when the chef is a partner and has a financial stake in the operation. After all, like all employees, the talent needs a reason to stay.