Chef’s Desk at Brooklyn Fare, a much-praised tasting-menu eating place in Midtown Long island, has been closed since July, when its chef, César Ramirez, was once fired by way of the landlord amid a criminal fight over the funds and long run of the endeavor.
Now the landlord, Moneer Issa, says he has employed two Ecu cooks who’ve labored on the eating place to exchange Mr. Ramirez.
Mr. Issa mentioned Monday that Max Natmessnig, 35, a local of Austria, can be co-executive chef with Marco Prins, 37, who hails from the Netherlands. Each cooks have labored at a variety of Michelin-starred eating places in Europe and the US; they have got labored in combination in Europe and at Chef’s Desk.
“Max and Marco are two of the most productive cooks on this planet,” Mr. Issa mentioned. “They’re going to provoke numerous other people.”
Mr. Issa mentioned he deliberate to reopen the eating place on Oct. 4 with the brand new cooks. Within the period in-between, his dispute with Mr. Ramirez is taking part in out in State Very best Court docket in Brooklyn.
Mr. Ramirez has sued Mr. Issa and the eating place’s maintaining corporate, Long island Fare Company, claiming that he was once arbitrarily fired and defamed, and is looking for tens of thousands and thousands of greenbacks in unpaid wages and different damages. Mr. Issa has answered in courtroom filings that he pushed aside Mr. Ramirez for the reason that chef had stolen corporate assets, together with dishware, oven portions and circumstances of pricy wine.
Mr. Ramirez mentioned in a textual content message on Monday that at the recommendation of his attorneys, he would now not remark at the subject or talk about his subsequent transfer. The New York Submit reported closing month that he had signed a rent on a 5,000-foot area at 333 Hudson Boulevard in Long island.
Mr. Ramirez was once a celeb presence at Chef’s Desk, in my opinion serving every buyer on the eating place, behind a grocery store at 431 West thirty seventh Boulevard. Diners paid $430 for a multicourse tasting menu completed with lapidary precision. The eating place, which first opened in Brooklyn in 2009, gained 3 stars from The New York Instances; the Instances’s eating place critic, Pete Wells, ranked it No. 6 on his fresh listing of New York Town’s absolute best.
May the 2 new cooks generate the similar pleasure? Interviewed on Monday, Mr. Prins known as Mr. Ramirez a perfect chef and regarded as him a mentor. “However we’re a brand new technology,” Mr. Natmessnig mentioned.
He mentioned he and Mr. Prins deliberate to create a “extra sure” surroundings than the reportedly stringent, autocratic regime imposed by way of Mr. Ramirez. A piece of writing revealed Friday by way of Trade Insider reported that a number of workers mentioned he might be offended and abusive at the process.
“There will also be amusing and heat,” mentioned Mr. Natmessnig, who maximum not too long ago was once the chef at Alois-Dallmayr Superb Eating, a cafe in Munich, Germany, with two Michelin stars. Mr. Prins has been head chef and guide at Grace in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The 2 cooks mentioned they deliberate to care for the eating place’s 13-course menus. “Tasting menus are our herbal habitat,” Mr. Natmessnig mentioned.
The smooth kitchen underwent renovation a number of months in the past, and is rather much less industrial-looking now. There are 18 seats on the counter, and extra seating at six tables. Reservations require a $200 nonrefundable deposit. A spokesman for the eating place mentioned that deposits from the ones whose reservations may now not be commemorated on account of the remaining have been refunded.
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