Hell’s Kitchen Winner Joins LA MarketKerry Simon welcomes Nona Sivley as chef de cuisine at his locavore cafe in Downtown, which should be very different from her last job at Chop’s Lobster Bar in Georgia.
Chefs Try to Take It to the Next Level in This Week’s Issue
Five established chefs take center stage in this week’s issue – or six, if you count Kurt Gutenbrunner, who, per In Season, has a way with white asparagus. The others? Michael Anthony, the Blue Hill Haute Barnyard prodigy who stepped into Tom Colicchio’s shoes at Gramercy Tavern; Christopher Lee, a major rising talent who filled big shoes at Gilt; Kerry Simon, a Las Vegas–based Vongerichten lieutenant who is now doing the food for a giant karaoke bar; and finally Marco Canora and Asian dessert master Pichet Ong, whose long-awaited debuts, Insieme and P*Ong, respectively, open this week. All this star power, along with two short lists that couldn’t be more different, awaits in this week’s magazine.
Openings
‘Special Buns,’ Besides J.Lo’s, to Be Served at Spotlight Live
Recently Daily Intel reported that Jennifer Lopez and her hubby did their thing in public (sang together, that is) at new Times Square venue Spotlight Live. Now, as UrbanDaddy has it, Times Square tourists and boozed-up cubicle dwellers will be able to follow suit when the venue opens with a karaoke stage, a recording studio, a green room complete with makeup artist, and a Jumbotron broadcasting performances onto Times Square. If it sounds very Vegas, you won’t be surprised to hear that the place has brought in Kerry Simon, who was a partner at Mercer Kitchen and also put in time at La Cote Basque and Lutece before opening restaurants in Miami, California, and Sin City. You know, the “Rock and Roll chef”?