When Chefs Attack
In Vancouver, we have a few of own Celebrity Chefs. One of them, like other Celebrity Chefs, is well known outside of Vancouver. He’s handsome, dashing, charismatic, and one expects, probably a bit of a prima donna (or in this case, that would be primo uomo). The guy is called ‘Rob Feenie’, and he’s particularly well known for his win over Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America. He’s also known (around here) because he also appears (along with 2 of the other celebrity chefs in town) in commercials for the ‘White Spot’ restaurant chain.
So you can imagine the headlines that appeared today when he broke ties with the two restaurants he runs in Vancouver, effectively quitting from the role of Executive Chef at Lumière and Feenie’s. Yes, that’s right, the restaurant that bears Rob Feenie’s name, as of this past Friday, no longer serves his food.
Pam and I have been to a few of the good restaurants in town, including 2 visits to West, a lovely meal at Bishop’s and a quite a few less high-end establishments. We never made it to either Lumière or Feenies, partly because we are suspicious of the mark-up that the caché of a famous chef can add, and that one can often do better for less elsewhere.
As the article in the Vancouver Sun reports, this falling-out between Feenie and his backers is amounting to a series of ‘he-said’, ‘they-said’ statements, and I have to wonder if in the end, there aren’t going to be too many losers in this game:
Feenie, whether he gets his restaurants back or not, is assured of a spectacular opening, should he decide to open a new restaurant (Feenie’s II — The Real Thing, perhaps?). The backers of his original restaurant, David and Manjy Sidoo, also have little to lose in terms of customers, unless Feenie can get them to boycott his old restaurants as a show of solidarity. I expect, instead, that some people will go to those eateries out of curiosity, to either see if they have slipped in quality or flair since Feenie’s departure, or if they’ve never been to either of them before, to see what all the fuss is about. Restaurants in Vancouver in general will probably also reap a benefit; this squabble will only help to bring the whole subject of fine-dining (and colourful chefs) in Vancouver to water coolers all over the city and Province. After all, it’s made the front page of the Sun already.
I’ve often talked about how great the restaurants (and the food in general)are in this town. It’s going to be interesting to see how this very public breakup affects the community, especially as we near the onslaught of millions of high-end tourists for the 2010 games. If I were Feenie, I’d certainly want to be serving expensive, once-in-a-lifetime dinners to those crowds. This gastronomic soap opera is definitely not over yet.
3 Comments to “When Chefs Attack”
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Ryan Cousineau
Posted: Nov 4th, 2007 at 11:02 am1David and Manjy Sidoo have little to lose in customers?!? Their super-famous prominent chef, the much-acclaimed genius behind Lumiere and Feenie’s, is gone. I would be surprised if they haven’t had reservations cancellations already.
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ddrucker
Posted: Nov 4th, 2007 at 12:53 pm2Hi Ryan — I’m not saying that the owners will win big. Yeah, if there are any losers in this game, I would imagine it would be them, if they don’t take action quickly. For the time being, though, this is free publicity (albeit bad publicity, but all the same, there will be plenty of curiosity by connoisseurs and the general public alike), but if they can’t kiss and makeup with Feenie, then I they had better close Feenies within 1–2 months, do a radical rework of the place and rename of it, and reopen it as ‘Mackay’s’ (or some other name).
As for Lumiére, that’s really interesting. There are quite a few other French Restaurants in Vancouver (Le Crocodile, Fleuri, Cassis, Gastropod, and Le Gavroche, to name a few), but few have the reputation that Lumière had.
Have they had cancellations already? I wonder. Up until recently, I’ve always been a little cynical about the degree to which an Executive Chef is involved with the actual preparation of dishes served in a fine restaurant, but when we went to Bishops, we were welcomed by the man himself, and he even added a little more to my squash soup after the waiter had put it down (a curious thing to do, don’t you think?). Back in Boston about 3 years ago, we went to the famous ‘Locke-Ober’ restaurant, which had been recently taken over by Lydia Shire, and we met her during the meal as well, as she made it a point to circulate from table to table, meeting all of her customers. Apparently, this is something she does most evenings, but it still felt nice to chat about food with an Internationally known chef. Did Feenie do this bit of theatre? Having not been to either of his restaurants, I have no idea (perhaps someone does?).
I guess the more important question is, Is this good for the Vancouver Restaurant scene or is it bad? In France, a couple of years ago, a chef committed suicide because he was denied a single star in the Michelin Guide. While I don’t think this drama will get to that level (at least I hope not), it does put fine cuisine in the spotlight, don’t you think?
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Jonathon Narvey
Posted: Nov 11th, 2007 at 10:23 am3I did actually go to Feenie’s once. Great food, great presentation (but at a premium price, as you’d expect. It was a bit of a treat).
I will not be going back if Feenie isn’t there. Why go to a big-name restaurant when the big name behind the food isn’t actually there? There are plenty of great restaurants to go to in Vancouver where I don’t have to worry about existential issues and false advertising.
By the way, thank you for being the first to remark on my blog’s new site. I LOVE WordPress. I should have made the change ages ago. Now I have to try to win back readers to my new URL. Just goes to show how fear of change can hold you back.
