Exclusive: Gordon Ramsay taking over Montreal resto

[MtlMan]

C'est bien que le milieu des restaurants bouge, soit vivant, varié, innovateur, audacieux.

 

D'un autre côté, la "starification" de la bouffe est plutôt agaçante. Je sais bien que tout tend de nos jours à se starifier et à se top ten-iser. On mondialise, on se pâme pour un tel ou un autre parce qu'ils passent à la télé, on fait des classements des 10, 100 ou 1000 meilleurs restaurants sur la planète...

 

En réalité, il est plutôt ridicule de mettre un excellent restaurant avant ou après un autre excellent restaurant, comme il est ridicule de dire qui de Beethoven ou Mozart, ou de Pink Floyd ou The Doors sont les plus grands. Ils sont excellents et différents, c'est tout.

 

Et j'aimerais bien continuer d'aller au resto tranquille sans me sentir un groupi un peu con qui y va parce que le chef est une star mondiale qui compte sur son accès aux médias pour ouvrir des succursales partout et devenir millionnaire. On veut bien manger ! Le reste est pour les zozos.

 

La starification est effectivement omniprésente, et c'est regrettable. C'est encore pire quand on prend une star de quelque chose pour lui faire faire autre chose. Comme si une "star" pouvait nécessairement en être une dans tous les domaines. Et ça, c'est à supposé que le titre de "star" de cette personne dans son domaine d'origine est pleinement mérité! Voilà un autre débat.

[uqam+]

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Modifié 10 novembre 2011 par uqam+

[jesseps]

...

But Las Vegas’s gourmet heyday didn’t last long. Over the past three years, the restaurants of star chefs haven’t been drawing in high-rolling customers like they used to. Mr. Boulud closed his Las Vegas brasserie in 2010. Star chef Charlie Trotter closed his two restaurants, Restaurant Charlie and Bar Charlie, last year as well. And award-winning chef Alessandro Stratta shuttered his fine-dining establishment Alex, earlier this year. Now that several big-name international chefs are hanging their shingles in Canada (Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened Market in Vancouver in 2009, Scott Conant opened Scarpetta in Toronto in 2010, David Chang will open two Toronto restaurants in 2012, and, after two short-lived restaurants in Vancouver, Mr. Boulud plans to open in Montreal in 2012), Mr. Dolinsky says they could learn from the mistakes made in Las Vegas and in other major cities.

...

 

(Courtesy of The Globe and Mail)

 

The Globe and Mail

 

They spoke to previous customers of the old establishment and asked how they felt about the new place.

Modifié 17 août 2011 par jesseps

[LindbergMTL]

J'aime bien comment l'article mentionne que le plus grand chef international, un monsieur Lee, pense ouvrir un deuxième restaurant à Toronto, juste en passant. Finalement, l'article donne à penser que ça ne marchera probablement pas...

[IluvMTL]

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/gordon-ramsay-plays-chicken/

 

Gordon Ramsay Plays Chicken

FOOD, TRAVEL |By GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT | AUGUST 16, 2011, 10:00 AM

 

Guillermo Russo with Gordon Ramsay.

One morning last week, after appearing on Jay Leno,then catching the red-eye flight to Montreal, Gordon Ramsay stood before a number of reporters and cameramen, smiling and massaging a roast chicken. Behind him, encased in glass, more chickens twirled slowly on a rotisserie spit, flames leaping menacingly from below. It was all very “Hell’s Kitchen.”

 

He was in Montreal to christen Gordon Ramsay Laurier, his re-imagining of a 75-year-old rotisserie chicken joint called Laurier BBQ, and by end of day he’d be on a plane back to London. In a story line plucked straight out of a “Kitchen Nightmares” episode, Ramsay (or Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd.) swooped in to revive the French-Canadian, family-style landmark that was dying a slow death. It’s a move that has caused many Montrealers to wonder: Why on earth?

 

“It’s been a tough time these past two and a half years for any chef, any business,” Ramsay told me during our five-minute chat in the company of two publicists.

 

“I experienced that in 2008,” he says, alluding to his own company’s near-fatal flirtation with bankruptcy. “It doesn’t make sense to come in and try to be the best fine-dining restaurant in Montreal.” And so he has gotten into the local comfort food business, providing consultation services and hiring the local chef Guillermo Russo, 31, to run the show.

 

Ramsay himself is a bit too busy to be slinging chickens in Montreal. He has more than two dozen restaurants on four continents and loads of TV commitments (last year alone he starred in “MasterChef” and “Hell’s Kitchen” in the United States, and “Ramsey’s Best Restaurant” and “Christmas With Gordon” in the U.K.) — and also cookbooks, product endorsements and the odd tabloid scandal to juggle. Yet this down-market shift shouldn’t come as a surprise, given his empire’s rapid expansion over the past decade. What better way to reach the TV-watching masses than with chicken?

 

 

Ramsay embraces the old and the new in his re-imagining of Laurier BBQ.

The old Laurier BBQ, with its authentically retro, wood-paneled dining room adorned with hunting memorabilia, catered to a small, loyal and largely older clientele. It was one of those places nobody really went anymore — most of us ordered in, or stopped in occasionally for the kitsch factor. But when news broke of the takeover, there was a great kerfuffle over the celebrity chef’s plans to chic-ify the suddenly beloved Montreal institution. Team Ramsay has indeed given the place a sleek face-lift, but they’ve gone to great lengths to assure locals that the spirit of the place is unchanged.

 

“It reminds me of taking over at Claridge’s 10 years ago, and even before I got anywhere near the place, British Heritage wanting to have a word saying, ‘You cannot touch that marble and you are not going anywhere near those mirrors,’ ” Ramsay says. Except at Claridge’s, there’s no poutine. “Yeah, everyone thinks if you’ve got three Michelin stars you’ll think poutine is a pile of crap, but I grew up on chips and gravy,” he continued. “So why can’t we do poutine with the most amazing French fries, hand-cut, hand-peeled potatoes with the most amazing gravy?”

 

That Ramsay razzle-dazzle was looking a bit doused the following day, when on the first evening the restaurant was open to the public a sprinkler system malfunction and forced the evacuation of hundreds of patrons. The restaurant was shut for two days. Whether this is a bad omen or merely a bump in the road — there’s even been talk of an international chain of Ramsay rotisseries — only time will tell.

[mtlrdp]

I read that he's closing 2 restaurants in Australia and sunk over 8 million trying to save his other failing businesses in that country,once this obnoxious jerk is off the air I wouldn't be surprised to see all his restaurants go belly up ,anyone remember planet Hollywood?

[IluvMTL]

According to his site, one of his restaurants has 3 Michelin stars.

http://www.gordonramsay.com/corporate/restaurants/

[MtlMan]

Quelqu'un y est allé en fait? Ce serait bien d'avoir des impressions.

[LindbergMTL]

J'y suis allé avec ma mère. Il y avait une file d'attente à 13h30. 20 minutes plus tard, nous étions assis dans un booth. Les serveuses dans la salle principale étaient plus jeunes et montraient un peu de peau. Il y avait une serveuse de l'ancienne administration et aussi la même caissière.

 

Le classique poulet BBQ n'avait pas changé, succulent. Les sauces et vinaigrettes sont moins salées, plus légères et subtiles. Le paté au poulet a pris 20 minutes à éetre seervi, mais il était merveilleux, avec une pâte crouistillante et légère. Au bar, les gens se font servir aussi à manger.

 

Les prix ont augmenté de 15%, mais somme toute, on en est ressorti heureux et plus lourd d'une couple de livres.

 

Le Laurier mourrait d'une mort certaine, je suis maintenant optimiste quant aux chances de réussite du restaurant, même passé la 1ere phase de curiosité.

[cprail]

J'y suis allé il y a quelques jours. Ambiance complètement différente de celle d'un St-Hubert (on se rapproche des voisins de la rue Laurier en terme de classe), bouffe de qualité bien supérieure (le poulet est délicieux, la sauce subtile, les frites bien épicées, la soupe à l'oignon savoureuse, etc.), prix environ équivalents.

Sérieusement, une belle réussite.