MisterNice
Nov 7, 02, 11:17 am
Fret no more: Le Bec-Fin will get its fifth star back. The Mobil Travel Guide today will announce that Le Bec-Fin will regain its fifth star - the guide's highest rating - which it lost nearly three years ago.
While Mobil declined to release the complete list of top restaurants, it is believed that Le Bec-Fin will be one of about a dozen five-star restaurants in the United States and the only one in Pennsylvania..
One might argue that the stars mean more to a chef's ego than to a restaurant's bottom line. Perrier went into a deep funk in January 2000 when, after holding the Mobil Guide's top rating for nearly two decades, Le Bec-Fin lost its fifth star.
When Perrier emerged, he hired a chef from France to head his kitchen. His two top assistants left in anger. Le Bec-Fin did not regain the star in 2001 or 2002, and Perrier dumped the French chef in May.
Over the summer, the Lyon-born Perrier, saying he was tired of Frenchmen in his kitchen, hired Daniel Stern, a Cherry Hill-bred veteran of top New York restaurants.
Perrier then opened his wallet, spending about $500,000 on a renovation that extended from the ceilings to the walls to the heavy bone china and $50-a-piece Riedel stemware on the tables.
"I did everything in my power to make the restaurant better. ... Somebody will have to prove to me that we're not the top restaurant," said Perrier, whose patrons pay a fixed price of $45 for lunch and $120 for dinner.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/4461500.htm
MisterNice
While Mobil declined to release the complete list of top restaurants, it is believed that Le Bec-Fin will be one of about a dozen five-star restaurants in the United States and the only one in Pennsylvania..
One might argue that the stars mean more to a chef's ego than to a restaurant's bottom line. Perrier went into a deep funk in January 2000 when, after holding the Mobil Guide's top rating for nearly two decades, Le Bec-Fin lost its fifth star.
When Perrier emerged, he hired a chef from France to head his kitchen. His two top assistants left in anger. Le Bec-Fin did not regain the star in 2001 or 2002, and Perrier dumped the French chef in May.
Over the summer, the Lyon-born Perrier, saying he was tired of Frenchmen in his kitchen, hired Daniel Stern, a Cherry Hill-bred veteran of top New York restaurants.
Perrier then opened his wallet, spending about $500,000 on a renovation that extended from the ceilings to the walls to the heavy bone china and $50-a-piece Riedel stemware on the tables.
"I did everything in my power to make the restaurant better. ... Somebody will have to prove to me that we're not the top restaurant," said Perrier, whose patrons pay a fixed price of $45 for lunch and $120 for dinner.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/4461500.htm
MisterNice