The NYC Chefs That Go From Indie Insiders to Restaurant Empires

"Danny Bowien's move to run the kitchen at Stephen Starr's Buddakan is part of a broader trend: big-name chefs trading boutique operations for larger institutions - bringing indie spirits to giant dining rooms. They include chefs like John Villa (now at the newly opened Seahorse), who left the three-star NYT restaurant, Pico after it closed, for Tao, and Mark Ladner, who fine-tuned Stephen Starr's kitchens (and whose influence can be traced to dishes like the 100-layer lasagna appearing on Starr's Philly menus)."

"He admitted that his first impulse of "let's take all the risks in the world" as he did at Mission Chinese, is now tempered. "My goal, creatively, is to make food that stands up to this room," he said in the same interview. Bowien also discussed how his philosophy has evolved. Where early on he chased wilder ideas, now he leans toward simpler, more reliable execution: "I gravitate toward simpler food ... You have to manage the level of creativity with how feasible it is for the cooks to execute it consistently, every night," he said."

Danny Bowien is leaving his independent operation to run the kitchen at Stephen Starr's Buddakan, joining a trend of well-known chefs taking roles in larger institutions. Chefs such as John Villa and Mark Ladner exemplify similar moves, bringing indie influence into big dining rooms. Bowien describes Buddakan as a much larger operation and says his impulse to take extreme risks has been tempered by the space and scale. He now favors simpler, more reliable dishes that cooks can execute consistently every night. Separately, the Sami & Susu team opened the pita shop Shifka, and reservations opened for the delayed Babbo project.

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