News

He has been described as one of the “hottest 10 chefs alive,” the founding father of “nouvelle Chinoise” cooking, and perhaps the most gifted culinary genius in Canada. Well, at least the first two are still true.

Susur Lee is shuttering his eponymous downtown Toronto restaurant at the end of May and heading to New York, where he has signed a deal to launch an eatery in a new hotel on Manhattan's Lower East Side this fall.

Susur will serve its last tasting menu (in reverse, of course, as is the custom) on May 31, and then undergo a five-week renovation. Mr. Lee isn't sure what sort of food he will serve in its new incarnation, but insisted he has no mixed feelings about leaving a restaurant that helped him forge an international reputation, and which was once recognized as among the top 50 places to eat in the world. His other restaurant, the nearby Lee, will remain open.

“If I don't change, I'll get old,” he said. “I always love the challenge. I always love to do new things. This is what I do.”

New Yorkers, a food-obsessed lot familiar with Mr. Lee's credentials, are already gloating at their gain. In a posting on its website yesterday, New York Magazine likened the chef's defection to Wayne Gretzky's move from Edmonton to Los Angeles, and touted him as the Vongerichten of the Great White North.

That would be Jean-Georges Vongerichten, one of a only a handful of Manhattan restaurateurs who has been decorated with three Michelin stars – and, as it turns out, one of Mr. Lee's admirers.

“Martial arts cooking from a kung-fu master,” he once pronounced, in an awkward-sounding compliment. “That's the only way to describe Susur's cuisine.”

In a news release it was announced that as executive chef in the new enterprise, Mr. Lee will join the vanguard of New York super-chefs: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud, Nobu Matsuhisa, Thomas Keller and Eric Ripert.

"I want to go out with a bang,” says Mr. Lee in his release. “I have been travelling in Asia these past few months, with trips to China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, every time I come back I want to share my ideas...this will be my last time to share my tasting menu with Torontonians who have been so supportive over the years.”

Mr. Lee is entrusting his life partner, designer Brenda Bent, to renovate the former Susur into an as yet un-named space. Ms. Bent, who styled the original interiors for both Susur and Lee will collaborate with artist Karen Gable on interiors and décor for the refreshed premises.

Sous chef of seven years and an integral part of Susur restaurant, Dominic Amaral will be the new head chef of the yet to be named restaurant, while Jason Carter the head chef at Lee's will add to his current duties by assisting Mr. Lee in the opening of the New York restaurant, the release said.