Linda Guitard has been visiting the same family restaurant since she was a child in the 1970s. Formerly known as Rôtisserie Laurier BBQ, the aging Outremont district landmark was her favourite spot for a comforting meal of chicken, French fries and gravy.
So when British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay reopened her beloved neighbourhood joint as the newly remodelled Laurier Gordon Ramsay last week, Ms. Guitard was unimpressed.
“I was really sad about it,” she said, explaining that the big-name chef’s involvement takes away from the intimate connection she felt with the place.
As one of the many curious, long-time customers testing out Laurier Gordon Ramsay over the weekend, Ms. Guitard acknowledged the newly renovated farmhouse-style dining room looked fresh and bright, and the roast chicken tasted just as she remembered it. But she was neither sold on Mr. Ramsay’s lighter, thinner gravy, nor the restaurant’s slicker, worldlier brand image. She was doubtful she would remain a regular.
Mr. Ramsay, the famously fiery star of TV’s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen, will need to win over locals like Ms. Guitard.
His new outpost faced a hiccup on opening night when a malfunctioning sprinkler in the kitchen forced diners to vacate the restaurant until the following evening. But observers say the restaurant has yet to face its greatest challenge: to keep diners coming back after the initial hype subsides.
Gone are the days when the star power of an internationally renowned chef all but guaranteed a restaurant’s success. Acclaimed chefs – even those such as Mr. Ramsay, with multiple Michelin stars to his name – are facing new hurdles when expanding their empires.
Diners are savvier than ever, cash-conscious business partners are more reluctant to give famous chefs carte blanche, and chefs face more competition than in previous decades, says Steve Dolinsky, a Chicago-based food reporter and an academy chairman for the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, a prestigious ranking of international restaurants.
Culinary trends have also shifted in favour of local, artisanal food, forcing international chefs to work harder to build ties with local purveyors, farmers and producers.
“I think customers will only buy into a brand so much,” Mr. Dolinsky says. “People work hard for their money. They don’t just want to blow it on a celebrity chef’s name.”
Over the past decade, the number of restaurants backed by famous chefs has proliferated around the globe, from London to Dubai. The boom notablytransformed Las Vegas’s culinary scene, as recognized chefs such as Joël Robuchon, Daniel Boulud, Mario Batali and Bobby Flay, flocked to the city, turning it into a destination for luxury dining.
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.
While the recession no doubt contributed to the decline, Las Vegas also experienced what The New York Times dubbed “fabulousness fatigue,” the resulting indifference to the convergence of too many famous chefs in one market.
