Join Financial Times restaurant critic and author Nicholas Lander, restaurateurs Will Guidara (Eleven Madison Park, NoMad) and famed hospitality interior designer Adam D. Tihany (Per Se, Daniel), with writer Bill Buford (Heat), for a conversation on The Art of the Restaurateur, in celebration of Lander's new book of the same name,recently called "a must-read for restaurant lovers" by Details magazine.
In a world where chefs get all the attention, the panel will discuss the unsung art of the restaurateur and how the owner's creative vision can often be the difference in making a restaurant successful. Until 30 years ago, restaurateurs were considered the most important figures in any restaurant's success, with chefs consigned to the kitchen. This process began to change with the elevation of chef-patrons in the 1970s and has continued with the rise of the celebrity chef. The profession has changed a lot in recent years and continues to evolve in fascinating ways which will be explored in the discussion.
Brief Bios:
Nicholas Lander has written The Restaurant Insider, the popular restaurant column in the Financial Times, for the past 21 years and is the author of the new book The Art of the Restaurateur (October 2102, Phaidon), which profiles 20 of the world's most successful restaurateurs. Having been a restaurateur himself (he owned L’Escargot in London during the 1980s), Lander knows and appreciates the business. He lives in London with his wife, wine critic Jancis Robinson.
Bill Buford is the author of Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as a Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany and Among the Thugs. He has been fiction editor of The New Yorker and a staff writer and was the founding editor of the literary magazine Granta. He lives in Lyon, France and is writing a book provisionally entitled Dirt about his experiences as baker, a cheese-maker and a cook.
Will Guidara is the co-owner of Eleven Madison Park and the NoMad Hotel. A graduate of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, he attended culinary school in the North of Spain and held various roles with the Union Square Hospitality Group before becoming General Manager of Eleven Madison Park in 2006. He spearheaded the transformation of the restaurant and helped it garner four stars from the New York Times as well as three Michelin stars. He and chef Daniel Humm purchased Eleven Madison Park from USHG in 2011. They opened the NoMad Hotel in the spring of 2012.
Adam D. Tihany is one of the world's most famous hospitality designers. Tihany collaborates with the world's best chefs, restaurateurs, and hoteliers to create unique contemporary design projects. He has conceived interiors for more than 300 elite restaurants and luxury hotels throughout the world, including Per Se, Daniel and most recently, Sirio Ristorante in New York City, as well as Bar Boulud and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental, London.