After Firing Its Lauded Chef This Summer, Michelin 3-Star Brooklyn Fare Has Hired His Replacements
Just a few days after the temporary closing of Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare came to light, the restaurant is already releasing details of its October reopening.
On Tuesday, the Michelin three-star restaurant announced that the chefs Max Natmessnig and Marco Prins would be taking over for César Ramirez. The former executive chef was fired by the restaurant’s owner, Moneer Issa, and the two are now battling it out in court.
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“Max and Marco are two of the best chefs in the world, with a prestigious pedigree of culinary achievement and first-hand familiarity with our standards at the Chef’s Table,” Issa said in a statement. “We are thrilled to see what they concoct for their tasting menu when we reopen our doors in October.”
Natmessnig comes to Chef’s Table from the Michelin two-star Alois in Munich, while Prins was most recently the head chef at fine-dining restaurants in the Netherlands. The two both worked at Chef’s Table earlier in their careers, making this most recent move a homecoming of sorts for the pair.
“Coming from a career of working at multiple three-Michelin-starred restaurants, including at Chef’s Table, I am excited to help usher in a new era of fine dining at this storied institution,” Natmessnig said in a statement. Prins echoed his sentiment, saying, “I am delighted to return to Chef’s Table and help create a menu that meets and exceeds the high expectations that diners have come to enjoy and admire.”
Meanwhile, Issa and Ramirez are caught in a messy legal battle that began in July, when Chef’s Table quietly shuttered. Ramirez is alleging that he was fired without cause, and he’s seeking millions of dollars in damages. Issa, however, claims that Ramirez stole about $400,000 worth of equipment from the restaurant, and that the chef was abusive toward both employees and customers at the fine-dining establishment.
Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare was opened by Issa in 2009, and it moved to its current location in Hell’s Kitchen in 2016. With Ramirez at the helm, the restaurant served a $430 tasting menu highlighting Japanese seafood and French culinary techniques. While Natmessnig and Prins plan to keep the tasting-menu format, according to The New York Times, we’ll have to wait a couple more months to see what sort of food they decide to whip up.
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