MATTHEW Kenney is in hot water, even at a restaurant that doesn’t use heat.
The talented chef, who’s had his share of ups and downs in the industry, is being sued by his Pure Food and Wine partner, restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow, for trying to hire away key employees for a planned new venture.
In the suit filed yesterday, Chodorow claims that Kenney had failed to make good on an agreement to protect and preserve the assets of the restaurant.
Much of the problem stems from his breakup with his girlfriend/partner Sarma Melngailis, who opened the raw food restaurant in June 2004, with Chodorow providing the financial backing. The relationship between Kenney and Melngailis soured this summer, with a blow-by-blow account appearing on Page Six in August.
Kenney, who has not been to the restaurant since Labor Day, now has plans to open a vegan restaurant on Orchard Street.
Kenney’s spokesman insists the chef didn’t recruit any staff – that they came to him. Chodorow says otherwise. “He’s hired three or four people, then made offers to the chef and the sous chef,” Chodorow said. “He’s basically trying to walk away with the entire restaurant.”
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The BLT juggernaut is about to branch into some refined digs.
Chef Laurent Tourondel and the BLT Group – which includes BLT Steak and BLT Fish – is about to ink a deal to open another BLT offshoot in the posh Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South in the present Atelier dining space.
Partner Jimmy Haber responded to our e-mail inquiry, “While we have had many productive conversations with the Ritz regarding the Central Park South location, and we are hopeful they will result in an arrangement for that space, nothing has been finalized.”