Food for Thought: The New Bouley

Chef David Bouley has relocated his flagship restaurant to the corner of Duane and Hudson Streets, which opened to the public on 24 October 2008. The new Bouley offers an entirely Renaissance ambiance, replete with stone from Versailles. The Didier Benderli design features a vaulted ceiling that has been brushed with gold leaf and a romantic dining room with an ancient hearth brought from France.

A small library with intricate parquet flooring assembled from centuries-old panels and a winter garden, abloom with painted geraniums, complete the dining areas on the groundfloor. Downstairs, is a cellar for private parties, a wine cellar fitted with antique glass panes and luxuriously appointed washrooms.

Two of his other restaurants, Bouley Bakery and Upstairs, will be shuffled around to fill the original Bouley space, and renamed Bouley Market. His Viennese-inspired restaurant, Danube, will be reborn as Secession, with the Klimt murals still in place but in a more casual setting. The food will be ingredient-driven French and Italian, with Casare Casella as its consultant.

Next fall, David plans to open an innovative Japanese restaurant on West Broadway to be named Brush Stroke, which will itself house three different eateries. This new venture will be in partnership with Yoshiki Tsuji, President of Japan's largest professional cooking school, the Tsuji Culinary Academy based in Osaka, with branches in Tokyo and France. Mr Tsuji is also the author of the ground-breaking book, 'Japanese Cooking, A Simple Art', devoted to expounding Japanese cooking techniques.

What this means is that at some point in the future, you could conceivably have a different Bouley dining experience on each night of the week, and all within the neighborhood of TriBeCa.

David's 10-year dream has also finally materialised with the December opening of his state-of-the-art test kitchen that can be used for visiting chefs, for training staff and for classes for professionals as well as consumers. On the fifth floor of 88 West Broadway, his test kitchen features a library containing computerised records of catalogued ingredients and photographs of recipes.