Ambitious five-star hotels have been showcases for grandiose cooking ever since the great chef Auguste Escoffier took up residence at the Grand Hotel, in Monte Carlo, over a century ago. In the old days, this meant French food of the highest distinction, along with plenty of caviar and Champagne. But as the age of quenelles and Grand Marnier soufflés has given way, with frightening speed, to the era of the artisanal pork chop and the hand-foraged mushroom, the top hoteliers have been left grasping at straws. Last year, the former haute cuisine chef Laurent Tourondel opened a “farm driven” outlet of his BLT chain in the Ritz on Central Park South (BLT Market), and at Alain Ducasse’s new restaurant in the St. Regis (Adour), the chef is peddling a muted, Greenmarket version of his famously baroque French cuisine. In both cases, the hoteliers and chefs are confronted with the same dilemma: How do you convey a sense of pomp and grandeur to a generation that doesn’t own tuxedos? And how does a first-class hotel serve fancy haute cuisine food that’s not supposed to be fancy at all?
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