My Swedish friends

September 27

So many interesting stories, so much non-blog work to do. Tales of my trip below the gnat line in Georgia (where I hung out with Jimmy Carter), of the things I ate at an omasake [sic] dinner at Sushi Samba, of the glorious opening of Porter House New York, of the redacted Roman food I just had at the French Culinary Institute and discussions of New York's plan to ban trans-fats, all will have to wait, but I have news, and the publicists know I have news, so alas it won’t wait until next Wednesday when I'd report it in my little column in The New York Sun. I've already submitted it to NRN online, so you might be able to read it there if our news gods deem it worthy, and it will be in the October 9 issue of NRN, the magazine, but why let the New York publicists leak it to competitors when it's mine? Why should I do that when I can tell New York first?

So here it is:
Nils Noren is not the executive chef at Aquavit anymore (people associate the restaurant with celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, but he's chef-owner and hasn't managed the kitchen on a day-to-day basis in years). Noren is now vice president of culinary arts at The French Culinary Institute, where he's replacing Alain Sailhac who is taking an emeritus position. Replacing Noren at Aquavit is Johan Svensson, who opened Marcus Samuelsson and Håken Swahn's other restaurant, Riingo.
The new executive chef at Riingo is Jimmy Lappalainen, who was a line cook at Aquavit from 2000 to 2002 before returning home to Sweden for a spell (his surname's Finnish, but he's Swedish). Most recently he was chef de cuisine at Frederick's and Frederick's Lounge, both in Midtown.

Thank you.