The culinary power duo of Jamie Bissonnette and Ken Oringer is no more: The JK Restaurant Group pair have split up after years of creating everything from calves’ brain ravioli at Italian restaurant Coppa to caviar sandwiches at global small-plates hit Little Donkey. Both are James Beard: Best Chef Northeast award-winners.
Bissonnette plans to stay local and work on a new project. Oringer, meanwhile, will continue to run the team’s restaurants: Coppa and Toro in the South End, Bar Pallino and Faccia a Faccia in the Back Bay, and Little Donkey in Central Square. This fall, he’ll open Verveine Cafe & Bakery in the same neighborhood, with pastry chef Monica Glass.
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Bissonnette and Oringer first teamed up in 2007, when Bissonnette became executive chef of now-closed steakhouse KO Prime.
“We had an incredible run together. I am grateful to have worked alongside him for the last 15-plus years. He is incredibly talented, and I’m excited to cheer him on as he explores new projects and opportunities,” Oringer said through a rep.
Their most recent joint venture, Faccia a Faccia, a coastal Italian restaurant, received three stars from the Globe’s restaurant critic and food writer Devra First in December.
Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com. Follow her @kcbaskin.