“It takes a New York chef coming to Boston to get us together,” said Gordon Hamersley of Hamersley’s Bistro, sitting with Jody Adams of Rialto, chef Susan Regis, Jasper White of Jasper White’s Summer Shack, Alex Shire (son of Lydia) and Simon Restrepo of Scampo. The New Yorker was Frenchman Daniel Boulud, who cooked a preview lunch for three dozen Boston colleagues at Bar Boulud, Boston, opening at the Mandarin Oriental, Boston on Sept. 16. Celebrity architect Adam Tihany outfitted the spot with tufted Burgundy velvet banquettes and a vaulted wood ceiling. Boulud, who owns more than a dozen restaurants in London, Singapore, Montreal, Toronto, Las Vegas, and Washington, D.C., was surprised at first by the space. “I thought he was making a country-style restaurant,” he said. “It was more urban.” He greeted Michael Leviton of Lumiere and Area Four, who worked with Boulud at Le Cirque, Louis DiBiccari of Tavern Road, Jason Bond of Bondir and Bondir Concord, Joanne Chang of Flour bakeries, Tim and Nancy Cushman of O ya, Barry Edelman of 5 Corners Kitchen, and Tony Maws of Craigie on Main and Kirkland Tap & Trotter. The very Frenchy menu: gougere filled with foie gras, scallops and boudin noir, coq au vin, and Boston cream pie “with French DNA,” as the chef described it. “Thank you for coming to our little auberge,” he added. Not little and not an auberge. But otherwise wonderful.
Daniel Boulud previews his new restaurant for Boston chefs
