Julian Niccolini

Last updated

Julian Niccolini is an Italian-American restaurateur who co-owned the now defunct Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

Niccolini was born in Lucca, Italy. One of his early jobs was at the Hôtel de Paris in Monaco. Niccolini moved to New York City in 1975. [2]

Career

Niccolini joined the Four Seasons Restaurant in 1977 and quickly became its public face. [3] [4] In 1994, he and Alex von Bidder became its primary operating partners. [4] Niccolini created a club-like dining room at the restaurant named the "Grill Room", where patrons conducted business during lunch, although he remarked that "everybody [in the room] claims to be serious, but they are actually having fun." [5] [6] Niccolini was forced to resign from the Four Seasons Restaurant in December 2018 over accusations of sexual misconduct. [4]

Niccolini has been nominated for seven James Beard Awards, winning three. [7] He has also had parts in several movies, including Inside Man (2006), Arbitrage (2012) and Self/less (2015). [8]

Personal life

Niccolini is an avid cyclist and dog lover. He practiced beekeeping at his home in Bedford, New York. [9]

In June 2015, Niccolini was charged with the sexual abuse of a 28-year-old woman at the Four Seasons Restaurant. [10] In March 2016, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, admitting that he had "put his hands on the woman, causing scratches and bruises to her hip and thigh". [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Batali</span> American chef, writer, restaurateur and media personality

Mario Francesco Batali is an American chef, writer, and former restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in New York City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Newport Beach, California; Boston; Singapore; Westport, Connecticut; and New Haven, Connecticut. Batali has appeared on the Food Network, on shows such as Molto Mario and Iron Chef America, on which he was one of the featured "Iron Chefs". In 2017, the restaurant review site Eater revealed multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali and, in March 2019, he sold all his restaurant holdings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Keller</span> American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author

Thomas Aloysius Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant is a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Severson</span>

Kim Marie Severson is a reporter for The New York Times. She won a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018 as part of The New York Times coverage of sexual harassment and abuse and is a four-time James Beard award–winner for food writing. Severson has published multiple cookbooks and a cooking themed memoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Éric Ripert</span> French chef, author, and television personality

Eric Frank Ripert is a French chef, author, and television personality specializing in modern French cuisine and noted for his work with seafood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gael Greene</span> American restaurant critic, author, novelist (1933–2022)

Gael Greene was an American restaurant critic, author, and novelist. She became New York magazine's restaurant critic in fall 1968, at a time when most New Yorkers were unsophisticated about food and there were few chefs anyone knew by name, and for four decades both documented and inspired the city's and America's growing obsession with food. She was a pioneering "foodie."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Bastianich</span> American restaurateur, vineyard owner, and celebrity "chef"

Joseph Bastianich is an American restaurateur, winemaker, author, television personality, and musician. He, along with his mother and business partner Lidia Bastianich, co-owns thirty restaurants in four countries, including Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles, which the owners expanded in 2010. Earlier that same year, they teamed up with businessman Oscar Farinetti to bring Eataly, an upscale food and wine market, to Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City and London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four Seasons Restaurant</span> Defunct restaurant in New York City

The Four Seasons Restaurant was a New American cuisine restaurant in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City from 1959 to 2019. The Four Seasons operated within the Seagram Building at 99 East 52nd Street for most of its existence, although it relocated to 42 East 49th Street in its final year of operation. The restaurant was themed around the seasons of the year, with menus, decorations, and vegetation that changed every three months. It attracted numerous high-profile personalities and often hosted "power lunches". Despite mixed commentary of the restaurant's food, the Four Seasons was highly popular, winning the James Beard Award many times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Beard Foundation Award</span> Annual awards for culinary professionals in the US

The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awards are presented at a dinner in New York City; the chef and restaurant awards were also presented in New York until 2015, when the foundation's annual gala moved to Chicago. Chicago will continue to host the Awards until 2027.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Bowien</span> American chef

James Daniel Bowien is a chef and restaurateur. He is the founder and owner of Mission Chinese Food in New York City and Brooklyn and co-founder of Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco, California. Bowien is a James Beard Award winner, and the main subject of season six of the food and travel show The Mind of a Chef.

Paul Bartolotta is an American chef and restaurateur. Most recently he is known for his authentic style and his innovative approach to importing fresh seafood from Mediterranean waters. Paul Bartolotta has won the James Beard Foundation Award twice—once for Best Chef: Midwest, and again for Best Chef: Southwest (2009), at Bartolotta, Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas. He is a recipient of the Insegna del Ristorante Italiano del Mondo, which was awarded to him in 1997 by Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, the President of Italy at the time.

Judy Rodgers was an American chef, restaurateur, and cookery book writer. She became famous at Zuni Café, in San Francisco, California, of which she became chef in 1987. Rodgers' food was influenced both by Chez Panisse, where she had worked, and by the food of France, where she had spent time as an exchange student living with the family of Jean Troisgros. The Zuni Café Cookbook, published in 2002, spread the influence of her painstaking, attentive approach to food further outside the United States.

Ashok Bajaj is a restaurateur based in Washington, DC. He is head of the Knightsbridge Restaurant Group.

Eater is a food website by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal in 2005, and originally focused on dining and nightlife in New York City. Eater launched a national site in 2009, and covered nearly 20 cities by 2012. Vox Media acquired Eater, along with two others comprising the Curbed Network, in late 2013. In 2017, Eater had around 25 local sites in the United States, Canada, and England. The site has been recognized twelve times by the James Beard Foundation Awards.

Maguy Le Coze is a restaurateur and the co-owner of Le Bernardin in New York City.

Chris Coombs is an American chef and restaurateur who specializes in French-American cuisine. He is the co-owner of Boston Urban Hospitality, a restaurant group based in Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Gourdet</span> American chef

Gregory Gourdet is an American chef, writer, restaurateur, and former finalist on the twelfth and seventeenth seasons of Bravo's American reality television series, Top Chef. He is of Haitian descent. He is the owner of the restaurant Kann and the former executive chef and culinary director of Departure at The Nines in Portland, Oregon. His book, Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health, is a national bestseller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coquine</span> Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Coquine is a restaurant located in the Mount Tabor neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. The restaurant serves French-inspired food made from ingredients purchased from local farms as well as Stumptown Coffee.

Anne Rosenzweig is an American retired chef and restaurateur based in New York City, who was known as “the Greta Garbo of the food world.” Her restaurants included Arcadia, the Lobster Club and Inside.

Ken Friedman is a restaurateur.

Le Veau d'Or is an Upper East Side of Manhattan restaurant open since 1937 making it through oldest French bistro in NYC. Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson of Frenchette are the owners, since April 2019. Catherine Treboux was the previous owner. Her father, Robert Treboux, bought the restaurant in 1985. In 1968, Craig Claiborne of The New York Times gave the restaurant a four-star review.

References

  1. Fabricant, Florence (June 7, 2019). "The Four Seasons Is Closing, Less Than a Year After Reopening". The New York Times . Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  2. 1 2 Hung, Wendy (April 23, 2013). "Four Seasons Restaurant: Where Movers & Shakers Power Lunch". Jetset Times. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  3. "Restaurateur has 'Roberto Benigni moment'". The Free Lance–Star . June 5, 1999. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 Stevens, Matt; Mervosh, Sarah; Chow, Andrew R. (December 17, 2018). "Julian Niccolini, Face of the Four Seasons Restaurant, Is Forced to Resign". The New York Times . Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  5. Fink, Mitchell (September 2002). "The Never-Ending Power Lunch". Cigar Aficionado. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  6. Landman, Beth (April 26, 2009). "112 Minutes with the Four Seasons Co-owner Julian Niccolini". New York . Retrieved January 30, 2011.
  7. "Julian Niccolini". James Beard Foundation . Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  8. "Julian Niccolini". IMDb . Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  9. Niccolini, Julian (March 2, 2013). "Julian Niccolini". The Wall Street Journal (Interview). Interviewed by Jackie Cooperman. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  10. McKinley, James C. Jr.; Goodman, J. David (June 3, 2015). "Co-Owner of Four Seasons Restaurant Is Charged With Sexual Abuse". The New York Times . Retrieved June 3, 2015.
  11. McKinley, James C. Jr. (March 24, 2016). "Julian Niccolini, Co-Owner of Four Seasons Restaurant, Pleads Guilty to Misdemeanor Assault". The New York Times . Retrieved October 29, 2017.