Formerly executive chef at the decadent GILT restaurant, chef Christopher Lee recently re-opened Charlie Palmer’s legendary at its new location in the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park (that’s him in the photo above at right, Palmer smiling paternally at left). The Top Chef Masters competitor talks about manning the kitchen as executive chef at Aureole, his modest perspectives, and having a green thumb. Aureole will beoffering a 15% discount on all menus until the grand opening benefit gala for Citymeals-on-Wheels on September 15.

Laurent Tourondel has passed a gastronomically reputable torch to Chef Ed Cotton to run BLT Market, Tourondel’s kitchen of the Upper West Side’s Ritz-Carlton-based restaurant. A fresh blend of market-inspired delights is what this Boston-bred chef brings to the table. After years creating delectable dishes at Daniel and Veritas, as well as working the ovens of the lightening fast-paced Kitchen Stadium on Iron Chef America, Chef Ed’s dishes brings new meaning to your average food shopping at the market.

For a taste of what many have named New York City’s best barbecue, you must venture up to 131st Street in Harlem, take a gander under the Riverside Drive Bridge, and viola, Dinosaur BBQ. John Stage, the owner of the original Syracuse roadhouse and its satellite locations (Rochester, Harlem), sat us down at the roundtable, gave us a tour of the slow-roasting barbecue pits, and explained the art of making beautiful meat.

How did Dinosaur BBQ come into being?
I started Dinosaur BBQ in 1983 as a mobile concession business, doing biker events, fairs, festivals. I was a gypsy BBQ guy for five years. I ended up in Syracuse and opened up my first Dinosaur location in 1988, opened up my second one in Rochester in 1998, and my son went to college around 2004 so I decided to move back to New York. That’s when I opened up Dinosaur here.

If you’ve ever visited New York Italian restaurant powerhouse Da Silvano, you’ve probably rubbed elbows and shared a laugh with manager Alessandro Bandini. The gregarious Florentine has put in his time in kitchens and dining rooms at Italian restos around the world, and he’s recently invested his wealth of knowledge in new project Scuderia. Situated across the street from Bar Pitti and Da Silvano on Sixth Avenue, the modern, fresh trattoria serves delectable Italian comfort food in an open, casual environment. We met with Bandini at the new spot and chatted about the menu’s influences, why women love Italian, and the legendary Da Silvano/Bar Pitti feud. 

Like a West Coast subcontinental Le Cirque, Beverly Hills’ most legendary Indian restaurant, Gaylord, has shuttered its doors, only to pass the keys to the temple down to its cooler progeny. The result is Tanzore, Los Angeles’ most stylish paean to Bollywood chic and gourmet curried eats. The menu samples and mixes classic Indian flavors like a culinary Talvin Singh, blending with international styles and techniques to reinvent the concept of Indian plates. Nikki Sood, mastermind behind Tanzore’s gorgeous design and reinvention, waxes on the struggle to stake a claim in the LA food game, the courage to try something new, getting your eyebrows threaded and your hair did in Artesia, and the happiness (and sadness) of living life like a Hindi movie.

She’s been on the cover of countless fashion magazines, once inspired a novel by her ex-husband Salman Rushdie, and (with a little help from Tom Colicchio) has propelled Top Chef into smash-hit status since becoming the show’s fiery host in 2006. Now, add jewelry designer and ground beef paramour to Padma Lakshmi’s growing resume. Her jewelry line debuts at Bergdorf’s today, and she’ll make an in-store appearance on May 8; here, the culinary bombshell discusses sex, burgers, and why she’d rather go naked.

A recent article suggested that you had dreams to build an empire. Is that the goal?
If someone else wants to call it an empire, that’s their business. I think only kings and queens have empires. But I’m lucky to have a new jewelry line. It’s a real labor of love, not at all a licensing deal. I’ve put all of my own money into it.

Henry Kallan and Jozef Juck will open their new restaurant Montenapo in New York on Wednesday, May 13th. Located in the the New York Times building in a space just next to the 41st Street entrance, the upscale resto will serve Italian cuisine, with a full bar and a menu built around organic ingredients. The partners have a long history together, as both immigrated from Slovakia and entered the hospitality industry stateside. Kallan is a hotel mogul (he’s president and owner of HKHotels), while Juck is the manager of Italian powerhouse restaurant BiCE. The pair—who interact like long-time friends or brothers—gave us a peek into the new joint.

What difficulties have you seen opening a restaurant in this economic climate?
Henry Kallan: It’s always tough to build something in New York from a construction point of view. And now, surprisingly, building the restaurant, it wasn’t any less expensive than it would be in good times when everyone is really busy. That was an issue. We spent a lot of money, but it was self-inflicted in many ways because we always build the best, quality-wise. And because of that, it’s an occupational hazard that I can only build the best. Sometimes we say there is first-class and there is no class, and nothing in between. Oscar Wilde said, “I have very simple taste, but I only like the best.” So, that’s our approach, and I think you can see what we build in the kitchen, in the dining room, around the bar—you can recognize that we spend a lot of money.

On first appearance, the name could be braggadocio. It’s a restaurant that appears to be by no means extraordinary. It’s ostensibly, at most, just another trendy Mexican joint attended to by Manhattan’s social pariahs, following a line of them: La Esquina, Dos Caminos, Rosa Mexicana, et al. But, the thing is, La Superior is far more than that. If God is in the details, the braintrust behind this small, inconspicuous culinary destination are True Believers. 

Marc Forgione, chef and owner of TriBeCa restaurant Marc Forgione, is up and running again after averting a costly trademark infringement lawsuit (his restaurant was once called Forge, as is another dining establishment in Miami Beach). He spoke with BlackBook about his celebrity chef father, Navajo rites of passage, his death row meal, the irresistible nature of suckling pigs, and REM’s nuanced palate.

Who have you cooked for lately?
One of our regular customers is D.L. Hughley, the comedian. He’s a lot fun to be around and always says, “Yo, whassup chef? This is my fave restaurant, man—put the suckling pig back on or I’ll kill you.” And Michael Stipe came in last week. It really made me feel old when half my cooks didn’t know who he was. You could tell that he likes food. He was sniffing his wine and then quaffing his dish before eating.

As the ethereal vocalist for the Cardigans, Nina Persson made a generation swoon. Now the lovely Swede calls Harlem, New York, her adopted home, following her marriage to American composer Nathan Larson (once of Shudder to Think). Nina and Nathan are also wed creatively, as singer and co-producer of A Camp; their new record, Colonia, is an enthralling amalgam of wistful, dreamy and gorgeously plaintive pop with lyrics that float between the stingingly sardonic (“Let’s raise our glasses to murderous asses”) and the heartbreakingly world-weary (“It’s not easy to be human anymore”). Here, Persson gives BlackBook a tour of her favorite hotspots and hardware stores.