I say this with love. Jean-Georges Vongerichten is such a glutton. What does this celebrated, evidently insatiable chef talk about when we were having lunch? What and where he’s going to eat dinner? Jean-Georges now has 60, yes, 60 restaurants in such disparate locales as Bora Bora, Shanghai, Qatar, Sao Paulo, Dublin, and next year he’s planning on opening at least half a dozen more. He is 68 years old, and as far as he is concerned, “I think I’m just getting started.”
Many high-profile chefs now spend as much time on the Food Network or TikTok as they do in their own kitchens, not this guy. Remember the commotion Tom Brady generated when he cloned his dog? Well, someone may have done him one better. Last year, in just two weeks, I dined at Nougatine, JoJo, Perry Street, abc Kitchen, and The Inn at Pound Ridge, and guess who came out of the kitchen to say “Hi?” Is Jean-Georges the first cloned human?
His enthusiasm, devotion, curiosity, skill, and versatility is so formidable and so effusive that there is no way his son Cedric would not follow his lead, no matter how much his dad tried to dissuade him from such a grueling profession. The younger Vongerichten is now 45, and he already has 10 restaurants to his name.
Cedric admits, I think it’s going to take me a while to catch up to dad. However, dad thinks “He is doing just fine. He may catch up to me…if I ever slow down.”