» Per Se’s Chef to Become Executive Chef of Lincoln Center’s New Restaurant

Per Se’s Chef to Become Executive Chef of Lincoln Center’s New Restaurant

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Jonathan Benno, courtesy of The New York Times

Lincoln Center sent out a press release announcing the executive chef of its upcoming destination restaurant, scheduled to open fall 2010, and it looks like his commute to work won’t change much. Jonathan Benno, the chef de cuisine at Per Se (Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle) since its opening in 2004, will take the executive chef position of the yet-to-be-named restaurant in the plaza of Lincoln Center. The upcoming restaurant will feature a glass-enclosed dining space, a “unique sloping grass atop the dining facility,” entrances on 65th and the plaza level, and both indoor and outdoor dining. Jonathan Benno has worked under Per Se’s executive chef Thomas Keller for nine years on and off, garnering recognition by Food & Wine as one of the 10 “Best New Chefs” in 2006. The New York Times spoke to Benno about the upcoming change, who said, “To this point, being the chef de cuisine at Per Se has been the greatest honor of my career, but I’m the chef de cuisine in Thomas’s restaurant. I feel very strongly about the style of the restaurant and the cuisine that I want to work at, and Lincoln Center will allow me to direct the cuisine and manage it. I know I have a lot of control at Per Se but it’s not quite the same.” Benno is leaving with Keller’s blessing, and will remain at Per Se until the new restaurant opens.