Lespinasse was a fine dining establishment initially run by and primarily associated with executive chef

Gray Kunz Gray Kunz (February 24, 1955 – March 5, 2020) was a Singaporean-born Swiss restaurateur, chef, and cookbook writer based in New York. Kunz spent his early childhood in Singapore, which influenced his fusion style of cooking later in his life. H ...

(1955–2020). It was located in the

St. Regis New York The St. Regis New York is a historic luxury hotel at 2 East 55th Street, at the southeast corner with Fifth Avenue, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The hotel was originally developed by John Jacob Astor IV and was comp ...

hotel in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was celebrated for its house culinary style termed "cuisine spontanée", a variant of

nouvelle cuisine ''Nouvelle cuisine'' (; ) is an approach to cooking and food presentation in French cuisine. In contrast to cuisine classique, an older form of haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and an increased e ...

first developed by

Paul Bocuse Paul Bocuse (; 11 February 1926 – 20 January 2018) was a French chef based in Lyon who was known for the high quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine. A student of Eugénie Brazier, he was one of the most prominen ...

and

Roger Vergé Roger Vergé (, 7 April 1930 – 5 June 2015) was a French chef and restaurateur. He is considered one of the greatest chefs of his time. The Gault Millau described him as "the very incarnation of the great French chef for foreigners". Personal ...

, and noted for the amount of future star chefs who worked under the aegis of Kunz in its kitchen, including;

Andrew Carmellini Andrew Carmellini is an American chef and restaurateur. Carmellini is responsible for the food and drink at the 15 restaurants, bars and food stands he owns with his partners at NoHo Hospitality. He has received a place on ''Food & Wine''’s B ...

Floyd Cardoz Floyd Cardoz (October 2, 1960 – March 25, 2020) was an Indian-born American chef. He was born in Mumbai. He owned the New York City eatery Paowalla and was executive chef at Tabla, as well as victor on ''Top Chef Masters'' Season 3 in 2011. Hi ...

Rocco DiSpirito Rocco DiSpirito (born November 19, 1966) is an American chef and reality television personality based in New York City, known for starring in the program '' The Restaurant''. Early life and education DiSpirito was born in Queens, New York. He gr ...

, and Corey Lee. Kunz, a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

-born Swiss, directed the eatery and served up French-Asian cuisine there until 1998. The French chef Christian Delouvrier then took over culinary control of the establishment and ran its kitchen until the restaurant closed in April 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lespinasse Defunct restaurants in New York City Restaurants disestablished in 2003 2003 disestablishments in New York (state)