Chef Mark Ladner Leaves Stephen Starr’s Babbo Revamp

Source link : https://big-apple.news/2026/09/18/new-york-news/chef-mark-ladner-leaves-stephen-starrs-babbo-revamp/

Lander, who adopted a big toque for his Babbo period.
Photograph: Colin Clark/The New York Occasions/Redux

Lower than a yr after Stephen Starr reopened Babbo with Mark Ladner working the kitchen, the chef has left, in response to sources contained in the restaurant. Ladner’s involvement was thought of a serious coup for Starr when the phrase broke final yr that he had bought Babbo and its sister restaurant, Lupa, from former homeowners Joe and Lidia Bastianich. The chef had earned 4 stars from the New York Occasions and two Michelin stars throughout his tenure as chef of Del Posto and had beforehand labored below Mario Batali within the Babbo kitchen, earlier than Batali’s downfall. Ladner’s intimate information of Babbo’s sophisticated historical past appeared to uniquely place him to usher the restaurant into this new chapter, carrying on its culinary legacy with out Batali’s baggage.

“With a expertise like Mark, I’m simply letting him go,” Starr stated final summer time forward of the restaurant’s reopening. “I’m giving him the keys and saying, ‘Simply do it.’” The preliminary plan was for Ladner to supervise culinary operations at each Babbo and Lupa, however, inside a number of months of Babbo’s official reopening, the Lupa house hit the real-estate market. The transfer led to hypothesis that Starr’s enthusiasm for the undertaking had waned, and Lupa stays closed.

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Author : big-apple

Publish date : 2026-09-18 05:34:00

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