Drum roll, please

I've paced a hole in my office cubby, reddened my ear from checking the phone's dial tone. Finally, the news I've been awaiting.

Bern's has hired a new chef.

Kinda, sorta.

After Jeannie Pierola's departure in early November, Bern’s owner David Laxer has decided to promote from within. Former sous chefs Andy Minney and Habteab Hamde will share the title of chefs de cuisine at Bern's, while at SideBern's Chad Johnson moves into the role of executive chef and Courtney Orwig has been promoted to chef de cuisine.

This apparently is something of a trend, following on the heels of the Vinoy's recent decision to do the same thing. Time will tell if this is a good move (the move being: replace the big cheeses with the big salaries with smaller cheeses who already know their way around the menu, kitchen and management). I worry that this tendency doesn't draw new talent from other urban centers, nor does it necessarily bring fresh ideas, techniques or trends to the Tampa Bay area. Chefs tend to be fairly transient--something that must be rough for their spouses but means the dining public benefits from a fluidity and cross-pollination of new concepts and innovations.

Comments

[Jimbo]

A totally legitimate worry, Laura. This is a restaurant on the DECLINE that is promoting from within. Not at all comforting. And the fact that it is replicating from other Bay area restaurants means that we are not ready to join third tier cities in dining quality.

[LS]

Just had a vary nice dinner there for our holiday celebration. Thought the food was exceptional, as always. Even the newer items were good. However, Berns needs to bring cherries jubilee back to the dessert room. It was one of our favorites and they are no longer serving it :(

[Gary J.]

Gosh, I wish the fact they omitted cherries jubillee from the dessert menu was their only problem. Wow!!!

[Hank]

I would be interested in learning what the chef's have to say regarding their new roles and specifically, what they plan on doing to propel their restaurants forward. I.e. what trends and direction are they going to embrace and what points of difference we can look forward to.

Also curious to learn who/what their influences are and maybe a bit more about their résumé’s.