- doctored image courtesy of City Food
Today over at City Food, blogger Rhonda May mentions the worst kept secret in the Vancouver restaurant industry, namely that Rob Feenie and his bankrollers at Lumiere (David and Manjy Sidoo) are not exactly the biggest of buddies. Yup. Over the last several months, the three of them have combined for an unrelenting PR disaster with gossip trumping truth no matter who you hear it from…
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To wit, just last month, CBC News called asking me to comment on a story they were about to “break” about Rob Feenie being fired. A quick phone call to the restaurant nixed that, with Feenie himself calling bullshit. And then last week I got a call from a very well placed source saying he is indeed on his way out and that Dale MacKay from Gordon Ramsay’s joint in NYC had replaced him as executive chef with an announcement forthcoming in November. Rob Feenie and David Sidoo both assured me this was not the case, adding that MacKay was just there to replace the chef de cuisine, Marc-Andre Choquette (who left in the Spring for the still unfinished Voya). Sigh. I phoned my source with their denials, and the response was something to the effect of “It’s true. Wait until November.” As the world turns, et cetera…barf.
I’m with Rhonda May. Feenie should get the hell out of this clusterfuck if he can. I hear the contract he signed was notarised by Lucifer, but somewhere, somehow, the right lawyer(s) would find a way:
We’d like to see Rob Feenie walk away from the twelve course tasting menus, the Relais & Chateau, the set of expectations about Iron Chefs, the million dollar kitchen, the Van Mag Restaurant of the Year thing, and all those other heavy crosses and find himself a fun and funky little diner somewhere. Someplace on the route to the Okanagan and near a golf course, where he could chill out, get mellow and make his feenie weenies, his special sandwiches and all the things he really loves to cook. We can just see the sportcars piling up in the parking lot on a summer Friday night now.
Damn straight. Either that or hire a PR person, for chrissakes…Jesus.
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