(Bloomberg) -- As return-to-office numbers hit almost 80% of pre-pandemic levels, lunch options in midtown New York keep proliferating—whether it’s the standard $17 takeout salad or a $34 Gruyère cheeseburger at the splashy new Four Twenty Five.
Now there’s yet another recourse for white-collar workers who want to escape pedestrian meals during the day, not to mention uninspired event dinners at night.
One of New York’s preeminent cooks, Daniel Boulud, has jumped into the high-volume corporate catering business. This week he’s launching Cuisine Boulud New York. It’s the latest in the chef’s empire that includes the two-Michelin-star Restaurant Daniel and the recently reopened Café Boulud; he also runs the kitchen at the AmEx Black Card dining room, Centurion New York.
This new partnership will be with LifeWorks Restaurant Group, a division of the food service behemoth Aramark.
“Across our portfolio, corporate tenants are back in the office in a big way with expectations for entertaining both clients and employees,” says Marc Holliday, chairman and chief executive officer of SL Green Realty Corp. His properties include the new luxury tower One Madison, where Cuisine Boulud is based. “Top companies expect the same Michelin-quality food they’re used to when they go out to eat socially, and chef Boulud’s ability to provide that in a corporate setting is rare and very much in demand.”
Holliday noted the popularity of operations in another SL Green property, One Vanderbilt, where Boulud operates the scenic Le Pavillon restaurant and the Vandy Club, the midtown building’s tenant-only amenity space. “At One Vanderbilt, the elevated amenity spaces that Daniel Boulud serves are booked for tenant events daily,” Holliday says. “There’s no question that this culinary offering was a big selling point for the building, which is fully leased.”
Boulud is a veteran caterer. For 25 years he’s run the boutique operation Feast & Fêtes from Restaurant Daniel’s kitchen, dishing out food for American Express, FIFA, LVMH and other clients. He’s also done occasional blockbuster events from Time’s 75th anniversary at Radio City Music Hall in 1998, for which he ordered 150 copper pots to create authentic versions of lamb Champvallon, to a 2023 wedding at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild for 150 people, on the French Riviera.
“We have always had aspirations to take on large events,” Boulud says. “They are so integral to our clients’ lives and are a quintessential element of New York City. In the past we have had to turn down events because we just didn’t have the right space and staff to make them all happen.”
Cuisine Boulud has one of the city’s fancier addresses, and not only for a catering company: It’s a 12,000-square-foot kitchen space at One Madison. Attached to it is Le Jardin sur Madison, a 6,200-square-foot event space designed by architect David Rockwell, and a 5,000-square-foot rooftop garden.
The prices for a Cuisine Boulud meal will start at $30 per person for a breakfast meal that could include freshly baked croissants and scones, seasonal fruit, and chia seeds with oats and coconut. They can go as high as $1,000 per person for a fine dining-style gala with customized menus, wine pairings, a parade of caviar and truffles, and options such as raw bars and Ibérico ham carving stations.
Boulud’s business partner Sebastien Silvestri, CEO of the Dinex Group, says the focus right now is on a successful opening in metro New York, but they’re also eyeing Cuisine Boulud outposts in South Florida and Los Angeles.
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