Christophe Bellanca IN, Chris Lee OUT at Aureole

Reps for the restaurant announce that chef Chris Lee, the chef at Charlie Palmer's Aureole for the past two years and the consulting chef at a bevy of other operations including Eden in Miami, Orange County Choppers Roadhouse, and Las Chicas Locas in Chelsea, is leaving the restaurant at the end of the year. The chef manned the stoves during the restaurant's relocation from the Upper East Side to the Bank of America building near Bryant Park last summer and won it one star from Sam Sifton.

The news seems sudden but will come as no surprise from those who have heard rumors of his departure for the last year or so and have followed his growing list of projects.

Christophe Bellanca, the chef who earned three stars for Le Cirque but was supposedly pushed out in 2008, will take Lee's place. Most recently he has worked at the BLT Restaurant Group.
· All Coverage of Aureole [~ENY~]
· All Coverage of Chef Chris Lee [~ENY~]