Michael White and Chris Cannon Officially Announce Divorce

As the restaurant world has known for months, restaurateurs Chris Cannon and Michael White are splitting up their years-long partnership and dividing up their restaurant empire. Today, they announce via a press release that it is official. As speculated back in November, Cannon will take Convivio and Alto, and White and his partner and main backer Ahmass Fakahany will keep Marea, Ai Fiori, and Osteria Morini. Chef White will also take Alto's chef de cuisine Gordon Finn and Convivio's Matt Adler with him, while the group's pastry chef Heather Bertinetti remains with Cannon.

The official release is below:

Altamarea Group announced today a change in its partnership arrangement. By mutual decision, Altamarea Group and its owners, Chief Executive Officer Ahmass Fakahany and Partner Chef Michael White, have ended their partnership with restaurateur Chris Cannon.

As part of this agreement effective January 1, 2011, the restaurants Alto and Convivio are no longer associated with Altamarea Group. Cannon will continue to own and operate these restaurants independently and will name new chefs for Alto and Convivio in the early part of this year.

Altamarea Group will continue to own and operate Marea, Osteria Morini, the recently opened Ai Fiori at The Setai Fifth Avenue (400 Fifth Avenue) and Due Terre and Due Mari in New Jersey. All future ventures under the Altamarea Group name will be operated by the partnership of Fakahany and White, including Altamarea Group’s first international project due to open in late Spring 2011 on the Hong Kong harbor. In addition, chef de cuisine Gordon Finn of Alto, and chef de cuisine Matt Adler of Convivio, will be joining Chef White and Altamarea Group in the early part of this year.