Heston Blumenthal Scraps Plans to Open Dinner in NYC

Although famous British chef Heston Blumenthal hinted at plans for a New York restaurant earlier this year, now it sounds like the chef has given up on his dreams of opening in Manhattan. Last fall, the editor of Food and Travel floated the rumor that Blumenthal was planning to open a restaurant in one of Mandarin Oriental's U.S. hotels. Then in May, Blumenthal said he was keen on bringing his hit restaurant Dinner to New York. But now the chef tells Bloomberg:

Our original plan was to open a second one three years later...We've been looking but we certainly won't be able to do one in the next year. New York would have been great. The Mandarin is a fantastic hotel but we couldn't make it work because of the unions. Alain Ducasse has tried, Joel Robuchon has too.

The original location of Dinner is housed in the Mandarin Oriental London, and it's currently ranked at number seven on S. Pellegrino's prestigious World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Right now, the chef is promoting his new book Historic Heston.
· Blumenthal Picks Top Food Cities as He Looks to Grow [Bloomberg]
All Coverage of Heston Blumental on Eater National [~EN~]
[Photo: Food Arts/Eater National]