At Age 71, Jeremiah Tower Actively Sought Out the Job at the Troubled Tavern on the Green

Jeremiah Tower, the celebrated 71 year-old California chef who just came out of retirement in Mexico to take the helm at the struggling Tavern on the Green, talks at length to writer Andrew Friedman about taking on the job — from how he got it to what he plans to serve. As it turns out, Tower himself took the initiative to get the job as soon as he heard Katy Sparks was out. "A friend in New York heard about it," he tells Friedman, "When the vision, the possibility of the job came up, I said, 'That's the only thing that would ever get me off a Caribbean beach.' And we made contact."

He also says that he's been looking through old Tavern menus for inspiration, although he mostly wants to serve a menu similar in spirit to The Breslin: "an adventurous edge to it, but the food you want to eat every day." And for anyone wondering whether he's lost some edge: he apparently made five dishes off the cuff in just seven minutes when he was interviewing for the job.