We’re hearing that Didier Elena, the Monaco-born chef who helped open Alain Ducasse at the Essex House in 2000 as chef de cuisine, will come back to the nest to replace Adour chef Joel Dennis (Dennis himself replaced Tony Esnault in November of 2008). Before he ran the kitchen at Essex House, Elena had been with Ducasse since 1988. He left in 2004 to become executive chef at Cheateau Les Crayeres in Rheims (where he succeeded in winning back a Michelin star it lost after chef Gérard Boyer and his wife Elyane retired) and went from there to the controversially two-starred La Chèvre d’Or. Meanwhile, Adour lost one of its two Michelin stars under Dennis’s watch last year. As of now, these are just rumblings — we haven’t yet received a confirmation or denial from Adour, but will let you know what they tell us.
