Think You Can Guess The Next Chef At Talula’s Garden?

Photo courtesy Danya Henninger

Yesterday, we posted an update on the revolving-chef action at Talula’s Garden, with a quote from corporate overlord Stephen Starr claiming that there’d be a new white jacket bossing the line “in five days.”

This, of course, began the speculation about who he and partner Aimee Olexy had in mind for the suicide mission honor of being the restaurant’s third exec in four months. People were searching Foobooz’s roster of Sideline Chefs for likely replacements. And here at the home office, we killed a good part of our afternoon proposing various possibilities and conspiracy theories for who would step into the vacancy in Olexy’s kitchen.

At some point, it occurred to us that if we were having so much fun trying to read the minds of Starr and Olexy, you folks might also enjoy the challenge. You might be able to think of some potential replacements that we couldn’t. Hell, you might even know something that we hadn’t yet heard. So we decided to turn it into a game. And yes, there will be prizes.

So here’s how we’re going to play…

In the comments section, name the chef that you think Starr and Olexy are going to choose as the new executive chef at Talula’s Garden. Use whatever foul means, dirty tricks and insider information you have at your disposal to come up with your choice, then show your work–explain why your pony is the one that’s going to cross the finish line first.

For example, if I were to ignore all personal history, gossip and the fact that he currently has a job running another big time Rittenhouse Square restaurant (A.Kitchen), I might say that Bryan Sikora is going to be the next exec at Talula’s. My reasoning? He worked at Django, one of the hottest restaurants of its age. He opened Talula’s Table with (then wife) Aimee Olexy, so understands the heart of the inspiration behind Talula’s Garden better than anyone. Also, he has a habit of walking away from successful kitchens (see: Django, Talula’s Table, SoDel Concepts, the Cosmopolitan), which has just got to be one of the personality traits that Starr and Olexy are subconsciously picking up on these days.

So that’s it. Pick your chef, show your work and explain your reasoning. Answers go below. And if one of you actually do end up picking the chef that’ll be running the kitchen at Talula’s come Monday, you will be crowned King of Foobooz (a meaningless title, but it does give you an excuse to wear a crown around if you want) and win a very cool, very expensive prize (which we can not yet reveal).

Ready? Let the games begin…