Top chef Daniel Boulud to open private restaurant at luxe Fifth Avenue tower

Published

11 months ago

December 20, 2023

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Theres no need to score a reservation at one of Daniel Bouluds popular restaurants for a select group of well-heeled diners: They have brought the Michelin-starred chef to their doorstep.

Boulud whose vast empire spans from his French flagship Daniel to the recently opened Japanese speakeasy Joji will launch his first private eatery, Boulud Priv, on the 27th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Residences at 685 Fifth Ave., Side Dish can reveal exclusively.

“We’ll provide casual dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner, said Boulud, a recipient of Frances Chevalier de la Lgion d’honneur.

Boulud Privs indoor/outdoor space offers sweeping views of the city’s skyline to the 69 residences in the ultra-luxury 55-story glass tower, where a recently-sold studio fetched a record $3.88 million.

The perks will now include in-residence dining and an at-home sommelier service of curated vintages to stock the condo owners wine fridge.

“Our team can create menus from our menus. It’s like Uber Eats, but exclusively for my own offerings. I do my own Uber Eats,” Boulud quipped.

Private restaurants — often known as ‘the dining room’ — were common among a certain set of old-school Upper East Side co-ops, but they came to be de rigueur for the city’s new crop of luxury buildings, which have become like urban country clubs with no need for its “member” residents to ever leave the premises.

The trend started with 15 Central Park West and climbed to ever higher heights at buildings like 220 Central Park South and 432 Park Ave., the troubled 1,396-foot-tall skyscraper that once tried to recruit Boulud to helm its private restaurant.

At the time, I was doing other projects and couldn’t, but I presented the young chef who is still running it,” said Boulud, referring to Michelin-starred Australian Chef Shaun Hergatt.

The trick to running a private residents restaurant, Boulud said, is that “you have to be able to do dishes that change with the market, but also have simplicity.

That means a perfect spaghetti and tomato sauce and also healthy, fresh and simple options. It’s a service and convenience for residents who don’t always want to go out.”

The ingredients are the stars, he adds, from a perfect waygu steak to seasonal vegetables and burgers.

“We try to cook food you will enjoy — a tasty, simple, easy menu — not a multi-course experience like a Cafe Boulud or Le Pavillon,” he added. “We don’t run it like a restaurant but like a private dining room.”

The addition of Boulud Prive caps a stellar year for the legendary chef.

He celebrated Restaurant Daniel’s 30th anniversary, opened Blue Box Cafe by Daniel Boulud at Tiffany & Co’s flagship on Fifth Avenue and just last week reopened his iconic Cafe Boulud in a glittering new location at 100 E. 63rd St.

“It’s a new team, a new location, and a new era. It’s really nice, like a rebirth,” Boulud said.

While Cafe Boulud — named for the chef’s great grandparents’ restaurant on their farm in Lyon, France — in New York was a staple of the Upper East Side elite’s dining options, it shuttered in 2021 following a change of ownership at the Hotel Surrey.

The new Cafe Boulud, where Altamarea Group’s Vaucluse once stood, will partner with Barnes International Realty, which will open Maison Barnes at the same address next year.

The French, ‘salon style’ space will feature a bar, dining area, private dining sections, a speakeasy and a wine cellar, according to BIR’s New York director Georgette Farkas, who worked closely with Boulud for two decades.

“I am delighted to take part in bringing you this ensemble of fine dining and event experiences created by Chef Daniel Boulud and Barnes International, for a luxurious taste of l’art de vivre a la Francaise on the Upper East Side,” Farkas wrote on her LinkedIn account.

Added Boulud: “We will pair with the best brands and hold events around wine, jewelry, fashion, cars, boats, and more.”

Boulud and his hospitality company, the Dinex Group, have been on a roll since the pandemic ending, opening hotspots like Le Pavillon, where a swath of 42nd St. was shut down to truck in 10,000 pounds of black olive trees hoisted by crane into a window at One Vanderbilt, the $3.3 billion, 1,400-foot-high office tower.

He also launched Joji, the killer sushi spot hidden inside Grand Central station, Le Gratin downtown and Centurion NY.

A Mandarin Oriental Residences in Beverly Hills will also house a private Boulud restaurant. The propertys rooftop terrace lounge was recently booked for an event honoring Penelope Cruz, star of the upcoming Michael Mann film, Ferrari.

Cruzs friends Salma Hayek and Kristen Stewart hosted the gathering which included celebrities Geena Davia, Eiza Gonzalez, Patricia Arquette, and Vin Diesel.

We hear … Outdoor igloo dining — which popped up during the pandemic — remains a popular option from the city to the Hamptons. On the East End, Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa is offering chic igloo dining. On New Year’s Eve, the igloos can be rented for $250 for two-hour rentals, plus a minimum of $500 for food and beverages, with sharable plates like artisanal meats and cheeses and wild mushroom arancini — for up to six people per igloo.

Meanwhile in the city, Chelsea’s Somewhere Nowhere offers eight heated teardrop-shaped rooftop igloos for up to five guests overlooking the Empire State Building. They each come with an integrated Alexa music system, so diners can control the playlist if not the weather. Their winter cocktails include a choctail made with Woodinville bourbon, Trader Vic’s chocolate liqueur, Rumple Minze, hot chocolate, butter and marshmallows and small bites curated by executive chef Sandy Hall like wagyu beef sliders and mushroom crostini.

The igloos can be booked from Wednesday through Saturday, beginning at $85 per person. Each igloo reservation for two or more includes a bottle of champagne.

We hear Upper East Side’s Mark Hotel, at the corner of 77th and Madison, has launched The Mark Chalet by Jean-Georges Vongerichten to cure your fix for Alpine fondue. The chalet, with wood paneling, gingham and old school ski vibes, is the perfect spot for people watching over Swiss fondue, Veal Zurichoise with Sptzle, mulled wine and hot toddies. It will remain open until March 1, with Pierre Schultz as executive chef.

For a more low-key holiday affair, Stretch Pizza, at 331 Park Avenue South, offers a $24 everything bagel pizza with cream cheese, aged mozzarella, everything bagel spice and chives — along with an option to zhuzh it up with caviar for $120.24 to celebrate the holidays, washed down with a triple lux for $17 — Luxardo sour cherry gin, Luxardo bitter ross, Luxardo Aperitivo and Mamatti for Stretch’s twist on a Negroni. And yes, you can also get it delivered.

Meanwhile neon pink Instagram lovers can click away at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge, located at Moxy Times Square, which has created The Pink Winter Lodge: Neon Frost Edition for the holidays, featuring metallic pink fringe, neon walls, and pink trees, along with its iconic carousel and snaps inside a custom snow globe. Cocktails include the pink “boozy hot chocolate,” Aprs Ski, the All that Glitters cocktail and the Aprs Cookie Skillet — all under a retractable roof and city skyline views.

Business

Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use – with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

Published

26 mins ago

November 14, 2024

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Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use - with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

Consumer rights group Which? is suing Apple for £3bn over the way it deploys the iCloud.

If the lawsuit succeeds, around 40 million Apple customers in the UK could be entitled to a payout.

The lawsuit claims Apple, which controls iOS operating systems, has breached UK competition law by giving its iCloud storage preferential treatment, effectively “trapping” customers with Apple devices into using it.

It also claims the company overcharged those customers by stifling competition.

The rights group alleges Apple encouraged users to sign up to iCloud for storage of photos, videos and other data while simultaneously making it difficult to use alternative providers.

Which? says Apple doesn’t allow customers to store or back-up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider, arguing this violates competition law.

The consumer rights group says once iOS users have signed up to iCloud, they then have to pay for the service once their photos, notes, messages and other data go over the free 5GB limit.

“By bringing this claim, Which? is showing big corporations like Apple that they cannot rip off UK consumers without facing repercussions,” said Which?’s chief executive Anabel Hoult.

“Taking this legal action means we can help consumers to get the redress that they are owed, deter similar behaviour in the future and create a better, more competitive market.”

Apple ‘rejects’ claims and will defend itself

Apple “rejects” the idea its customers are tied to using iCloud and told Sky News it would “vigorously” defend itself.

“Apple believes in providing our customers with choices,” a spokesperson said.

“Our users are not required to use iCloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage. In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible – whether it’s to iCloud or another service.

“We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anti-competitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise.”

It also said nearly half of its customers don’t use iCloud and its pricing is inline with other cloud storage providers.

How much could UK Apple customers receive if lawsuit succeeds?

The lawsuit will represent all UK Apple customers that have used iCloud services since 1 October 2015 – any that don’t want to be included will need to opt out.

However, if consumers live abroad but are otherwise eligible – for example because they lived in UK and used the iCloud but then moved away – they can also opt in.

The consumer rights group estimates that individual consumers could be owed an average of £70, depending on how long they have been paying for the services during that period.

Apple is facing a similar lawsuit in the US, where the US Department of Justice is accusing the company of locking down its iPhone ecosystem to build a monopoly.

Apple said the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the law” and that it will vigorously defend against it.

Big tech’s battles

This is the latest in a line of challenges big tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung have faced around anti-competitive practices.

Most notably, a landmark case in the US earlier this year saw a judge rule that Google holds an illegal monopoly over the internet search market.

The company is now facing a second antitrust lawsuit, and may be forced to break up parts of its business.

And in December last year, a judge declared Google’s Android app store a monopoly in a case brought by a private gaming company.

“Now that five companies control the whole of the internet economy, there’s a real need for people to fight back and to really put pressure on the government,” William Fitzgerald, from tech campaigning organisation The Worker Agency, told Sky News.

“That’s why we have governments; to hold corporations accountable, to actually enforce laws.”

World

‘He was the light of my life and I lost him’: How a famous surgeon died in an Israeli prison after being taken from Gaza hospital

Published

27 mins ago

November 14, 2024

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'He was the light of my life and I lost him': How a famous surgeon died in an Israeli prison after being taken from Gaza hospital

As a famous orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh spent much of his career fixing broken limbs and broken bodies at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital.

One of the best-trained doctors in the enclave, a photo showing him covered in blood in Al-Shifa’s operating theatre went viral in 2018.

When war broke out last October, he worked around the clock. Pictures stored on his mobile phone show him standing in a hole, swinging a blunt-edged shovel as the hospital descended into crisis.

It had run out of fuel, food and basic pain relief and there was no more space to store dead bodies. Dressed in hospital scrubs, Dr Al-Bursh and his colleagues dug mass graves as the sound of explosions rang out behind the hospital’s walls.

Soon after the outbreak of the conflict, the surgeon, along with his wife Yasmin, realised that their world had changed forever.

“Adnan was needed every time there was a war,” she recalled. “So, I told him, ‘get ready, there will be lots of operations, they will need your help’. He went to hospital to receive the injured and stayed for 24 hours. He did not stop.”

Dr Al-Bursh spent his days in the operating room and slept in the staff room at night.

He also kept a diary of sorts with his mobile phone, documenting the increasingly desperate scenes unfolding around him.

“Despite the pain, we are steadfast,” he said as he filmed the scene in a crowded operating theatre.

Israel said the foundations of Al-Shifa were laced with tunnels where Hamas operated a ‘command-and-control centre’, something Hamas denies.

As Israeli troops advanced towards the facility, Dr Al-Bursh captured the mood inside. Another video found on his mobile phone shows a colleague in the staffroom recalling a painful conversation with his wife.

“I remember that she only asked one thing of me, what do you think it was? That request was ‘just let me see you smile’.

“Smile. It’s the first thing I want to do after this war, if God saves us.”

By mid-November, Al-Shifa was under siege by Israeli troops.

A week later, patients, staff and some 50,000 displaced residents sheltering in the compound were ordered to evacuate.

Dr Al-Bursh captured the scene of long columns of people walking towards southern Gaza.

But the surgeon did not follow them. Instead, he went northeast to another facility – the Indonesian Hospital – still operating in northern Gaza. What he found on his arrival horrified him.

“I was shocked by the size of the catastrophe here,” he said in a video. “There are injured people who have been waiting for their operations for more than ten days. [Their] wounds were severely infected.”

On 20 November 2023, the Indonesian Hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks and later that evening, projectiles were fired into the second floor. At least 12 people were killed.

Dr Al-Bursh survived with minor scrapes but the front entrance of the facility was torn apart. “The destruction is everywhere,” he said in another video.

A spokesman for the IDF denied that Israeli forces were responsible.

By early December 2023, Dr Al-Bursh had moved to a small hospital, also in the north, called Al-Awda.

A series of pictures, posted on the hospital’s social media page, show him examining patients with fatigue etched on his face.

These are the last known images taken of the surgeon.

The Israeli military surrounded the hospital on 5 December, and the staff were worried about what the soldiers would do.

Dr Al-Bursh worked at Al-Awda alongside a friend and colleague, Dr Mohammad Obeid.

Eventually, the hospital’s director told them that they would have to leave the building.

“[The director] told us that the [Israeli army] have full data of all males aged between 14 and 65 at Awda hospital,” Dr Obeid said, tearfully. “They told him that if all men do not come down… they will destroy the Awda Hospital with all the women and children in it.”

We put this allegation to the IDF but they did not respond.

The men filed out of the hospital and five, including Dr Al-Bursh, were taken away.

“A soldier came up to us and called out Dr Adnan’s name, who was sitting next to me… I felt he was in a very difficult situation. The occupation soldier took him and the treatment was very rough.”

In a brief statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed to Sky News that Dr Al-Bursh was detained by its personnel. On 19 December 2023, it says the surgeon was taken to an Israeli military base called Sde Teiman, which has been used for processing detainees since the early part of the war.

Allegations of physical, mental and sexual abuse are rife. A former camp inmate, Dr Khalid Hamouda, believes many of the prisoners at Sde Teiman were medical professionals.

“In the camp where I was, there were about 100 prisoners. I think at least a quarter of them were involved in healthcare. Some of them were doctors, nurses and technicians.”

Dr Hamouda was put to work by the guards at the base as their helper or ‘shawish’, and remembers being told to fetch Dr Al-Bursh at the gate. When he collected him, his fellow doctor said he had been badly beaten and felt pain all over his body.

“He thought he may have broken ribs,” Dr Hamouda said. “He was unable to even go to the toilet alone.”

The IDF told Sky News that after Dr Al-Bursh was processed, he left Sde Teiman on 20 December and became the “responsibility” of the Israeli Prison Service.

In April, the surgeon was taken to an incarceration facility near Jerusalem called Ofer Prison.

He died shortly after his arrival. News of the surgeon’s death was announced in a statement from two Palestinian prisoner support associations at the beginning of May. The Israelis offered no explanation or cause of death.

Sky News has spoken to people who claim to have witnessed the moments before Dr Al-Bursh’s death.

A prisoner, who says he previously knew Dr Al-Bursh in Gaza, provided details in a deposition to lawyers from the Israeli human rights organisation HaMoked.

“In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body.

“The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh (was dead).”

While some people might suggest that Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was a terrorist, Daqqa said: “If you want to formally answer this question, he was not charged until now. And many of these detainees are not charged from Gaza.”

In a statement to Sky News, a spokesman for the Israel Prison Service said: “IPS is a law enforcement organisation that operates according to the provisions of the law and under the supervision of the state comptroller and many other official critiques.

“All prisoners are detained according to the law. All basic rights required are fully applied by professionally trained prison guards.

“We are not aware of the claims you described and as far as we know, no such events have occurred under IPS responsibility. Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”

Sky News was told by colleagues and Dr Al-Bursh’s wife Yasmin that he was in good physical condition before his arrest.

“He was the light of my life and I lost him,” Yasmin said.

Dr Al-Bursh was prepared to risk his life to save others. This story is one of a countless number, now buried under the immovable weight of Gaza’s recent past.

But Dr Al-Bursh lived and lost his life in a manner that demands acknowledgement, his friends and family members say.

World

Ukrainian frontline commander warns: ‘The world is scared of Russia and losing is not only our problem’

Published

27 mins ago

November 14, 2024

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Ukrainian frontline commander warns: 'The world is scared of Russia and losing is not only our problem'

In the courtyard of a farmhouse now home to soldiers of the Ukrainian army’s 47th mechanised brigade, I’m introduced to a weary-looking unit by their commander Captain Oleksandr “Sasha” Shyrshyn.

We are about 10km from the border with Russia, and beyond it lies the Kursk region Ukraine invaded in the summer – and where this battalion is now fighting.

The 47th is a crack fighting assault unit.

They’ve been brought to this area from the fierce battles in the country’s eastern Donbas region to bolster Ukrainian forces already here.

War latest: Russia ready to carry out ‘massive attack’

Captain Shyrshyn explains that among the many shortages the military has to deal with, the lack of infantry is becoming a critical problem.

Sasha is just 30 years old, but he is worldly-wise. He used to run an organisation helping children in the country’s east before donning his uniform and going to war.

He is famous in Ukraine and is regarded as one of the country’s top field commanders, who isn’t afraid to express his views on the war and how it’s being waged.

His nom de guerre is ‘Genius’, a nickname given to him by his men.

‘Don’t worry, it’s not a minefield’

Sasha invited me to see one of the American Bradley fighting vehicles his unit uses.

We walk down a muddy lane before he says it’s best to go cross-country.

“We can go that way, don’t worry it’s not a minefield,” he jokes.

He leads us across a muddy field and into a forest where the vehicle is hidden from Russian surveillance drones that try to hunt both American vehicles and commanders.

Sasha shows me a picture of the house they had been staying in only days before – it was now completely destroyed after a missile strike.

Fortunately, neither he, nor any of his men, were there at the time.

“They target commanders,” he says with a smirk.

‘The world is scared of Russia’

It takes me a moment or two to realise we are only a few steps away from the Bradley, dug in and well hidden beneath the trees.

Sasha tells me the Bradley is the finest vehicle he has ever used.

A vehicle so good, he says, it’s keeping the Ukrainian army going in the face of Russia’s overwhelming numbers of soldiers.

He explains: “Almost all our work on the battlefield is cooperation infantry with the Bradley. So we use it for evacuations, for moving people from one place to another, as well as for fire-covering.

“This vehicle is very safe and has very good characteristics.”

Billions of dollars in military aid has been given to Ukraine by the United States, and this vehicle is one of the most valuable assets the US has provided.

Ukraine is running low on men to fight, and the weaponry it has is not enough, especially if it can’t fire long-range missiles into Russia itself – which it is currently not allowed to do.

If President-elect Donald Trump cuts the supply of military aid, the Ukrainians will lose – it’s that simple.

Sasha says: “We have a lack of weapons, we have a lack of artillery, we have a lack of infantry, and as the world doesn’t care about justice, and they don’t want to finish the war by our win, they are afraid of Russia.

“I’m sorry but they’re scared, they’re scared, and it’s not the right way.”

Like pretty much everyone in Ukraine, Sasha is waiting to see what the US election result will mean for his country.

He is sceptical about a deal with Russia.

“Our enemy only understands the language of power. And you cannot finish the war in 24 hours, or during the year without hard decisions, without a fight, so it’s impossible. It’s just talking without results,” he tells me.

‘Losing will be not only our problem’

These men expect the fierce battles inside Kursk to intensify in the coming days.

Indeed, alongside the main supply route into Kursk, workers are already building new defensive positions – unfurling miles of razor wire and digging bunkers for the Ukrainian army if it finds itself in retreat.

Sasha and his men are realistic about support fatigue from the outside world but will keep fighting to the last if they have to.

“I understand this is only our problem, it’s only our issue, and we have to fight this battle, like we have to defend ourselves, it’s our responsibility,” Sasha said.

But he points out everyone should realise just how critical this moment in time is.

“If we look at it widely, we have to understand that us losing will be not only our problem, but it will be for all the world.”

Stuart Ramsay reports from northeastern Ukraine with camera operator Toby Nash, and producers Dominique Van Heerden, Azad Safarov, and Nick Davenport.