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Such warnings are best appreciated by those who have come, cooked and failed. Among them is Parisian Chef-Owner Guy Savoy, who left his restaurant in Greenwich, Conn., only a year after it opened. And Roger Verge, who maintains a three-star rating in his exquisite Provence celebrity haunt, Moulin de Mougins, flunked out after 15 months in San Francisco. He claims insufficient support from backers. He is now content to work with Paul Bocuse and Gaston LeNotre as consultants to the French restaurants in Florida's Epcot Center.
Such failures are unlikely to dampen the enthusiasms of other chefs and operators who hunger for a piece of the American pie. But there is no guarantee of success. Lured by the illustrious reputations of famous European cooks and owners, Americans will go and taste for themselves. It remains to be seen whether they will decide that Le Bernardin offers seafood dishes better than those prepared at the well-entrenched great French restaurants of New York, or that either Palio's or Cipriani's risotto surpasses those gentled in the kitchens of at least half a dozen other top-flight Italian restaurants. Then too, chefs who maintain European interests may find that without their constant presence, Michelin stars will vanish, along with a disaffected clientele. It is a risk most of these ambitious adventurers seem perfectly willing to take.