Expect More Restaurants and Less TV in Ludo Lefebvre's Future

New York City got a taste of Ludo Lefebvre and his famous fried chicken last weekend at the Harlem EatUp! festival, when the Trois Mec chef brought his bird to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que for a night. While there, Ludo chatted it up with The Braiser, dishing on his post-James Beard Foundation Award shutout, and that Au Cheval burger he’s about to start paying homage to over at Petit Trois (beginning today at lunch, actually).

Some highlights from the frank conversation:

• Ludo doesn’t think customers care all that much about the trophies and the industry recognition. "I’m sure they’re more interested to see a burger than the James Beard Award," he says.
• Yes, L.A.’s dining scene got stiffed by the James Beard folks. "It’s true," Ludo laments. "I don’t know why the committee don’t see what’s going on in L.A."
• There might be a Ludo-focused TV show in the works some day. The French chef says that working on shows like The Taste have helped him expand his reach, but the hurry-up-and-wait aspect of filming is torturous. Instead, he’d rather simply open up more restaurants.
• Speaking of which: don’t be surprised if Ludo opens up another place sometime in 2015, just to try to catch the eye of the East Coast fooderati. "I really want to win Best New Restaurant," he says, "because it’s really something. You don’t open a lot of restaurants at a time, so I have one shot and I don’t want to miss it."

The whole interview over at The Braiser is worth a read. Ludo goes on to talk more about that Au Cheval burger, his younger kitchen mistakes, and Nigella Lawson.