Inside Daniel Boulud's Culinary Empire

  Over the past few decades, French cuisine in New York City has suffered mightily. Restaurants like La Côte Basque, Lespinasse, and Lutèce, once viewed as the pinnacles of fine dining, closed down as diners not only found themselves more entranced by Italian, Mexican, Thai, and Chinese but also abandoned the very premise of fine dining — the dress codes (explicit or implied), the rituals, the judgment (explicit or implied). Burgers, ramen, and tacos have mostly taken