After replacing Tony Esnault with Joel Dennis at Adour, Alain Ducasse now takes care of business at Benoit, demoting Sebastien Rondier to chef de cuisine and installing Le Cirque veteran Pierre Schaedelin as executive chef. According to the Times, Schaedelin, who will be a partner, plans to change about half of Benoit’s menu. It’s hard to see this luring back Platt, who didn’t do backflips over Schaedelin’s cooking at Le Cirque (“Le Cirque 2000 wasn’t an exceptional restaurant when it closed,” Platt opined in his review, “and this isn’t an exceptional restaurant either”), but it will definitely get the place some Martha Stewart appearances. Schaedelin has been Martha’s personal chef for the past couple of years.

Changes at Benoit [Diner's Journal/NYT]