Swap on Map

To follow the track is almost impossible! It is 37 chefs at 37 restaurants from around the world, plus the 37 ambassadors in each restaurant, not to mention the kitchen teams and families of all chefs affected by the greatest, crazy game ever, namely "The Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle," an experience of a lifetime. 

On July 9, 37 of the greatest chefs in the world traded their places with each other to cook an eight-course dinner in an alien kitchen, with a completely foreign staff, attempting to adapt their cuisine using the most unfamiliar ingredients normally not on their menus. Many were visiting the country for the first time and most also stayed at each other's homes, witnessing the daily routine of the chef they replaced; alas, a good amount of them were too jet-lacked to enjoy the experience, not to mention the stress of the dinner yet to be prepared, a dinner they will be never be able to repeat again. 

One follower of the event listed the swap on a map enthusiastically. It was posted on the Gelinaz website, on the digital wall of Claude Bosi, by the 14-year-old son of Dominique Crenn, one of the participating chefs, who was about to lend her San Francisco restaurant Atelier Crenn to the famed chef of Hibiscus in London. Crenn, in return, was going to cook at Le Chateaubriand in Paris, while Hibiscus gave its lead to Sean Gray from Momofuku Ko in New York City, who was leaving his shift to Massimo Bottura, who, in turn, left his Osteria Francescana in Modena to Sean Brock of McCrady's, Charleston. The list goes on and on. Even trying to follow the track was mind-boggling. For myself, having had the privilege of attending the dinner in Istanbul at Mikla, it is still not easy for me to comprehend the immense scale of this wild happening. As one gets...