The Hero’s Farewell: Stepping off the Stage

In 1988, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Professor at “the” Business School, published “The Hero’s Farewell: What Happens When CEO’s Retire” that suggested that such masters of the corporate universe can be categorized in four ways: “Monarchs,” such as Edwin Land, who do not leave voluntarily, “Generals,” such as William Paley, who leave reluctantly and plot to return, “Ambassadors,” such as Thomas Watson, who leave gracefully and “Governors,” such as Reginald Jones, who leave willingly to pursue new challenges. (Descriptions courtesy of Publisher’s Weekly.) More interestingly, to me, however, are some non-corporate examples such as Douglas MacArthur, who “died with his boots on” after famously declaring that “old soldiers never die, they just fade away;” President Herbert Hoover, who reinvented himself as a humanitarian; and others who step off the stage with varying futures. In the culinary field, probably the most famous exit was that of Francois Vatel, who killed himself in 1761 after the fish he was to serve the King was delayed. Journalists, with no knowledge of Bernard Loiseau’s biological depression, attributed his suicide to a similar motive, but this time, to his fear of the loss of Michelin stars in 2003. It’s unusual for French chefs to voluntarily give up their stars, but in 1996, Joel Robuchon, who was only 51 years old, did just that, but has re-emerged with a vengeance, designing and overseeing three places in Paris alone and others around the world.   More recently (in 2005) Alain Senderens down-scaled and down-starred his eponymous resto ex-Lucas Carton to a less pricey and more accessible place with a second-floor bar with eats, but just this year oversaw the opening of Mama Shelter, so he’s not exited except from the pressure-cooker of the top. Then Gerard Vie stepped (or was it was pushed) away from his stars at Les Trois Marches in Versailles to make way for Gordon Ramsay and re-emerged in the unstarred Terrines de Gerard Vie downtown. The newest to join the starless group was Olivier Roellinger who (seemingly quite abruptly) abandoned his three star resto in Cancale but kept involved with his other unstarred operations. And then, there’s Antoine Westermann, who like Alain Ducasse, never stepped down but stepped away from stars and up to opening a set of places in Paris. This is not a real re-engineering a la Herbert Hoover, but moving from chef in a cuisine to mastermind of a network. In any case, I have lent my two copies of Sonnenfeld’s book to one exiting Governor, several fatigued physicians and even more world-weary friends enough times to know that there are a lot of models out there and that “retirement” can happen at 50, 90 or never. These thoughts were prompted by two recent meals at: Le Passage 9 place de la Madeleine, 8th (Metro : Madeleine)  T : 01 42 65 22 90 Open lunch and dinner everyday Menu = 36 €, a la carte 50-70 €.  Les Terrines de Gerald Vié 79, rue du Cherche Midi, 6th T: 01.42.22.19.18 Closed Sundays and Mondays Formula of two dishes plus wine at lunch for 24 and 30 € at night.  Blog: John Talbott’s Paris ©by John Talbott 2008