{"id":379840,"date":"2026-10-22T16:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/379840\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T16:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:50:27","slug":"the-most-controversial-chef-in-texas-is-now-cooking-in-grand-central","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/379840\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Controversial Chef in Texas Is Now Cooking in Grand Central"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Tesar famously insulted a restaurant critic then banned <\/a>her \u2014 and he had once leaned into<\/a> his moniker of being \u201cthe most hated chef in Dallas.\u201d Now, the founding chef of Knife<\/a>, the restaurant that reshaped the Texas city\u2019s steakhouse culture, is in New York, running Palladino\u2019s Steak & Seafood<\/a> in Grand Central Terminal. He says the temper is behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really a wise, pragmatic old man now who\u2019s been in the restaurant business for five decades,\u201d Tesar says.<\/p>\n

He started in early September as Palladino Restaurant Group\u2019s corporate executive chef, overseeing the Grand Central restaurant and the Dallas location that opened about six months ago. He remains based in Dallas; he travels between cities. \u201cWherever I\u2019m needed is where I go,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Palladino\u2019s<\/p>\n

Bourdain referred to Tesar with the pseudonym \u201cJimmy Sears\u201d in Kitchen Confidential. In Medium Raw, he said he\u2019s \u201cprobably the single most talented cook I ever worked with,\u201d adding that Tesar \u201cpretty much wrote the book\u201d on self-sabotage, D Magazine reported<\/a> in 2011.<\/p>\n

Tesar calls his recent shift away from his Dallas steakhouses a business decision: \u201cI feel my talents can be better used with someone who wants to build a brand, who has infrastructure, who has large money behind it.\u201d Licensing ties remain \u2013 he\u2019s still connected to the Knife brand, but not involved in the day-to-day. Palladino\u2019s is his focus.<\/p>\n

Owner Joseph Palladino, a Bronx-born former NYPD officer, spent decades in Las Vegas and Dallas, where he founded steakhouse Nick & Sam\u2019s<\/a>. Tesar has known him for more than 20 years, through Nick & Sam\u2019s chef Samir Dhurandhar. Palladino first approached Tesar years ago; he wasn\u2019t available.<\/p>\n

He opened Palladino\u2019s in New York last year in the former Michael Jordan\u2019s Steakhouse at 23 Vanderbilt Avenue, near East 43rd Street. Rockwell Group designed the roughly 250-seat restaurant, with a formal dining room, bar and lounge, and 2,000-square-foot all-season patio. Opening chef Sam Hazen has since left, ownership confirmed.<\/p>\n

In addition to steak, Palladino wants diners to consider the rest of the menu that he says stands up to the steak selection: that includes sushi, seafood, and Italian dishes. Tesar, he says, \u201clegitimizes\u201d the Italian side of his namesake restaurant. Tesar notes that in his early career, he was focused on seafood and looks forward to getting back to it. In short: Don\u2019t expect Knife\u2019s dry-aging program here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is purely Joe\u2019s venture and Joe\u2019s vision,\u201d Tesar says. The prime beef comes from Allen Brothers<\/a> and menu changes target Grand Central foot traffic, which means more varied prices. He\u2019s adding cuts like flat iron, culotte, skirt, and baseball steak \u2014 thick, center-cut sirloin trimmed like a filet \u2014 for around $40 to $45, versus roughly $100 for filet mignon. Also coming: tableside Dover sole with brown butter and capers. Raised in the Hamptons, Tesar calls himself \u201ca seafood guy\u201d; Knife \u201cmade me the meat guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Palladino\u2019s Steak and Seafood<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Tesar\u2019s first New York kitchen job since a three-month stint at David Burke\u2019s Fishtail<\/a> on East 62nd Street ended with a one-star New York Times review in 2009. Tesar is known for cooking at and then buying Club Pierre in Westhampton in the early 1980s. In Manhattan, he opened 13 Barrow Street before it was Annisa, and worked at 44 & X, Vine, and the Supper Club alongside Bourdain. After 9\/11, he left for Lake Tahoe, returned to work for sustainable seafood evangelist Rick Moonen, then followed him to Las Vegas\u2019s RM Seafood. By 2006, he took over the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and earned five stars from the Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n

Within a year, he was out. The hotel called it a resignation; D Magazine reported<\/a> staff complaints about thrown pans and name-calling, which he partly denied. The publication\u2019s 2011 cover dubbed him \u201cthe Most Hated Chef in Dallas.\u201d He told Eater Dallas in 2024<\/a> that it made him \u201ca pseudo-celebrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

After opening seafood restaurant Spoon (now closed), in 2014, he launched Knife inside Highland, a Dallas hotel, touting dry-aging. That same year, he banned Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner after a three-star review, a week after tweeting that she \u201creally suck[s],\u201d Eater reported<\/a>. Twitter suspended him in 2022 for threatening Sean Hannity. In 2023, he left an Orange County Marriott restaurant project after being filmed yelling obscenities<\/a> at picketing union workers.<\/p>\n

When Eater asked about that history, he cites \u201cgreat amounts of therapy.\u201d He calls the Mansion and Top Chef <\/a>stories \u201curban legend\u201d and says that people today care less about chef behavior. The celebrity chef era is over \u201cunless you\u2019re Guy Fieri or Bobby Flay,\u201d he says. He\u2019s done with television competitions.<\/p>\n

Tesar says new hires at Palladino\u2019s will be announced within weeks, with Midtown catering planned. With the Tesar hire, Palladino plans on expanding the restaurant, he confirms. It \u201cwill be somewhere New Yorkers like to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for his new gig, \u201cI\u2019m not just here to do John Tesar,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m here to do Joe Palladino.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a><\/p>\n

Palladino\u2019s Steak and Seafood<\/p>\n

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