{"id":62793,"date":"2025-11-24T11:44:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=62793"},"modified":"2025-11-24T11:45:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:45:03","slug":"nieporent-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/nieporent-memoir\/","title":{"rendered":"Famed Restaurateur Recalls a Career on the Front Lines of Fine Dining"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a memoir, Hotelie Drew Nieporent \u201977 offers a behind-the-scenes look at launching legendary spots like Nobu and Tribeca Grill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Beth Saulnier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the record: Drew Nieporent \u201977 did not come up with the title of his memoir\u2014but, grudgingly and with a bit of a rueful chuckle, he\u2019ll acknowledge that maybe it\u2019s apropos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book, released in September 2025, is called I\u2019m Not Trying to Be Difficult<\/em><\/a>: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches<\/em>. In it, he recalls some four decades as one of the nation\u2019s leading restaurateurs\u2014a creative force behind such storied, critically acclaimed NYC eateries as Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, and Nobu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Along the way, he chronicles not only stunning successes, fully booked dining rooms, and three-star New York Times<\/em> reviews, but dust-ups with chefs, partners, staff, and even the occasional customer\u2014including getting a profane earful from his most famous investor, actor Robert De Niro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI narrated the audiobook, and as I was reading it, I believe I started to understand why that\u2019s the title,\u201d says Nieporent, speaking with Cornellians<\/em> from the back seat of his car en route into the city from his home in New Jersey. (A native New Yorker, he has never had a driver\u2019s license.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany of these chefs were very, very uncompromising most of the time,\u201d he continues. <\/p>\n<\/div>

\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy partners were difficult\u2014but guess what? They saw me as difficult. I wasn\u2019t trying to be difficult, but that\u2019s the way they saw me. So that\u2019s the way it was. I got into these situations because I have a big mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nieporent\u2019s memoir\u2014penned by Jamie Feldmar, an L.A.-based ghostwriter who has worked on several chefs\u2019 cookbooks\u2014opens with a 9-year-old Drew glued to the radio during the 1964 World Heavyweight Championship bout between Sonny Liston and an up-and-comer called Cassius Clay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nieporent chronicles not only stunning successes, fully booked dining rooms, and three-star New York Times<\/em> reviews, but dust-ups with chefs, partners, staff, and even the occasional customer.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clay, of course, will win the fight and go on to change his name to Muhammad Ali. And for Nieporent, Ali will become a lifelong idol\u2014one whom he\u2019ll actually meet one day, when the champ, by then suffering from Parkinson\u2019s disease, dines at Nobu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was this amazing figure in the \u201960s; he was extremely charismatic and very articulate, and he backed up everything he said,\u201d Nieporent observes. \u201cIn life, you have certain dreams and aspirations, but sometimes you can\u2019t meet them. In his case, he met the moment, and that was a standard for me. He said, \u2018I am the greatest\u2019; I wanted to be the greatest at what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drew
A young Drew (far left) with his family …<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew
… and with his parents at Tavern on the Green, an early employer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nieporent grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in a large middle-class apartment complex near the river. His mom had been a child actress who later became a casting director for a major ad agency, his dad worked for the New York State Liquor Authority\u2014and both their careers would shape their son\u2019s aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of his father\u2019s job involved granting liquor licenses, Nieporent explains, and sometimes he\u2019d move one restaurant or the other to the \u201ctop of the pile.\u201d Their grateful owners would wine and dine him, with a young Drew often tagging along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

[Muhammad Ali] met the moment, and that was a standard for me. He said, \u2018I am the greatest\u2019; I wanted to be the greatest at what I did.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That sparked a lifelong love of food in general, and of fine dining in particular. Add to that his mother\u2019s bent for the theatrical, and Nieporent became fixated on emulating the stylishly clad men he saw presiding over establishments where eating is both art and entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy dad would take me around, and say, \u2018My son is interested in the restaurant business,\u2019\u201d Nieporent recalls. \u201cAnd the restaurateurs would always say, \u2018You\u2019re crazy. It\u2019s the worst business.\u2019 But they weren\u2019t going to dissuade me. The more they talked against it, the more positive I was that it was what I was going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drew
Serving at Hotel Ezra Cornell, where he rose to food and beverage director.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His first employer: McDonald\u2019s, where he manned the grill during the debut of the Quarter Pounder\u2014and, he says, learned a lot about the importance of cleanliness and organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Nieporent has come full-circle on the burger front: for the past 12 years, his Myriad Restaurant Group<\/a> has held the hamburger concession at Madison Square Garden.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having earned terrible grades, Nieporent admits to being shocked he got into the Hotel School; when he arrived, then aiming to be a chef, he was deflated to realize it didn\u2019t offer a culinary education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Drew<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew<\/figure>\n
As a cruise ship waiter; at Commencement; and working the front desk at 24 Fifth Avenue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But he eventually thrived on the Hill\u2014becoming a leader of Hotel Ezra Cornell, joining the prestigious Quill & Dagger Society, and savoring innumerable Sui sandwiches from the Hot Truck<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also faked his way into a recurring job as a waiter on luxury cruise ships during breaks, fibbing that he was adept at ultra-formal dining service\u2014a trial by fire that he calls \u201ceasily the most important single experience I\u2019ve had in food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Restaurateurs would always say, \u2018You\u2019re crazy. It\u2019s the worst business.\u2019 But they weren\u2019t going to dissuade me. The more they talked against it, the more positive I was that it was what I was going to do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, Nieporent landed management positions at established NYC eateries like Maxwell\u2019s Plum, Tavern on the Green, and La Grenouille. He was only in his late 20s when he and chef David Bouley opened Montrachet in 1985, on a then-unfashionable block in Manhattan\u2019s emerging Tribeca neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant would earn a coveted three stars from the New York Times<\/em> its first year\u2014and hold on to them for more than two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a
Nieporent in his 20s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other Nieporent projects were similarly acclaimed, particularly the wildly popular Tribeca Grill\u2014in which De Niro and other celebrities were investors\u2014and Nobu, which brought the legendary L.A. sushi chef Nobu Matsuhisa to NYC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Nieporent, De Niro, and Matsuhisa also opened a successful Nobu in London\u2014but as Nieporent chronicles in the book, although he remains a partner in the first two, he was excluded from the brand\u2019s further expansion, which now numbers more than 50 outposts worldwide.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nieporent calls working as a waiter on luxury cruise ships \u201ceasily the most important single experience I\u2019ve had in food.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All told, over the course of four decades in the business, Nieporent opened 40 restaurants, on both U.S. coasts and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book, understandably, takes a deep dive into a half dozen and skims over most\u2014offering tantalizing anecdotes from the industry\u2019s front lines at every stage of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNieporent revels in the world he details,\u201d says a New York Times<\/em> review. \u201cThere\u2019s the headwaiter who \u2018accidentally\u2019 drops palmed bills from reservation-less customers to deftly calculate how good a table he should give them, and the old-school chef who drinks too much and sends out platters of strip loin that\u2019s \u2018borderline mooing\u2019 to a corporate lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"Drew
Prepping Montrachet with chef David Bouley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew
In the Montrachet kitchen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew
With dinner guest (and future partner) Robert De Niro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew
The myriad famous names he’s met include President Barack Obama.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew
With staff at the original Nobu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drew
Nieporent and Bouley had a rapprochement decades after the chef left Montrachet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the ups and downs\u2014including more than one chef who leaves to open his own place once Nieporent has made him famous\u2014he retains his love of fine dining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou go to a restaurant in this realm, and you\u2019re entertained,\u201d he says. \u201cThe food seems to magically come out. You eat like a king. You pay at the end, but it usually doesn\u2019t cost as much per person as a Broadway show, a major sporting event, or a concert. It\u2019s the best form of entertainment, and it\u2019s very cinematic. The whole experience still thrills me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It\u2019s the best form of entertainment, and it\u2019s very cinematic. The whole experience still thrills me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But as Nieporent acknowledges, his workaholic tendencies and constant exposure to some of the world\u2019s tastiest food took their toll. While he was fit enough to run the New York Marathon in his 20s, he has battled a serious weight problem for much of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used to joke that I gained 50 pounds for every restaurant I opened,\u201d says Nieporent, who has recently achieved a healthier weight on the drug Zepbound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, he suffered a pair of serious health crises: first a stroke\u2014\u201cI came home one day and keeled over like a candlestick\u201d\u2014and then kidney cancer. Happily, he has recovered well from both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drew
Nieporent was inducted into the Cornell Hospitality Hall of Fame in 2011.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now 70, he\u2019s focused on promoting his book, with appearances in major media like CNN, the \u201cToday\u201d show, and the New York Times<\/em> (which covered him<\/a> under the headline \u201cThe Incurable Confidence of the Man Who Made Nobu\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of an obsession that will carry me to the end of the year,\u201d he says of spreading the word about the memoir. \u201cAnd then, maybe I\u2019ll open another restaurant. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: Nieporent in his longtime “office”\u2014a table outside Tribeca Grill on Greenwich Street. (All images provided.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published November 24, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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