Celeb chefs turn to steakhouses

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 27 (UPI) -- Celebrity chefs are increasingly crossing over into the steakhouse market, including a high-end meatery run by Wolfgang Puck in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Puck's steakhouse, Cut, has been sold out nearly every night since it opened one year ago, USA Today reported Friday. Observers credit the success of Cut, as well as Emeril Lagasse's Delmonico Steakhouse in Las Vegas and Bobby Flay's Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City, N.J., to their female-friendly environments, selection of gourmet side-dishes and unusual architecture.

"Most steakhouses are so cookie-cutter, and I think it was only a matter of time before something changed," Puck said. "Dining out is like theater, and in the old times, steakhouses were not theater."

"A huge number of people are making an awful lot of money," said international restaurant consultant Michael Whiteman, "and they're spending it in restaurants as if there were no tomorrow. These people are interested in showing off their connoisseurship. They're interested in the nuances of dry- and wet-aged beef, of grass-fed organic cattle and corn-fed feed-lot cattle, and they're willing to pay a lot of money to see what the differences are."