Texas’s Most Notorious Chef Takes Over Grand Central Steakhouse

John Tesar once embraced the title “the most hated chef in Dallas.” This fall, he is trying out a quieter persona in Midtown Manhattan, at Palladino’s Steak & Seafood, the 250-seat restaurant inside Grand Central Terminal.

Tesar, the founding chef of Knife, the Dallas restaurant that reshaped that city’s steakhouse scene, started in early September as corporate executive chef for Palladino Restaurant Group. He oversees the Grand Central restaurant and the group’s Dallas location, which opened about six months ago, and he remains based in Texas, traveling between the two cities. According to Eater New York, which reported the move, he says the temper that made his reputation is behind him. “I’m really a wise, pragmatic old man now who’s been in the restaurant business for five decades,” Tesar told the outlet, crediting “great amounts of therapy.”

The reputation was hard-earned. Anthony Bourdain disguised him as “Jimmy Sears” in Kitchen Confidential, and later wrote in Medium Raw that Tesar was probably the most talented cook he ever worked with. D Magazine’s 2011 cover branded him the most hated chef in Dallas after reporting staff complaints about thrown pans and name-calling, claims Tesar partly denied. In 2014 he banned Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner after a three-star review of Knife. Twitter suspended him in 2022 for threatening Sean Hannity, and in 2023 he left an Orange County restaurant project after being filmed yelling obscenities at picketing union workers. Tesar dismisses some of the older stories as “urban legend” and says diners care less about chef behavior now.

Palladino’s opened last year at 23 Vanderbilt Avenue, near East 43rd Street, in the space that formerly housed Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse. Rockwell Group designed the room, which includes a formal dining room, bar and lounge, and a 2,000-square-foot all-season patio. Owner Joseph Palladino, a Bronx-born former NYPD officer who spent decades in Las Vegas and Dallas and founded Nick & Sam’s, has known Tesar for more than 20 years. Opening chef Sam Hazen has since left, ownership confirmed.

Don’t expect Knife’s dry-aging program. “This is purely Joe’s venture and Joe’s vision,” Tesar said. The prime beef comes from Allen Brothers, and Tesar is reworking the menu for Grand Central’s foot traffic, which means a wider spread of prices. New cuts, including flat iron, culotte, skirt and a baseball steak (a thick, center-cut sirloin trimmed like a filet), will run roughly $40 to $45, against about $100 for the filet mignon. Tableside Dover sole with brown butter and capers is also on the way.

Tesar, who was raised in the Hamptons, calls himself “a seafood guy” and says Knife “made me the meat guy.” Palladino wants the sushi, seafood and Italian dishes to hold their own beside the steaks, and says Tesar “legitimizes” the Italian side of the menu.

It is Tesar’s first New York kitchen job since a three-month stint at David Burke’s Fishtail on East 62nd Street ended with a one-star New York Times review in 2009. His earlier Manhattan résumé includes opening 13 Barrow Street, before it became Annisa, and working at 44 & X, Vine and the Supper Club alongside Bourdain.

New hires at Palladino’s are expected to be announced within weeks, and Midtown catering is planned. Palladino confirmed he plans to expand the restaurant with Tesar on board, and said it “will be somewhere New Yorkers like to go.” Tesar, for his part, says he is done with television competitions and sees the celebrity-chef era as over, “unless you’re Guy Fieri or Bobby Flay.” His pitch for Vanderbilt Avenue: “I’m not just here to do John Tesar. I’m here to do Joe Palladino.”