Chefs Curtis Stone and Chad Colby to open new restaurant

Chef Chad Colby slicing meats for an Affettati Misti plate at Chi Spacca.

June 11, 2015 9:46 AM PT

In what seems like a truly terrific mash-up of great chefs, Curtis Stone and Chad Colby are joining forces to open a new restaurant. Stone is the Australian chef who opened Maude, a tiny restaurant in Beverly Hills whose menu revolves around a single ingredient each month, in February 2014. Colby is the cured meat specialist behind Chi Spacca, the Mozza satellite restaurant that grew out of Colby’s salumi bar.

Colby left Chi Spacca, effective June 10, calling it his “passion project” and reiterating that there were no issues between him and Mozza co-owners Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. Chi Spacca was more than just a project of Colby’s: It was a phenomenal restaurant in its own right.

Ranking the entire Mozzaplex No. 3 in his most recent 101 list, Jonathan Gold wrote: “The consensus hit of L.A.’s meat world this year is probably Chad Colby’s tomahawk chop at Chi Spacca, a monumental cross-section of pork rib, hefty as a squash racquet, rubbed with fennel pollen and grilled slowly until it glows with flavor. And Colby’s coppa and lardo are the most carefully cured in town.”

Colby threw a kind of going-away party Wednesday night. “Nancy got a bunch of barbecue,” Colby wrote in an email, “and we had a get together. I had sent emails to chefs and friends and they filled the room the last two nights.”

As for the new restaurant, Stone wrote in an email Wednesday night that it’s a project that he’s been working on with his brother Luke. “There really isn’t much to talk about just yet, as its really early days but my brother Luke and I decided to open a restaurant together some time ago, it’s been a bit of a dream of ours. We have brought Chad Colby on to partner with us on the project. He is a good friend and a great chef, so I couldn’t be happier!”

Stone’s brother Luke has been working at Maude this last year, and is moving his family to Los Angeles in the next few weeks. As for further details, we’ll let you know when we have them.

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