Restaurateur Sirio Maccioni, owner and Maître d of one of New York’s most iconic restaurants Le Cirque, has died at the age of 88.
Maccoini’s Le Cirque was a seminal fine dining restaurant, a bastion of old world class, impeccable service and classic French Cuisine, it launched generations of chefs’ careers, including Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, Geoffrey Zakarian, Jacques Torres, and Michael Lomonaco. It was a frequent haunt of the New York elite, presidents celebrities like Sofia Loren and Frank Sinatra and even the Pope.
While the restaurant functioned as an ambassadorial residence of French gastronomy, never hid is Italianess, which shone brightly, welcoming guests to the plush dining room and giving people reason to return. It was the energy, commitment to excellence but above all Maccioni’s extraordinary gift with people that saw the restaurant thrive for 45 years in three different locations.
“We’re very Italian,” he told Fine Dining Lovers in an interview in 2014, “everything that is Italian is the best”.
Indeed, according to Maccioni, had fate played out differently he would have been very happy to have seen his restaurant named ‘Il Circo’ and it would have served the finest Italian cuisine.
He didn’t though, instead he opened a restaurant serving classic French cuisine, which Maccioni believed he could replicate easily and consistently in what he thought would be his French brasserie.
Back in 1974, Italian cuisine didn’t really have the reputation it does today and French cuisine was the gold standard.
While the original Le Cirque closed its doors in 2017, Sirio Maccioni together with his wife Egidiana and his sons Mario, Marco, and Mauro built a restaurant empire and while there is currently no New York branch of the brand, it has travelled to Las Vegas, New Delhi and Dubai.
It is understood that Maccioni's death was not related to COVID-19.
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