Celebrity Chefs Who Have Closed The Most Restaurants

The following article includes allegations of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

Eating at your favorite chef's restaurant should be a special experience, or at least a positive one. The trouble is, high profile chefs don't get it right every time. For celebrity chefs who continuously open one restaurant after the other, their whole operation might start to feel like one giant commodity — and commodities don't hold public interest for long. Losing the public's interest is a tried and true recipe for how to close a restaurant. A recipe these celeb chefs know by heart.

The famous chefs who have closed the most restaurants aren't failures by any means, and they don't approach restaurant ownership the same way. The chefs we'll look at fall into two categories. In one group are the purists, classically trained chefs for whom opening restaurants is a way of life. The other group comprises the enterprising chefs. They are doing everything, everywhere, all at once. Owning a restaurant empire is a mere accessory to a brand that includes TV shows, product lines, and a bunch of other ventures in between.

One could argue that the best way for a famous chef to connect with people is by feeding them — unless of course the food disappoints. Be it not-great food, a lackluster concept, a problematic business model, or simply falling on hard times, a celebrity name on the door doesn't always keep restaurants afloat. Let's see which celebrity chefs have closed more restaurants than anyone else — the numbers might surprise you.

Longtime "MasterChef" judge and chef Aarón Sánchez added restaurateur to his list of accomplishments when he opened Centrico in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood in 2004. The restaurant's cuisine was a celebration of Sánchez's Mexican roots with a modern twist. By 2012, Centrico was no more. The large space, which Sánchez opened with esteemed restaurateur Drew Nieporent (of Nobu fame), was sold that summer. Sánchez shifted his efforts to other endeavors.

One year prior to Centrico closing, Sánchez opened Mexican restaurant Mestizo in Leawood, Kansas. Mestizo boasted scratch-made tortillas, unexpected taco fillings like crispy veal sweetbreads and tongue, and of course, tequila. A taste of the unexpected didn't flourish in Kansas and Mestizo closed three years later. Two closed restaurants weren't about to discourage Sánchez though. The chef embarked on another Mexican restaurant venture around the same time as Mestizo's closure, this time it was Paloma in Stamford, Connecticut.

Alas, two years later, Paloma was $1.4 million in debt and eventually shuttered. Sánchez admitted that his primary focus was in Johnny Sánchez, a Mexican-inspired chain he started with fellow celeb chef John Besh. Johnny Sánchez's fate wound up in similar trenches in 2017. The Baltimore location shuttered one month before a torrent of sexual harassment claims against John Besh derailed his career. Sánchez and his new business partners bought Besh out of the New Orleans location, which remains open.

His name is synonymous with "Iron Chef," but Masaharu Morimoto is a respected restaurant owner in his own right. After honing his culinary skills in a restaurant in his hometown of Hiroshima, Japan, Morimoto opened his own restaurant there (which he later sold), and headed to the United States. He was executive chef at New York City's Nobu for years before building his restaurant empire. Morimoto opened numerous restaurants specializing in Japanese cuisine, many of which are still running today. However, not all of his restaurants have stood the test of time.

Perhaps catching a taste for the unusual, he opened Tribeca Canvas in Manhattan in 2012, branding the operation as a global comfort food experience. It didn't work. Tribeca Canvas closed after less than a year. Desperate to revive the concept, Morimoto rebranded Tribeca Canvas as Bisutoro in 2014. Sensing immediate failure, Morimoto abandoned Bisutoro after just three months and the restaurant shuttered thereafter.

Morimoto's bread and butter continues to lie in his upscale eponymous restaurants — of which there are many. Even so, not every Morimoto location is ironclad. Morimoto in Waikiki closed in 2016 when the chef parted ways with the Modern Honolulu hotel after six years. In February 2020, he chose to end his lease at the popular Morimoto restaurant in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood after more than 15 years in business. Several Morimotos continue to operate in the U.S. and overseas.

In the early 2000s, John Besh was one of the most sought-after chefs in New Orleans. August was his first restaurant, which opened in 2001 to much success. The hits kept coming: Besh Steak in Harrah's Casino, Lüke, La Provence, and more. In February 2017, Besh Restaurant group announced the closure of Lüke's San Antonio location. La Provence was sold in May of that year and Johnny Sánchez in Baltimore closed in September. Come October 2017, the truth of what was really going on at Besh Restaurant Group came to light.

A bombshell article in The Times-Picayune revealed that 25 employees of Besh Restaurant Group had been victims of near-constant sexual harassment. Besh and other high-up employees were being sued for their behavior, which included non-consensual touching, suggestive language, and leveraging their authority in exchange for sex. Besh took culpability for fostering a toxic culture in the workplace and stepped down from the restaurant group he co-founded. It didn't keep his restaurants in New Orleans from closing one after the other.

Harrah's Casino renamed Besh Steakhouse and The Caribbean Room in the Pontchartrain Hotel called it quits. Besh's restaurant Warbucks, the first to open under the rebranded moniker BRG Hospitality Group — shuttered in 2019 after only eight months. In 2020, Borgne opted out of a lease renewal with the Hyatt Regency Hotel after operating there for nine years. Cho Thai closed in 2022 and never reopened.

Before David Chang was on TV, he was best known as the proprietor of New York City's Momofuku Noodle Bar, which he founded in 2004 and still owns today. The East Village spot blew Americans' burgeoning ramen infatuation wide open and marked Chang's status as a celeb chef on the rise. With the boost in credibility, Chang expanded his Momofuku brand and opened several more restaurants. Very few have survived.

The shuttering of New York City's Ando in January 2018 was Chang's first restaurant closure. It began as a delivery-only concept, then briefly operated as a small, brick-and-mortar. When Chang sold Ando to Uber Eats, the delivery app and sit-down location disappeared. Eight-year-old Má Pêche was next to go, bidding adieu to Manhattan's Chambers Hotel in June 2018. Things got worse. Chang's undeniable influence on modern dining didn't spare him from COVID-19's dismantling of the restaurant industry.

Bar Wayō and Nishi in Manhattan didn't survive 2020. Neither did Momofuku CCDC in Washington D.C. The domino effect continued, laying waste to NYC's Kawi and Momofuku Seiōbo, Chang's years-long outpost in Sydney, Australia. Momofuku Noodle Bar in Toronto shut in 2022, as did Las Vegas restaurants Moon Palace and Majordōmo Meat & Fish. Losing Momofuku Ko in 2023, where Chang retained two Michelin stars since 2009, hit hard — a pain perhaps only eclipsed by Momofuku Ssäm's closure months earlier. Momofuku Ssäm was Chang's second restaurant, it opened in 2008.

He's one of Food Network's all-time greats and an irreplaceable fixture of the New Orleans dining scene, but Emeril Lagasse has seen 12 of his restaurants close. An early sign of trouble happened in 2010, when Emeril's Gulf Coast Fish House in Gulfport, Louisiana closed after only three years. Emeril's in Miami Beach inside the Loews Hotel went out of commission in 2011. When Loews was renovated, it decided not to renew Emeril's lease.

Even with two closures, The Emeril Group was going strong — at least for a few more years. An Emeril's off-shoot concept e2 in Charlotte, North Carolina said goodbye in 2015. On December 31, 2017, Emeril's Tchoup Chop in Orlando, a 14-year-old establishment that served Asian-Polynesian cuisine, called it quits. Table 10 at the Palazzo in Las Vegas closed the same day. Emeril's in Orlando closed in 2018, whittling Lagasse's culinary presence in Florida down to one restaurant: Emeril's Coastal in Miramar Beach.

The COVID-era and its aftermath were particularly tough on the beloved chef. Lagasse's Stadium in Las Vegas shut down in July 2020, marking his official exit from the Palazzo. Perhaps the two toughest closures were Emeril's Delmonico and NOLA in 2022. Lagasse helmed both New Orleans eateries since the 1990s. He closed them at the beginning of the pandemic and they never reopened. Lagasse also operated a trio of restaurants in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania's Wind Creek Casino beginning in 2009 – the final two rebranded without him in 2022.

Chef extraordinaire Joël Robuchon was a boss in life and in death. Though 13 of his restaurants closed, the majority were shuttered after he passed away from cancer in August 2018. Weeks before he died, Robuchon closed two restaurants in Singapore, yet retained 31 Michelin stars at the time of his passing.

Robuchon's first restaurant was the first to go out of business. Jamin opened Paris in 1981. By 1984, it earned three Michelin stars and the title of "Best Restaurant in the World" by the International Herald Tribune. Jamin closed in 1996, when Robuchon entered temporary retirement. In 2006, Robuchon was ready to take on New York City and opened L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in The Four Seasons Hotel. His signature restaurant concept, inspired by tapas-style dining and sushi counters, boasted locations in Asia, Europe, and Las Vegas. New York City proved tougher — that L'Atelier closed in 2012 .

Robuchon dealt with the 2016 closure of La Grande Maison in Bordeaux, but felt confident enough to give NYC another go. L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon reopened in a new, lower Manhattan location in 2017. Work also began on a Midtown venture, Le Grill, which later became Le Club. Between 2019 and 2024, Robuchon's restaurant legacy lost locations in Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Paris, Bangkok, and London. In 2022, L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in NYC closed a second time.

Prior to establishing permanent residency in Flavortown, Guy Fieri and former business partner Steve Gruber owned numerous restaurants. They launched Johnny Garlic's in 1996 and expanded it into a Northern California chain. In 1999, Tex Wasabi's debuted in Santa Rosa and later Sacramento. Fieri sought to dissolve his partnership with Gruber in late 2015 — resulting in a dramatic legal battle – but when they were still cool, they closed three restaurants together. Fieri closed many more alone.

In 2005, Fieri and Gruber quietly sold a Johnny Garlic's in Petaluma, California. It was business as usual after that, until Tex Wasabi's in Sacramento closed, reopened as a Johnny Garlic's, then abruptly closed in 2014. On his own, Fieri has upwards of 90 restaurants under multiple brands. One of his most high-profile closures happened in 2017, when the zero-star Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square went dark.

Since then, Fieri's restaurants have permanently closed everywhere from Baltimore, Boston, and Atlantic City, to Dubai, Mexico, and South Africa. His most recent struggles lie with fried chicken chain Chicken Guy! The franchise expanded quickly ... maybe too quickly. In 2024, locations in Michigan, Miami, and two in Tennessee shut down. Meanwhile, a Chicken Guy! in Disney Springs announced it was closing and a Chicken Guy! in Winter Park, Florida faced eviction for owing $40,000 in back-rent. At this time, both still appear to be open.

Mon Dieu! This is one busy chef. Alain Ducasse, has 21 Michelin Stars, more than any other living restaurateur. He has also closed significantly more restaurants than most celeb chefs. The Monégasque culinarian has put his signature on restaurants as far-flung as Tunisia, Mauritius, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, China, and Italy – and closed restaurants in all of those locations as well.

Some of Ducasse's earliest restaurant fails occurred in New York City, and this was no coincidence. NYC didn't embrace Ducasse. His restaurants, like the now-closed Mix or Alain Ducasse at the Essex house — an eatery that once boasted the priciest tasting menu in town — were deemed pretentious and impersonal. A number of Ducasse's other restaurant closures were due to large-scale rebranding. His widespread Spoon concept was globally phased out, even in francophile-friendly locations in Paris and Switzerland. 

One of the more shocking closures in the Ducasse repertoire was Paris' Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée. The former mainstay closed in 2021 after 21 years. His restaurant Rivea at the Byblos Hotel in Saint-Tropez temporarily closed for an indefinite period.

British chef Marco Pierre White had a breakout turn at London restaurant Harvey's in the late '80s to early '90s. Had it not been for his tenure there, fellow superstar chefs Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay — who trained under him — might never have been. Harvey's closed in 1993, and while it gave White the breathing room to thrive elsewhere, it set the stage for a whole lot of restaurant closures.

White has primarily stuck to opening restaurants throughout the U.K., but there have been international ventures too. For instance, White took his ill-fated London restaurant Titanic, which closed in 2012, to Dubai. The border change didn't do much good, by 2013, Titanic Dubai was washed to sea. White has put most of his focus on his multi-pronged restaurant group which includes: Marco Pierre White's Steakhouse & Grill, Marco's New York Italian, Bardolino, Wheeler's Fish & Chips, and Mr. White's English Chophouse. All of these restaurants have closed locations. Frankie's Bar & Grill, White's partnership effort with jockey Frankie Dettori was responsible for a significant number of White's restaurant closures in the U.K. and the Middle East.

"Top Chef" O.G. Tom Colicchio doesn't rest on a steady television gig. The American chef built a respectable collection of restaurants in the U.S., but not all of them were made to last. Craft is Colicchio's fine-dining baby, and he has expanded it far beyond the flagship location in NYC. Craft and Craftbar in Atlanta were some of the first to close back in 2011. Craft-adjacent locales would also close Miami and Los Angeles would close as the years went on.

Another doomed venture under the Craft umbrella was 'Wichcraft, Colicchio's popular sandwich chain that was centered in NYC but had spread as far as Las Vegas and San Francisco. 'Wichcraft folded in the wake of COVID-19, with the last outposts closing their doors in 2022. Another of Colicchio's restaurants that went bust was Colicchio & Sons in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. When the eatery closed in 2016, it became the site for French chef Joël Robuchon's revitalization in the Big Apple — which would also cease to exist in the early 2020s.

We're so used to seeing Bobby Flay on TV that it's easy to forget how many restaurants he's owned in the span of his respectable career. Like many celebrity chefs, Flay's foray into stardom began with restaurant ownership, but since so many of his restaurants closed, it's a lesser-known part of his legacy. Take for instance, Bolo, Flay's Spanish-inspired New York City restaurant that operated from 1993 to 2007. Bolo was once on the cusp of culinary trends, but in a city with a constantly oversaturated market, it became disposable when the building that housed it was slated to be torn down.

Flay's multi-location Mesa Grill suffered a similar demise. The flagship location in NYC was once Flay's calling card to notoriety, however, that location and those in the Bahamas and Las Vegas were shut down. Still, Flay pressed on with other restaurants, like Gato in NYC, Bar Americain in NYC and Connecticut, and Bobby Flay's Steakhouse in Atlantic City. None of them worked out.

What really brings Flay's shuttered restaurant tally high is the failing of Bobby's Burger Palace. Starting in 2020, the chain's closures rolled in, and 17 locations ceased to exist. Flay answered the setback by creating Bobby's Burgers – a different concept from the original. Two Bobby's Burger Palace locations remain: one in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the other in Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Casino.

Gordon Ramsay is one of the most successful chefs working today, but his path to the top is littered with many closed restaurants. Ramsay's earliest restaurant closures date back to the late '90s, when the prize wasn't reality TV, it was Michelin Stars. As he gained stars (17 in all), Ramsay didn't feel the need to keep some of his early ventures open. That meant closing U.K. eateries like L'Oranger and Fleur in London and Amaryllis in Glasgow.

In the 21st century, Ramsay's good fortune extended to restaurant openings not only in his native Europe, but in the Middle East, Asia, Australia, Africa, and North America. Multi-location concepts like Maze and the eponymous Gordon Ramsay fizzled all over the globe. In some cases, COVID was to blame, but most of the time, Ramsay's restaurant shortcomings lie in the fact that the chef's cooking wasn't reflected in the food often enough. Ramsay upholds an impressive portfolio of restaurants to this day, despite leaving more failed restaurants behind than most chefs could even dream of opening in a lifetime.

Before we shed a tear for Jamie Oliver's utter restaurant ruin, just remember that he is one of the richest celebrity chefs ever. Regardless, Oliver's restaurant empire took an unprecedented hit. The man isn't even 50 years old, and has closed 67 restaurants. The staggering number lies within the 2019 collapse of his restaurant empire.

Over-expansion and crippling debt were key factors in Oliver losing 42 Jamie's Italian locations in his native U.K., plus the closure of homegrown establishments Barbecoa and Fifteen. The destruction was jarring even to Oliver, who spent millions trying to buy back restaurant locations that were in crisis around the globe. In the U.K. alone, the loss of Oliver's grip on Jamie's Italian accounted for the loss of more than 1,000 jobs. His presence in Canada and Australia were wiped out completely.

Despite the onslaught, Oliver's restaurants continue to survive — or even thrive on the international front thanks to franchising. Oliver has 31 outposts in India, and dozens more dotting the globe. Recently he has been working to build back his former prowess in the U.K. restaurant scene as well, with the opening of Jamie Oliver Catherine St in London.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).