Then he gets a second chance at chic chefdom.

Mr. Marchese, who has one of the more highly developed egos in chefdom, will be in for some competition.

AMONG the many orders of chefdom, there are two rarely intersecting sects.

WHEN Simpson Wong opened Jefferson in 2002 he made the leap from neighborhood restaurateur to white-jacketed chefdom.

Whose return to full-time chefdom at Washington Park, after years of phantom sightings in kitchens around the country, was the talk of New York just two years ago?

Although he has lustily embraced celebrity chefdom and taken many mistresses (Lupa, Esca, Casa Mono), Babbo is the beloved spouse to which his heart still belongs.

But those who aspire to true chefdom are always tasting things in their heads, and no sooner had the miso-glazed version escaped from Japanese kitchens than others began to experiment, even at Nobu.

What really precipitated his headlong rush toward chefdom, though, was the unraveling of his home life, starting with his beloved mother's sudden death of a brain hemorrhage when he was just 6.

Mr. Burke, recently unleashed from the constraints of corporate chefdom, is now performing his high-wire act twice daily not far from his old stomping grounds at the Park Avenue Cafe.

Aside from stints washing glasses at the restaurant while attending Roman Catholic school in North Woodmere and Valley Stream (where he still lives), Mr. Scognamillo showed few inclinations toward chefdom.

Except for occasional appearances on the "Late Show With David Letterman" and his participation six years ago in an advertising campaign that featured chefs in the buff, he has sidestepped the more flamboyant manifestations of celebrity chefdom.