Wednesday, February 22, 2006

TOM SIETSEMA

"HEY, ISN'T THAT . . . ?" One new restaurant's loss is another's gain as Sidra Forman and Derrick Bullock , the former kitchen muse and general manager at Viridian in Logan Circle, head for greener pastures -- otherwise known as Vegetate (1414 Ninth St. NW; 202-232-4585 ) in Shaw. "The stars were aligned," says Jennifer Redd , co-owner of Vegetate, which serves a meatless menu and lost its opening chef about the same time Forman and Bullock split with the owners of Viridian. Forman is now the consulting chef for Vegetate, though Bullock cooks, too.

"We work so well together," she says (and they have, even before Viridian, at the late Rupperts in Washington). "We're already making our own bread and pastries and eventually plan to make our own pasta and ice cream." Her new job is a mere three blocks from where she lives. "It cuts down on the commute," Forman jokes. "I can run home and grab a pan if we need one."

HELP WANTED: The sous-chef and the pastry chef at CityZen (1330 Maryland Ave. SW) -- husband and wife Aaron and Jewel Zimmer -- are leaving at the end of March. "Obviously, I'm sad to see them go," says chef Eric Ziebold , their boss. Having helped him launch the luxury restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in September 2004, "they've been a huge part of what we're doing here," he says. "But this is a natural progression and great for Aaron," who was recently tapped for the top cooking spot at the Ritz- Carlton Half Moon Bay outside San Francisco. Zimmer worked as sous-chef at the Ritz before coming to Washington.

While he and his wife "had always planned to return to the West Coast," says Zimmer, the current opportunity "came quicker than we anticipated." Ziebold already has recruited someone to be his No. 2 in the kitchen. Details are being worked out, but that person is coming from a big-deal restaurant in California. Ziebold is now looking to fill the senior pastry job.