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André Soltner, Famed Chef at New York’s Lutèce, Dies at 92

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André Soltner, Famed Chef at New York’s Lutèce, Dies at 92

For a time, he and James Beard had operated a cooking school on the premises, but now Mr. Surmain envisioned a restaurant that, he proclaimed bombastically, would be the best in the world. At the suggestion of a pastry chef who had worked under Mr. Soltner, he dined at Chez Hansi.

Mr. Surmain, impressed, brought Mr. Soltner to New York to work at his new restaurant, Lutèce, named after the Latin term for ancient Paris. “I thought maybe I’d stay for two years,” Mr. Soltner told Nation’s Restaurant News in 1996. He never left. During the three decades he spent at Lutèce, he missed only four days of work — for the funerals of his father and his brother.

The restaurant, despite Mr. Surmain’s proclamation, got off to a rocky start.

Craig Claiborne of The New York Times gave it a dismissive review. “A few of the dishes, a fois gras en brioche or a roast veal with kidney, for example, could qualify as superb; others, such as a poussin rôti aux girolles (squab chicken with wild mushrooms), are routine,” he wrote. Overall, he concluded, “the food at Lutèce could not be called great cuisine.”

Lutèce “got the same rating as Chock Full o’ Nuts,” Mr. Soltner told The Times in 1995. “One star!”

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The restaurant’s fortunes changed when the imperious Mr. Surmain tired of the business and, in 1973, sold his shares to Mr. Soltner, who became the public face of Lutèce.

Overnight, the tone changed. The surroundings remained plush — Baccarat crystal, Christofle silver, bone china and a Redouté rose print on the menus — but Mr. Soltner ran the restaurant like a bistro. He did away with the Surmain system of seating by status. He worked the dining room. Patrons responded with fierce devotion.

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Driver Who Killed Mother and Daughters Sentenced to 3 to 9 Years

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Driver Who Killed Mother and Daughters Sentenced to 3 to 9 Years

A driver who crashed into a woman and her two young daughters while they were crossing a street in Brooklyn in March, killing all three, was sentenced to as many as nine years in prison on Wednesday.

The driver, Miriam Yarimi, has admitted striking the woman, Natasha Saada, 34, and her daughters, Diana, 8, and Deborah, 5, after speeding through a red light. She had slammed into another vehicle on the border of the Gravesend and Midwood neighborhoods and careened into a crosswalk where the family was walking.

Ms. Yarimi, 33, accepted a judge’s offer last month to admit to three counts of second-degree manslaughter in Brooklyn Supreme Court in return for a lighter sentence. She was sentenced on Wednesday by the judge, Justice Danny Chun, to three to nine years behind bars.

The case against Ms. Yarimi, a wig maker with a robust social media presence, became a flashpoint among transportation activists. Ms. Yarimi, who drove a blue Audi A3 sedan with the license plate WIGM8KER, had a long history of driving infractions, according to New York City records, with more than $12,000 in traffic violation fines tied to her vehicle at the time of the crash.

The deaths of Ms. Saada and her daughters set off a wave of outrage in the city over unchecked reckless driving and prompted calls from transportation groups for lawmakers to pass penalties on so-called super speeders.

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Ms. Yarimi “cared about only herself when she raced in the streets of Brooklyn and wiped away nearly an entire family,” Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said in a statement after the sentencing. “She should not have been driving a car that day.”

Mr. Gonzalez had recommended the maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.

On Wednesday, Ms. Yarimi appeared inside the Brooklyn courtroom wearing a gray shirt and leggings, with her hands handcuffed behind her back. During the brief proceedings, she addressed the court, reading from a piece of paper.

“I’ll have to deal with this for the rest of my life and I think that’s a punishment in itself,” she said, her eyes full of tears. “I think about the victims every day. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about what I’ve done.”

On the afternoon of March 29, a Saturday, Ms. Yarimi was driving with a suspended license, according to prosecutors. Around 1 p.m., she turned onto Ocean Parkway, where surveillance video shows her using her cellphone and running a red light, before continuing north, they said.

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At the intersection with Quentin Road, Ms. Saada was stepping into the crosswalk with her two daughters and 4-year-old son. Nearby, a Toyota Camry was waiting to turn onto the parkway.

Ms. Yarimi sped through a red light and into the intersection. She barreled into the back of the Toyota and then shot forward, plowing into the Saada family. Her car flipped over and came to a rest about 130 feet from the carnage.

Ms. Saada and her daughters were killed, while her son was taken to a hospital where he had a kidney removed and was treated for skull fractures and brain bleeding. The Toyota’s five passengers — an Uber driver, a mother and her three children — also suffered minor injuries.

Ms. Yarimi’s car had been traveling 68 miles per hour in a 25 m.p.h. zone and showed no sign that brakes had been applied, prosecutors said. Ms. Yarimi sustained minor injures from the crash and was later taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

The episode caused immediate fury, drawing reactions from Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Eric Adams, who attended the Saadas’s funeral.

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According to NYCServ, the city’s database for unpaid tickets, Ms. Yarimi’s Audi had $1,345 in unpaid fines at the time of the crash. On another website that tracks traffic violations using city data, the car received 107 parking and camera violations between June 2023 and the end of March 2025. Those violations, which included running red lights and speeding through school zones, amounted to more than $12,000 in fines.

In the months that followed, transportation safety groups and activists decried Ms. Yarimi’s traffic record and urged lawmakers in Albany to pass legislation to address the city’s chronic speeders.

Mr. Gonzalez on Wednesday said that Ms. Yarimi’s sentence showed “that reckless driving will be vigorously prosecuted.”

But outside the courthouse, the Saada family’s civil lawyer, Herschel Kulefsky, complained that the family had not been allowed to speak in court. “ They are quite disappointed, or outraged would probably be a better word,” he said, calling the sentence “the bare minimum.”

“I think this doesn’t send any message at all, other than a lenient message,” Mr. Kulefsky added.

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Video: What Bodegas Mean for New York

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Video: What Bodegas Mean for New York

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Bodegas have been an essential part of New York City life for decades. Anna Kodé, a reporter at the New York Times, breaks down the history, challenges and triumphs of the bodega and the people who run them.

By Anna Kodé, Gabriel Blanco, Karen Hanley and Laura Salaberry

November 17, 2025

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Video: Why Can’t We Fix Penn Station?

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Video: Why Can’t We Fix Penn Station?

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The biggest thing holding Penn Station back from a much-needed rehaul is what’s on top of it: Madison Square Garden.

By Patrick McGeehan, Edward Vega, Laura Salaberry and Melanie Bencosme

November 13, 2025

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