This isn't the first time it's happened with Richard. From last week's SF Chronicle:
"Bad, bad reviews: This week's New York Times review from Pete Wells was a scathing (and entertaining) zero-star affair, with the kind of one-liners usually reserved for the likes of Guy Fieri.
"However, the chef in question was the internationally renowned Michel Richard, whose new Manhattan restaurant - the Bistro at Villard Michel Richard - was described as "awful" eight times by Wells.
"The review got us here at The Chronicle Food & Wine section thinking about Richard's brief foray into the San Francisco restaurant scene in the early '90s, when he opened Bistro M in the SoMa location that currently houses the Cavalier.
"In his initial review of Bistro M, which lasted only a few years, The Chronicle's Michael Bauer memorably wrote that "the meal was so unsatisfying that my dining companion went in search of a snack and I went home to a handful of watermelon Jelly Bellies."
"Bauer's review was also oddly prescient when it comes to the perils of expansion. Wells summed up his review of the New York restaurant with some musings on famous chefs who are too eager to open satellite expansions where they basically use their name to sell the restaurant and then ignore operations.
"It seemed Richard pulled a similar feat with Bistro M, although back then, there was a viable alternative to having a chef in the restaurant. Wrote Bauer: 'On the final visit, Richard wasn't present, but his life-size cardboard image greeted us at the door.' "