Return of the King: The Mission to Transform Tavern on the Green

Jeremiah Tower, Jonathan Waxman, Sam Hazen and Charlie Palmer cut their top chef teeth in the 80's and in 2015, they will again make big noise throughout the New York City dining scene in their own unique ways.

Waxman is bringing back an old favorite, Jams, that closed in 1989. Hazen, who worked at the legenday Quilted Giraffe in the 1980s, has become the culinary director at the Blue Water Grill. Palmer is opening three restaurants at the renovated Knickerbocker Hotel in Midtown.

But it is Tower who might make the biggest splash of them all by attempting to pull off the toughest rescue job in the city, and maybe anywhere: he's taking over the kitchen at Tavern on the Green. Tower, at age 72, is considered the father of California cuisine, and teamed with Alice Waters at Chez Panise in the 1970s. He later opened Stars in San Francisco.

How big is Tower? Anthony Bourdain is making a documentary about him. It's only fitting that it would conclude with one of the most famous restaurants in the world!