Who Runs the Kitchen?

I've been pissed at Chicago Magazine's Morsel's column ever since I thought they were taking things from Chowhound without attribution. (Peggy insists that she found the Chicago Little Italy site JUST as I was posting on it, or something kinda like that.) Still, I try to read Morsels each week. This week's Morsels brought up the story of another chef leaving his primed pasture, ostensibly to walk the Appalachian Trail. The restauranteur here noted he had a new chef in the works and everything would be the same. I have no idea how this place Pil Pil will hold up because I never tried it under the first regime, and I do not in any way knock the skill of the owner, Jack Weiss to run his place with new chefs. Still, I wonder if the Chicago dining scene suffers because it always appears to me that the chefs are not in charge.

Compare and contrast to New York. There, the leading restraunteurs to a large extent, are chefs. Mario Batali, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Thomas Brennan, Danny Meyers, and Tom Colicchio all own and run multiple places. Are there any equivalents in Chicago. Does this make for better dining. I am not sure, but my gut sez yes, New York has it better.