When Guest Chef (5337 College Ave., Oakland) opened a year and a half ago, there was nothing else quite like it: a brick-and-mortar restaurant with no permanent chef and no fixed concept — a place where change was the only constant, and where the whole enterprise reinvented itself every two weeks. The restaurant, the brainchild of real estate developer Scott Cameron, pioneered an innovative business model whereby chefs of all different levels of experience could try their hand at running their own restaurant for a two-week stint — all without assuming any greater financial risk than the cost of groceries.
It was a bold idea, and one that was refreshingly democratic. So when Guest Chef had its last day of service last week, it left fans of the restaurant — and of alternative business models in general — wondering what went wrong.
