It’s hard to imagine, but Drew Nieporent — the burly, bearded restaurateur behind Nobu, Tribeca Grill and Corton — used to be the Ivory Snow baby. “My mother, Sybil Trent, was a fairly renowned actress, mostly in radio,” Nieporent told me. “I was a baby actor back in 1955.”
Nieporent was discussing his acting career at the recent Citymeals-on-Wheels benefit at Daniel among the likes of Chuck Close, Gael Greene, Dana Hammond, Joan Jedell and chefs Daniel Boulud, Regis Marcon and Cesare Casella.
As an adult, Nieporent played a food critic (with no lines) in “Simply Irresistible” (1999) with Sarah Michelle Gellar, and he had a singing role in “Temptation,” a 2004 movie musical starring Zoe Saldana that was shelved after one screening.
Asked how he landed the roles, Nieporent said the director of both movies, Mark Tarlov, was a big customer. “Acting is in my blood,” says Nieporent with a laugh. “It’s in my genes.”