["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

I am the girl in the group. We are all happy and making the 3 and 4 star food that we have always made. Thanks for asking...

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

LOL!! Actually, my dog (unbelievably enough, named Rocco), knocked a key off of my keyboard, but I just cut and pasted another one onto my clipboard, so it is remedied!

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

Well, we thought it was pretty shafty to not be paid for working and holding up our end of the employer\employee agreement.

I am surprised that people did not file complaints with the Labor Board. Unless there was something in the contract for the show forbidding it. His whole tirade at the end was unprofessional and pathetic.

Frankly, I wouldn't have known where to begin filing a complaint, and waS So intimidated and exhauSted by the whole thing that all I knew waS nobody even had the caSh to get to work. (Thank God for family meal!)

The only thing we Signed for the Show waS a releaSe to uSe our imageS that they quickly whiSked away from uS before the ink waS dry. Savvy, we were not.

We were completely taken off guard by the tirade at the end. For the firSt time, we had juSt Sat with Rocco for a lucid converSation and were floored at the Mama crying Speech. Recognizing it aS yet another manipulation for the cameraS,we didn't anSwer hiS accuSationS with any further drama for NBC, we juSt took our kniveS and left .

In retroSpect, it might have been better for uS to defend ourSelveS at that point, but NBC probably wouldn't have aired it anyway.

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

If indeed the joint was not paying their cooks anywhere near on time there can be only one explanation: good "drama".  And it's unforgivable. Real people who have to pay real rent to real fucking landlords take it in the twins to make it more exciting for the principals? Shameful if true.

My hard and fast rule as a line cook--and for line cooks:

Cooks show up five or six shifts a week on time--and give it their best. In return, the house, ONCE A WEEK (or as agreed) pays the agreed upon amount. ON FUCKING TIME. Cooks are not lenders, nor investors--nor stupid enough to operate a business where they can't pay their help. They should get paid--and don't give me any of that wait-until-the-banks-close-on-Friday-so-I get to kite checks for the weekend shit either.  You're late with my money? Fine. Just know that the next time, I won't complain, I won't ask, I won;t beg--I'll simply take off my apron and leave. And if you are Jeffrey fucking Chodorow and are drowning in cash and own half the restaurants in the Western world and you're late with my money? You are getting my foot solidly up your ass.

Right on...

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

We were never given an explanation as to why we weren't getting paid (the kitchen"sorry we haven't paid you", scene was filmed after we quit).

We ALL offered a 2 week notice, and were told that it wasn't necessary, that they could handle it .

The show is what they show.

I can't understand Rocco doing this thing. (Well, I can, but I'd like to like Rocco so it the thing keeps jarring.)

I can understand BOH people wanting to work with him or at least in a place where it seemed he was following a dream, the food and place the mainfestation of that dream.

I can understand BOH walking out.

DPadrona, I saw you in a few shots early in the show and you were one of the few people who seemed to be doing the job.

Thank you very much! A lot of cooks worked really hard there. I appreciate your comment!

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

We ALL offered a 2 week notice, and were told that it wasn't necessary, that they could handle it .

but that was after you all orchestrated not coming in, yes? most companies would have shown you the door at that moment as well.

I went in the day after the fight and was told to take the day off. We then all had conversations with all the bosses and said that it wasn't the place for us, but we'd gladly offer the 2 weeks.

We didn't orchestrate anything there. And nobody has hard feelings for anyone else in the kitchen even now. We are all still friends and hang out together, although almost no one from the original crew is there any longer, unfortunately.

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

i don't think anyone has fault with the reason the cook's left rocco's (ie. the style of food, the fact he wasn't in the kitchen, etc.)

i think it's pretty shafty when peeps don't show up for their shifts though...because that means that you're screwing over your co-workers.

personally, i would have just given my two weeks notice and quit...without all the hospital smack.

Well, we thought it was pretty shafty to not be paid for working and holding up our end of the employer\employee agreement.

We were never given an explanation as to why we weren't getting paid (the kitchen"sorry we haven't paid you", scene was filmed after we quit).

We ALL offered a 2 week notice, and were told that it wasn't necessary, that they could handle it .

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

LOL!  The ne'er do wells showed up from Rocco's other restaurant to taunt the cooks who were working at Rocco's on 22nd.  How they knew where we would be has been a point of debate.  What their intentions were, I have no idea....just the results.

if you're suggesting that some guys from UP mixed it up with you guys, i'm surprised *that* didn't air. that would be some real drama!

Yes. They did do just that. The cameramen from NBC were actually present..(one jumped in!), but thankfully for all of us, they didn't air the footage. Drama indeed.

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

DPadrona, welcome.

Can you tell us anything about the scene's where Rocco worked for a living and cooked a few plates? The line was shown frozen in awe before the sheer majesty of the moment. What actually happened?

Thanks for the welcome....great site.

One evening, when we weren't particularly busy, Rocco came down to the kitchen and told me to break down 2 chickens and make a marinade of EVO, oregano, lemon and parsley and leave it in the walk in for 1 hour. He then returned, came behind the line, and threw them on the grill. And that was the famous awestruck cooking demo that NBC spliced together. His total time in the kitchen that night, (and the entire time), was 5 minutes. He didn't even plate the dish, but instead ran upstairs to the dining room. All of those awestruck faces you saw were cut together from previous and post filming. Cameras were in fixed positions all around the kitchen, so we were filmed round the clock for weeks on end. And ANYTIME Rocco entered the kitchen we were dumbfounded! "What's he doing here?"

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

...instigated by other cooks from a nearby, seafood restaurant who just happened to know where Rocco's staff would be

So are you saying they wanted to get on tv, kick some pretty boy reality-tv ass, or both?

LOL! The ne'er do wells showed up from Rocco's other restaurant to taunt the cooks who were working at Rocco's on 22nd. How they knew where we would be has been a point of debate. What their intentions were, I have no idea....just the results.

["The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1]

are  you sure you can't find out if someone is in the hospital? 

Dude! Rocco called The Hospital ... and we all know there is only 1 Hospital / Medi centre / Clinic in all of NYC!

And his street-fightin'-booze-brawlin' staff wern't there!

j/k!

I am one of the "lying" cooks from the last episode. Although NBC did not show exactly what happened, and the editing was done in very broad strokes, we all stand by our actions. The fight that night was an unfortunate and traumatizing experience. And a large group from the restaurant was there and witnessed the entire thing. Curiously enough, it was instigated by other cooks from a nearby, seafood restaurant who just happened to know where Rocco's staff would be, as well as the NBC cameras. No one at the restaurant was ever told that Tim was admitted into Lenox Hill or any other hospital here in New York. On $10 per hour, who had health insurance? They were told that we waited in the emergency room to be looked at for a concussion, and then left. And while that did not happen during that timeline, it happened afterwards. We had valid reasons for leaving, and felt that we did so in a respectful manner. When we finally picked up our checks, they were for a fraction of the amount due us, and were cut, also curiously enough, from Jeffrey Chodorow's other restaurant. The insane goings on at that point were part instigated rama from the powers that be, and part gross mismanagement. In any event, we were tired of being manipulated. Add this to the reasons we gave Rocco for leaving, and there it is.