jhlurie

I'm not sure if I consider Rocco's book promotion to be "for the restaurant", any more than I consider him being on "Days of Our Lives" as such. I don't think those things bring more butts into the seats of Rocco's 22nd Street--because he's already well past the exposure point where the butts come in anyway. He's on that tour and those soap operas to sell one thing, and one thing only. Rocco DiSpirito. Okay, maybe some Rocco cookware too, but that's just another example of something that goes in his pocket and not the restaurant's coffers. You know what's interesting? That Rocco and Rocco's 22nd Street seemed to have had the same website at one point, but it's been partially redirected. http://www.roccosrestaurant.com/site/ - for the Restaurant http://www.roccosrestaurant.com/ - for Rocco--redirected now to http://www.roccodispirito.com/

I'm not sure the stuff is even exported. Michael Jackson's guide has almost nothing on it, but "The British Guide to German Beer" site seems to have a bit more. It's one of those protected area-specific designations limited to Cologne.

I think the idea is that boiling in the saltwater somehow gets the flavor inside the pasta as opposed to simply on top of it.

I knew someone who was once thinking about starting a Cypriot restaurant, but as far as I know the idea never got off the ground. He always claimed there were plenty of dishes which were neither Greek nor Turkish. Would he have had competition in New York?

Are any of you folks still working on this? I was fascinated while it lasted...

I suppose the undignified three word answer to "why isn't there an uproar" is "Because it stinks!" I suppose this is a case where holding on to the past is a bit unhealthy. Was the old Madison Square Garden a needed landmark when it became unusable? Will the lovely features of the Jacob Javits Center be missed if a new convention center is built? Was the Bowery okay as Skid Row because it was made famous that way? The Fish Market's hold on history is somewhat dubious. It's been mentioned in a lot of Mob movies. That's about all I can think of. Really, the battle here--if there is one--should be over what happens with that very useful piece of real estate. Do we really need more expensive condos?

Isn't cheese bad when it stops tasting good?

Thanks for bringing that up. We know its done, we just don't want to see it. I think the key thing is that saliva shouldn't be returning to the plate. I can deal with a few microbes off a dirty hand a bit better.

Amazon.com has a source or two. Personally I've never had to resort to that. Every Asian market in my area has it, although I'll admit on having to occasionally ask the staff which is the right kind. It does appear to be the same thing as sushi rice, although I suppose it's possible that what the Thai, the Vietnamese, the Koreans and the Japanese call "sticky rice" may be slightly different, but similar products. I know one thing which is essential is that it's a very short grain.

Or how about Chef Tony directing his staff: "Is the food hot? Stick your fingers in it! Is it hot?" Makes me cringe... I can't be completely happy about the WAY Rocco did it (I don't have the tape queued up here, but he took it off of a plated order, didn't he? And they certainly cut away too quick to tell if he washed his hands beforehand or afterwards), but tasting and touching food are all pretty constant and essential steps in preparation. Presumably though, they have clean hands beforehand, are wearing gloves, and/or wash their hands again after touching the food.

Hiroyuki , you may want to stick to a strict "ask a question and be answered" format. If you specifically go the route of daily language lessons, you may be duplicative of many of the entries in Kris' famous long running daily Nihongo: talking about food in Japanese topic. Don't mistake me, in my opinion the greater the supply of knowledge providers available here the better. There just may be some confusion and overlap between the topics if care isn't taken.

Thanks Uzay, although I'm not positive we are talking about the same girl. The girl tonight, who was kind of a lousy server was fairly new, right? But there's been another girl on for several episodes, who the editing at least suggests doesn't do much except serve Chodorow's crowd and easedrop, and then report back to the rest of the FOH staff. She doesn't seem malicious or anything, but they've rarely shown her doing anything except gossiping. You may not be in a position to talk about this, but I'm wondering if she was ASKED to do that by the producers of the show.

Ah. So Newcastle's name is a lie, eh? I have to ask... "conditioned" how? What's the process supposed to be.

Short of some producer actually feeding him words, that really stupid stuff really did come out of his mouth. The question I'd ask is whether he's just some jerk kid with no judgment or self-awareness, or if he's yet another person who popped up on the show angling for his 15 minutes--who deliberately acted like a chucklehead to get screen-time. As far as editing goes, I can't see how his behavior could be a product of it. Too much of his odyssey of idiocy was caught in his own words, and very little of it seemed like it could have been taken out of context.

Now THAT's comedy. A "Days of Our Lives" commercial talking about "what Rocco does when he's not in the Restaurant"... placed right in a commercial break from a segment talking about how Rocco is never in the restaurant because he's too busy off being a star. Nice synergy. Almost as funny is the intern kid talking about "15 years of experience" and then calling the co-owner of the restaurant a "douchebag", even if he also included the honorific "Captain". Even if it was true, even if Mr. Intern is an employee of the parent corporation and not Rocco (and he's not REALLY an employee of anyone if he's an intern), you just don't do that. I mean, at least not until you are sitting at home that night with your feet up, or on an Internet BBS after all of this is LONG over. If Uzay is around I'm curious about the waitress they keep showing who seems to do nothing except stand around and gossip. Is she for real? The scummy/lazy bartender seemed like an obvious plant for extra drama, but the gossip? Could go either way. She certainly doesn't seem to get much work done though. So did we learn anything new of substance in this episode (other than the fact that Laurent saw financial statements and Rocco didn't)? I'm not sure.

Glad we can play tag--I actually know this. Before refrigeration curing, of course, was the main method of preservation. It was apparently called "corning" because the salt pellets used were about the size of corn kernels. These days brining is done instead of dry curing, but the name remains.

It may seem a bit counterintuitive (because the forum name suggests it's only for "Special Occasions"), but this is actually best covered by our "Special Occasions" forum rather than "General"--since the former sub-specializes in Mail Ordered foods and Internet ordering is a sub-category of that. So, I'm moving this topic there. I also recommend that you look around the rest of the Special Occasions forum, since there are quite a few existing topics on specific Mail Order and Internet available food sources.

In theory eGullet caters to people of all levels--as long as you eat you might be reading or posting here. But I think that no matter what, there's always a level of intimidation in posting really simple cooking questions. Sometimes it's just a case of having a little hole--a knowledge gap--in something really basic. You might be a real ace as a cook but have some single simple embarrassing gap that you've never managed to fill. Or sometimes it's the case that a user may be something of a "professional" restaurant patron and a total amateur at creating anything themselves. I see this thread as an opportunity for people in this position to band together rather than hiding in the shadows. Sure, you may be putting yourself out there, but you will be in good company! I'm talking about the REALLY simple things--the things that can likely be answered with a yes or no, or maybe a few sentences. Stuff you might have easily learned from Mom, if you'd listened, or Google, if you are a really really good searcher, or Home Ec. class if you hadn't taken Shop class instead. But probably too damn simple for most cookbooks. Okay, I suppose I'll have to take a stab at it, and then after someone answers another person can ask their "stupid" question in turn and wait for their answer (I'm putting "stupid" in quotes, because hey... you know that they say... there are no stupid questions, only... oh, never mind). When you boil pasta you sometimes get a nice sticky glutenous coating all over it--even if the pasta still seems al dente otherwise. Does this mean that you did something wrong? Overcooked it? Didn't stir enough? Had it boiling too furiously? Bought bad pasta? Should you be washing that coating off afterwards or just leaving it be?

It can likely be frozen I'd imagine. Actually I'm pretty sure that it can't be--at least not with any chance of retaining it's potency. Vaccum sealing is the thing.

I suppose we have to wait and see more reports, because from what I recall some of the best "numbers" last year were demographically based-- you know... like "among adults 18-49" or "among one-armed monkeys 4-7", or something like that. I DO know that last year's premiere episode had 8.4 million viewers, versus 6.5 this time. For a returning show that kind of drop is considered a disaster--especially when it's got the same timeslot. They also apparently put stock in how much viewership falls or rises from the program on immediately before it, and I know that with last year's premiere the viewership rose from it's lead-in. This year, with 6.5 million I doubt that happened, although I don't have the numbers handy to be sure. I suppose NBC is a good place to be for a badly rated show though. ABC and FOX have been known to yank things in the middle. I don't know if NBC does that--especially with a Mark Burnett production. EDIT - actually this story disagrees with The New York Post a bit and claims that The Restaurant was third in it's slot, not second.

Well if the ratings mean anything, Rocco may not have a Reality show job OR a cooking job at that restaurant when this is all over. 2nd place for the timeslot may not seem that bad... until you look at the difference in actual viewers--an estimated 21 million for "CSI: Miami" vs. an estimated 6.5 million for Rocky The Chef and his band of merry men (and women).

Since we have Iron Chef topics flying all over the place like crazy (we've had to merge or lock a few redundant ones) I'd like to give a little mini-index of the existing ones to try and stem further duplication. Here are the locations of the existing Iron Chef topics. Please try and keep discussion of the appropriate episodes and/or versions of the show in the proper topic: Iron Chef America--overall reactions Iron Chef America--Episode 1 Iron Chef America--Episode 2 Iron Chef America--Episode 3 Iron Chef America--Episode 4 (Tag Team battle) Archival topic about Chris Cognac's trip to see the show Topic for Iron Chef: The Japanese Edition Topic for the dopey William Shatner hosted version

What? They drafted from "Access Hollywood" and they didn't get President Bush's creepy little cousin Billy? I wonder if the "Access Hollywood" woman is expected to giggle a lot and talk too fast and all breathy. 'Cause it's Iron Chef.

Yeah, I was back at Cinco De Mayo recently after months away (it's not exactly local to me) and was reminded again how good a place it is. I mean it's not going to give Mexican in most of the Southwest or California a run for their money, but for the Northeast it's great. Also, Al, if you dig around in the NJ forum, there are actually a few topics about the fact that there's apparently been a minor renaissance in Mexican food in Northern New Jersey lately--at least compared to a lifetime of bleak bland inauthenticity (okay, a VERY minor one--but 3 or 4 places is better than nothing).

I think we have to acknowledge the fact that Mr. Chodorow has, by agreeing to be on the show, agreed to put himself (and his life) under a magnifying glass. Is it a fact that he served time for a charge which basically boiled down to "lying to/not cooperating with the government"? Yes. Does it speak to how he conducts his business in general? I have no idea. More importantly, to a viewer of this show, does it affect his position relative to Rocco DiSpirito's crappy management skills? Probably not. I think it was stated a few pages back... the show is more interesting because your two extremes--thus far--are not really wearing black and white hats. We've got a businessman who's entire demeanor and history makes us feel uncomfortable. And we've got a petulant irresponsible child on the other side. I'll be disturbed if the show tries to make Rocco into a hero--the "underdog" they implied he was the first time. At the same time, I certainly don't want Jeffrey Chodorow shown inaccurately either. But it's impossible to know either of these men "in real life", and it's the nature of reality TV that the term itself is something of a lie. But to circle back to how I started this post... there isn't a single person around who, at this point, I feel can get away with professing ignorance about the "rules" of reality TV, and what's almost inevitably going to happen if you agree to go on camera. You WILL look as bad as possible. You WILL invite your past to be poked at and criticized. You WILL risk snap judgements, and you WILL risk either the truth or a distortion of the truth being projected to the whole world depending on editing and frankly... what you give them to edit with. And by agreeing to go on the show--knowing from at least a decade of shows like this having gone by--you invite it. Even if you've never watched a minute of reality TV, certainly a family member or a lawyer of yours or an employee or someone has, and I don't think anyone can claim having gone into it blindly. So if at times I say something unkind sounding like "Rocco and Chodorow deserve each other", that's the root of it. They both signed up for this.