bourdain

Spenser. You cannot believe for a second what you say about crack vs. alcohol. We all of us have worked with and for functioning alcoholics. While drunk on the line is absolutely a no-no, just as a bartender drinking during their shift is looked down on--you KNOW that a good number of your people are getting drunk EVERY night after work--that their personal lives are a mess, that they while they will surely not make it to 50 in the biz, they're fine NOW (during working hours). Please. Examples--in your own life, I'm sure, abound. Crackheads, on the other hand...(and you really didn't mean that, did you? you couldn't have) have only a couple of months before they flame out. They need to "get right" about every 20 minutes..they inevitably steal (I did) because, well, they HAVE to, don't they? They are dangerous when enraged, physically weak, dishonest and often delusional. Alcohol takes its time ruining your life (most times). Crack is a full-tilt, pedal-to-the-metal, high speed rocket to the wall. The financial pressures alone when a crackhead (even a weekend crackhead) are ruinous. I did shit on crack I would never have contemplated doing on any other substance. One year I pissed away 70,00 bucks (which I didn't actually have) on crack. Even my long-time coke dealer wouldn't sell to me. You KNOW things are bad when your coke dealer (a full-time professional, lifelong coke dealer in this instance) suddenly develops a conscience. That is some insidious shit. It flattened me. It did in one year what twenty years of heavy coke use and five years of heroin couldn't do. It put me--literally--on the street. Go cop yourself an eight-ball, spend the weekend sucking the glass dick--and then see if you can clean your shit up for work on Monday. Without suddenly thinking that maybe you can close the kitchen early tonight--and that stealing from your friends isn't actually all that wrong.You can't. You CAN, however, binge drink, function as a maintenance alcoholic and make it through the work week without obvious SHORT term effect. Millions do. I'm in no way defending or encouraging that--but we have--all of us in the Life--seen exactly that, a hundred times over. We turn a blind eye. Every day. Because we can.

Ed Mitchell's. The Best. That Pig Bar was truly a thing of wonder and beauty. I am definitely in the No Tomato product camp. By the way, Chris and Shelley (Lydia was in NYC for that episode) started calling themselves "Sticky" and "Smoky" after a few days of shooting over pits and in BBQ kitchens. A solid week of BBQ two three times a day, one sticky, saucy, smoky shoot after another. We all had Original Smokehouse Flavor permeating our pores. The whole hog NC stuff was a relief--really stood out as cleaner, less adulterated...even after a week of eating nothing but BBQ. You could at all times--principally--taste the MEAT in all it's freshness and glory. But those burnt ends at Oklahoma Joes are pretty Goddamn amazing.

Yeah. Funny that. Let's face it. Alcoholism is entirely acceptable--even expected in the business. And there's no onus at all. As long as you can work. Is it sheer hypocricy to accept one and not the other? No. It's pure inductive reasoning (and something of a tradition): Drugs, in our experience, grind cooks down. They change them. They transform them into people who are UNCONTROLLABLE. Working alcoholics are , arguably, controllable. And alcohol can even be a method of control. (Shift drinks...reward drinks...let's-go-out-and'get-shitfaced-cause-we're-the'best celebratory drinks etc.) Does that make a chef who rewards his young charges with a round of drinks any less culpable than say...the cruel overlords in Myanmar who pay their Jadite miners with heroin?Maybe. Maybe not. Like I said earlier. Grey areas. Lots of em. Pint?

First off: We don't know the toxicology on Dempsey yet. So it's way too early to be drawing comfortable lessons or moral from this story. If there WERE drugs in his sytem, we still know next to nothing: Was it a one-off--a one time binge--and on what? Drink dosed with roofies? What recreational drug would inspire that kind of abberant, uncharacteristic behavior? PCP? An acid-speed combo? Crack and alcohol? I have a hard time picturing anyone with a chronic coke, alcohol or depressant problem rising to the top in a Ramsay organization. Ramsay is notoriously anti-drug, not well-inclined to them at all as he had a brother with big problems in that area. A real family tragedy by all accounts. GR used to attend group with him--so he's seen. He knows. But lets assume the worst. For the purposes of discussion. That the poor guy (Dempsey) , under the added pressure of a new job, as yet undescribed results of new cancer tests after some complaints (he had already endured/ survived treatment, yes?) and whatever else was eating him--bugged out. On something.( Add personal crisis--at least-- to the mix if you like). What, really, could he have done? It's not like he doesn't pay attention. Sometimes it's just impossible to truly know another. You can't always look--and see--what's in the hearts of our friends and the people we care about. We can't--alone--through policy--change them fundamentally. While I understand Ramsay's feelings of outrage, sadness, grief, betrayal, I think the general call for drug testing that comes with these incidents is wrong. Mandatory testing? No way. On the other hand, I also think that if you're STLL doing cocaine (as so many Brits I know still--inexplicably do) you will inevitably disappoint your coworkers, your masters, your customers. Cocaine is a bad drug--far worse--and far more annoying--and far more destructive in the short run--than heroin. You simply can't make a pro-cocaine argument. It destroys chefs and cooks. Every day. We all see it. We all know it. It's old news. That being said, there is--as in Malachi's example--one cook in my experience, who no matter what I did, no matter what I threatened--continuously scarfed any and all coke he could lay his hands on. He did it after work. He did it, I am sure, during work. And remarkably, it has not YET impaired his ability to cook the line. He was always the best cook in my kitchen. BUT, he was also the most likely to not show up twice a year--usually with a bullshit story.And his behavior required constant vigilence--as he was, to say the least, a bad influence Chefs are indeed faced with hard, triage-like decisions all the time. Fire the cokehead? Or endure his bullshit out of practical necessity, personal loyalty, genuine affection. Not always an easy call. Especially as we have all-in this busines--had our vices. This is the kind of hard decision chefs make every day--and I'm not going to get moralistic about that. On balance, it often pays, feels better, is the smarter move to stick with the cokehead (while keeping a close eye). Not a moral stance--but a practical one. Made complicated when its an old friend and protege. There's a big grey area there. You know it when you see it. Why no drug testing? Because the last thing we need now is to yet again demand that Big Brother take care of our problems. Already people point the finger, demanding unions, better working conditions, testing. Save us from ourselves!! Nonsense. Cooks and restaurant people take drugs because they choose to take drugs--and because they're THERE, always on the perimeter, and lots of free alcohol too. While restaurant people, because of previous disposition, because of the nature and pace of the work, the hours, the pressure, the social mores (such as they are) might be more prone to doing drugs, they are just as capable of making hard decisions about their own drug use. Cooks looking to rise up know this: Weed makes you slow and stupid and indecisive in the kitchen. (Which is why I only smoked weed after work the last ten years of my career) Cocaine makes you sweaty, jumpy, short-attention spanned, and likely to need numerous bathroom breaks. It eventually makes you psychotic, schizo, paranoid and utterly worthless as a cook or as a human. Heroin is just fine for work. At first. Until you don't have any one day--and you find yourself, aching, cold, shitting like a mink and too sore to move. It's also embarrassing when you nod out mid-shift. Plus you're spending every free moment looking for heroin--or money. Speed. Speed had a bad reputation even in Frisco in the 60's for Chrissakes. Everybody knows it turns you into a chronic liar--and for some reason--a kleptomaniac. (all the rich girl speed freaks I knew loved to shoplift and scam--dunno why). Nothing like a cook, with knives, tweaking on speed--or crashing after a long jag. They don't last. Acid, X, Special K..Who can cook well on that shit? Noone. Anyone who wants to make it to the top--and stay there, knows they can't regularly do any of the above and not screw up, get caught out, get a reputation. Yes--I know truly great speed freak and cokehead chefs---but they always fuck up. They don't last. They burn out. They always mess up the business end. And everybody--very quickly knows all about their predilections. The reputation hangs with. Forever. It's a personal decision, though. To do drugs--or to get off them. Noone can decide for you. It is your fault--and noone else's should you find yourself, addicted, fired, arrested, overdosed, broke or homeless because of them. A repressive policy of drug testing is humiliating to an already beaten down tribe. What? You're going to make your cooks piss in a cup once a week? You're going to WATCH THEM DO IT? (As there will immediately be a black market in clean urine--my friends always paid the born-again waiter for a few cc). Where does it end? There has to be trust. You TRUST your cooks. Even if you KNOW that once in a while, one of them will falter or betray. While you can immediately fire anyone (thank God for no unions) who shows signs of continued and incorrigable drug use which is affecting their health and their work--or pack them off to rehab, there is no way to prevent a weekend crackhead from beaming up after work. And there shouldn't be. Noone MADE me a crackhead and a heroin addict. Not the Columbians..not the govenment, not the work, not my upbringing, my parents, the capitalist system, the stress, or anything else. I became a junkie because I WANTED TO. I never said, "Gee! Heroin's addictive? Who knew?" or " Wow! This crack makes me suddenly want MORE! Who woulda thought!?" A negative piss test would have made me sneakier--perhaps made me seek employment elsewhere. I LIKED being a junkie--most of the time. I felt like an elite. I had purpose in my life. Drugs, after all--tend to FEEL GOOD. That's why people do them. And continue doing them. Until they don't feel so good anymore. Which is what it comes down to. Each individual making an informed choice about what they want to do. If they're still doing smack at age 30--and still have things they want to do with their lives, it's decision time.If they want to work in a three star kitchen, they risk everything by taking drugs. It's a close-knit community, built on respect. At the very least, if your cooks and commis know you're a cokehead, they won't respect you. If caught you can be fired and blackballed from other kitchens. It's a constant cost vs. benefit analysis--for employers --and for druggies. But in the end it's up to the individual drug user. The best thing a chef can do is state a firm policy (understanding that they will very likely bend it on occasion). Enforce it publicly and ruthlessly when needed. If a much-loved, much needed worker shows signs of ignoring the edict? A quiet talk. "I know what you're doing. I KNOW.Other, independent sources tell me. So don't lie. In fact. Don't say anything. You'll insult me. Just listen. I'm watching you. I am in your shit. I am going to stay in your shit. Every day. Every hour. If you even look like you're high..if you look like you were high the night before. If I see you so much as sniffle. If I see your pupils any smaller than fucking saucers. If I hear a rumor..from a total stranger. If I suspect. You're out. Forever. I don't care if you're woofing gas and glue all day on your day off (well..I care--but I can't do anything about it). But if you are anything less than Johnny On The Fucking Spot during working hours I will cheerfully cut your throat. And I will tell every chef, every cook, every owner, every fucking busboy in this town that you are an unreliable, degenerate druggie fuck. You want a week or two off to think about this? Need counselling? Rehab? I'm sure we can hook you up--no fault, no foul (if you're worth it) It's decision time, asshole. Go home. Look in the mirror. Ask yourself do I want to work here. Let me know what your decision is. Now get out of my sight." Nobody's less tolerant than an ex junkie.

North Carolina--the whole pig.

Terrific show. In the course of doing a novelty, premise driven reality show they really caught some wonderful aspects of the real life of cooking. As good as anything I've seen on what it takes. I loved the changing perspective..from the "I've never seen so many terrified faces on so many people" remark to getting chewed out by his crew for being polite and not being frceful enough to the goodbye shot--where he really did look like a different--even better--person. Ramsay was priceless--though let's face it--pretty Goddamn nice. I would have tossed poor Ed out of my kitchen on day one. If you haven't seen this yet, catch it or tape it tomorrow. Too good to miss.

The word "Faustian" kept coming strangely to mind As I understand it, six episodes are being filmed. Most deal with the planning, menu development, hiring, pre-opening process...Rocco goes to Italy...etc. Two (maybe more) episodes deal with the Main Event, the restaurant's first days open for business. Whether there will be future episodes is (like with all television) probably to be determined by the Neilsen overnites. When the cameras are long gone, the restaurant is expected to operate as any other--serving food and hopefully making money; And yes. I had to sign a release.

Rim shot!

I'm having a lot of trouble separating the ironic from the post-ironic from the sincere regarding last night's experience. The food was good--if actively unambitious. Exactly what you think/hope you're going to get after looking at the menu (see above).I mean, when you see Spaghetti and Mama's Meatballs as the first, most prominent thing on a menu--that's pretty much a defining mission statement, yes? Good meatballs. Fresh fish. The food was decent..Maybe even a little bit better than decent.. In fact--if Rocco was serving the exact same food in a tiny, out-of-the-way, homier location, I'd be unrestrained in my praise for the place. (Rocco's version of Rao's, perhaps)But the decor is very City Island: loud, overlit, vinyl and formica...(the business model seems to be a mix of Carmines and Balthazar)and the TV thing added another dimension of..of..complicity in some crime yet to be identified. (though shooting ends this week). I'm confused. Rocco is an extremely talented chef, an excellent cook, a very bright, articulate--and yes--sensitive guy. I personally like him--and hope he does well in all his ventures. I want to root for him--a capable chef with the world on a string, making moves. But I'm troubled by my dinner last night. A meal shouldn't make you feel implicated in some unnamed felony afterwards...it shouldn't make you stand in front of the mirror looking into the yawning depths of your own dark heart, wondering "Jesus! What have we come to?!" Irony and cynicism should not, I think, be menu items. Am I looking too hard at what could/should be a "fun", casual dining experience? Did snobbery or self-loathing or envy play a part in my unsettling experience? Ripert, who dragooned me into this, thinks the place is fantastic and shrewd. I don't know. I feel like I just woke up from a week-long coke jag; shaky, weak and..guilty. Maybe some future posters will add much needed perspective cause I feel like I've lost mine.

First, the Menu: as it appears on a pink Broadsheet titled "La Gazetta di Rocco" . PARMIGIANA: Chicken Veal Eggplant SPAGHETTI WITH MAMA'S MEATBALLS FRITTI; Calamari Shrimp Baby Artichokes Asparagus Cauliflower Mozzarella in Carrozza Eggplant Arancine di Telefono Zucchini Zucchini Flowers AL FORNO: Clams Oreganata\Stuffed Artichoke Eggplant Rollatini Marinated Peppers Quail Crispy Lemony Shrimp Veal Spedini Mama's Meatballs Uncle Joe's Sausage and Peppers Sardines UOVO: Mama's Frittata Boiled and Pickled In Purgatory In Polenta CRUDO: Tuna Mackerel Fluke Clams on the Halfshell INSALATA: Wild Arugula Tomato and Onions Chopped Mixed Salad Caesar Escarole Caprese with House Made Mozzarella SALUMI: Mortadella Sopressata PASTA; Penne a la Vodka Fusilli Pomodorini Spaghetti Carbonara Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage Cavatelli Marinara Penne with Walnut Pesto Fettucine al Limone Linguine with Clam Sauce (red or white) Rigatoni al Ragu Gnocchi al Fredo Bucatini with Crab Sauce Linguine Puttanesca Lasagne Bolognese PESCE: Trout Porgy Octopus Black Sea Bass Red Shrimp CARNE: Steak a la Pizzaioli Baby Lamb Scottaditto Rabbit Cacciatore Chicken Under a Brick Aged Ribeye Roasted Squab Roasted Half Duck Braised Short Ribs

ate there tonite...report to follow..when sober........

Funny you should mention that Fat Guy. I happen to have a very good friend currently serving time in federal lock-up in Arizona. And another in a penitentiary in Mass. Should I commission a short log of prison fare from each? Compare and contrast? Both correspondents write very well--and have plenty of free time.

Ahhh...Good. I am blameless (for a change). The dish's name was lifted directly as printed from the Heathman menu. While classically, I suppose, incorrect (though God knows we've all eaten plenty of all-beef Shepherd's Pie in the lunchroom or at Rikers), I think playing on old, trite and classic menu item names is pretty much the norm these days. (See ""navarin" "confit", "relish" etc.). Perhaps "Hachi Parmentier des Balloches" --or "Hachi Parmentier des Couilles" would be more in keeping with the French theme.

Curmudgeon? Me? I'm a fucking romantic!!

Spelling looks okay to me.

What did I screw up?

I'm right here. Issues, corrections, criticism, exclamations of general distaste welcome.

Chris and Lydia shot the show. Good to hear they did their usual good work.

Cafe license fees are up 400 percent. Unemployment is at highest levels in nearly a decade. The dollar is weak. Prices for ingredents are higher--especially imported as the Euro is stronger than ever. Fixed expenses to follow. (They never get cheaper) Property and municipal taxes are skyrocketing. Restaurant business-already hurt by a weak ecomomy was already down. Good time to deliver yet another quick, devastating kick to the nuts to restaurateurs and bar owners. For their own good of course. FACT: Dessert, cognac, coffee biz is way down as customers rush for the exits after the entree. Walk-outs on checks are up as customers can now feign a smoke break and run away. Fewer people are drinking. Fewer people are eating. Those eating and drinking are drinking and eating LESS. And check averages are down. I will accept a random sampling of any TWENTY restaurants and ANY twenty bars (truly chosen at random) as final call on this subject--as EVERY operator, waiter, bartender I have spoken to volunteer that the effect has been "murderous". (reports of decline ranging from 7-30 percent since the ban). And to this panorama of misery add this to the mix: Exciting new restaurant trend in NYC!! Outback Steakhouse! Olive Garden in Gramercy area!! "Ironic" fast food! (see recent Times article)The future is here. And it sucks.

I had a delightful meal there a few weeks back. It's a dream place for a chef. The kitchen is about the same size as the dining room. LOVE the informal wine service, Dewey is a great host--and the food was terrific. That pork belly is easily one of the Great New Dishes of the year. The infamous foie with anchovies actually works!! And I thought the calamari "pasta" was sensational. I was deeply apprehensive about this meal--really didn't know if they were going to pull it off. But it was. I think, very fine--a rare example of food that is both actively "challenging" and good. I'd do it again--and again--in a heartbeat. And will.

Nicholas Freeling's THE KITCHEN AND THE COOK Ludwig Bemelmans' HOTEL BEMELMANS

No..that was the Bangkok show--which ended up being only half a show. And most of Chiang Mai. Perfectly nice people from the govt press org--just way too eager to "help". No way it was going to be comfortable shooting in Pat Pong with any kind of official presence... Hanoi was a delight to shoot--as our official liason to the Foreign Ministry--and local People's Committees-- is a dear dear friend who knows the show by now, knows us and let us do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. We spent much of the time with him and his extended family--then turned off the cameras, flew to Saigon and were all reunited with Madame Ngoc (from season one), who he introduced us to and who sees him (Linh) as a son.We were all of us absolutely giddy the whole time back in Vietnam--and I think it shows.

The Hanoi episode was filmed just a few months ago--end of January, early February. And there's another one--as yet unsold and unedited shot in the mountains with the White T'ai montagnards and in Halong Bay...Had a really really good time shooting them.

I understand the article is soon the basis of a full length book.

Matt: Thanks for your frank and fascinating answers. Too bad about Ramsay. The original BOILING POINT was the most riveting and accurate depiction of the real business of cooking I've ever seen. Now THAT would be something to see on FN. Some of the MCMKs were absolutely lush and beautiful and heartfelt and should make anyone associated very proud. I have heard similarly kind assessments of Rooney the man, but I think neither he nor Mario were well served by the comical sidekick scheme. Knowing Mario as I do, I think the last thing he needed was a script. Just let the man loose on Italy would be my strategy. Felonious Monk has never lacked for something to say in person--or on Molto. ( I think the Buford article caught that magnificent bastard in all his true glory). Glad to have you aboard and best success in any and all your ventures.