Savour Chef

Hi. I have a few questions: 1. Was the break for real? (Isn't a fracture supposed to be in a 'hard' cast -- not a sling?) 2. Are you Jeffrey Chodorow's nephew? 3. When they sent you home, and then called to have you come in again, why didn't you just ask to speak to French boy instead of apparently inconveniently putting your suit on and halling your ass down there to see what he actually wanted? That'll do for now. But, you give good TV kid!

4 Wisdom teeth out at once. A few months ago. Truly the worst (culinary) time of my life. Had, and still have, some holes in where they used to be, so was VERY careful about what I was eating so as not to infect any areas. Once you're off your meds, get some Guinness down you. Great source of iron, which you'll need. I think the hardest part was truly the lack of variety on savory foods. There were tons of sweet possibilities. I think I lost it at one point after day 9, and actually fat-strained freshly cooked brisket juice and drank it straight. It was heaven. Nonetheless, here's what I consumed: *Apricot/peach baby food *Shakes and juices of ALL kinds (cantaloupe was my fave) amongst various undrinkable 'protein' shakes (ugh!!!) *Cups and cups of fresh, homemade chicken broth *Vichyssoise *Roasted butternut squash soup *Creme brulee *Mashed potatoes with lots of cream and cheese *Mashed potatoes mixed in with an insane amount of gravy *French onion soup (strained the onions and left out the gruyere) *Wild mushroom soup *Marrow (I kid you not - cooked up osso bucco and left the meat for the others but I got to savor the best part!) *Puddings *Haagen Dazs (chocolate, vanilla, coffee) *Steamed, pureed carrots with balsamic reduction stirred in *Stracciatella (Italian egg-drop soup) *Good quality Greek yogurt I'm sure there's more, but that's most of it. Good luck!!!

Fresco, that's too funny. I was just there a few weeks ago. Gotta love the big pig decorations outside! I actually discovered it last year on my way up to Stratford. Hope you bought some peameal. It's the absolute BEST I've ever tried. Even better than St. Lawrence. Had just the right amount of saltiness, without going overboard, and it stayed juicy and moist even with some browning. Their bacon is equally amazing.

I am both a chef and restauranteur - and I have to say that I wasn't in the least bit insulted by this show. Ruth, if you had just an ounce of idea what's actually involved both to conceive the idea of a restaurant as well as carry through that vision, you would be gentler with your harsh criticisms. How trying to make a living/make more money could ever be called DEMEANING is beyond me.....

Guys/girls, you really have to lighten up. Step back. Take a moment. I'm sitting here reading everyone's responses. I'm not sure if you realise what you're doing. You're all saying "oh, I just wanted to watch the first week to see if it was good...I'm not watching next week....". Then, seemingly unenthralled, you come back to cut it up to shreds, and in the same sentence say "Well, I'm just going to watch NEXT week's episode to see if it gets better...". When in fact, next week's episode is #3 and it's half over anyway. Don't you realize that you're going to be watching this until it's OVER??? You're all TRANSFIXED with it!!!!! Come on, just admit it. I'll bet big money that this thread will keep going and going, even after episode 3 is over. Why? Because you can't keep your eyes away. Just admit it. There's nothing wrong with it. My take? Having been on both sides of the restaurant business (worker and owner), I have to say that this is EXTREMELY real, albeit in a condensed time frame for TV. I'm really surprised that more restauranteurs on here haven't come to say this. You haven't ever heard your wait staff talk like that? That they don't think such and such is fair? I have. I've also been in the shoes of watching FOH try to trainwreck my restaurant and customers, and I've had to step in. You've never had to FREAK OUT on the kitchen staff for not getting it together fast enough? Must be nice. Fine, the cameras are fixed to be in certain spots for TV effect. Fine, they have to spout the sponsors names a billion times throughout the show. Fine, the drama is to a heightened level again for TV effect. But geeez, it's a NEW restaurant! How many restaurants have YOU opened? I'm going to say again what I said in an earlier post, and that is that I don't think too many chefs would turn down an opportunity like this. Nobody goes into business thinking it will fail. And you especially don't open a restaurant thinking hmmm, I'm just gonna mess up as much as I can. It just happens. I'll still dine at UP, perhaps even MORE so now. I have total and utmost respect for Rocco for doing this. A food/restaurant-based reality show HAD to happen anyway, I'm glad it was Rocco to fill those shoes. For all you naysayers, I'd like to know: What part of this show ISN'T reality???

I understand the article wasn't talking about feta cheese specifically, but I used that as an example. (I also agree about the Ouzo and Kalamata olives though...guess it's the Greek in me). That's the problem when you say that there's "good" feta out there. I'm not looking for "good" feta, I'm looking for "real" feta, which is outstanding, which can ONLY come from Greece. And, I'll be so bold as to state that no feta from anywhere else comes close to real Greek feta. It's a process, it's hundreds of years of experience, it's their milk, it's their animals, it's their specific environment. See where I'm going here? I find it very dangerous when in a world of fast-food living, that just anyone can have a crack at making a food product and it being identified as "authentic". Is nothing sacred?

I'm ALL for this. For example, there's nothing worse than going out to buy Greek style feta. Give me a break. The only REAL feta comes from Greece. You might enjoy eating French feta, Bulgarian feta etc. etc., but I firmly believe it should be LABELED as such and not just passed as "feta". Hope it happens.

He opened up Dava Restaurant in midtown Manhattan in '95.....and closed it within 6 months.

Geez, you guys are hardcore. You'd think you'd never watched a reality television show before. Unless you're totally naive you have to be aware that of course, they're gonna try to "stage" reality as much as possible. If the people bite, they bite. I consider myself to be a pretty objective person. I've had the experience of opening a few restaurants and can say that save for a few things I saw in the show last night, it's a pretty damn typical portrayal. All those people who have never had to get "last-minute-construction" are pretty lucky people. ALL the restaurant owners I've ever known have had it right up until the doors swung open. Especially in the larger cities. I don't know Rocco personally, but I have to say the guy's getting knocked around here a little unfairly. There's not many chefs/restauranteurs that would turn down doing a show like this. He's been around for a while now, he's got a successful restaurant, he had an unsuccessful restaurant that closed up, he started doing TV press LONG before this reality show was even an idea. This is a man who to me, likes new experiences and who isn't afraid of the talk or the failure. And who, in my opinion, isn't an empty promise. His food is fantastic. We're not really talking about someone who can't deliver the goods. I think I'll actually respect him MORE if Rocco's closes down. Why? Cause he's the guy who actually tried and wasn't afraid. Lots of chefs at his level might say you know, I've got Union doing well, got the book thing happening, I don't really want to rock the boat etc. etc. Give the guy a break already. Alot of your criticisms are coming across as petty, bitter, and jealous, at least from my perspective. (I mean really, cutting up his CLOTHES for god's sake??? Which, by the way, were some VERY expensive ones at that). P.S. Oh and about the "fake" sweat that was coming off his face at the end? That was clearly him throwing cold water on his face. State your opinions, but let's not get juvenile about this.

Still-warm fresh apricot jam....on hunks of some really great challah

Yes, sad but true. What's the world coming to when you can't even get a FRESH donut at Timmy's anymore!!?? They've spent millions of dough (pun intended) on a new facility somewhere in Ontario to make the donuts there and then ship them to all locations. I don't think they're being devious about it, just the way business works these days. If you think about it, some Tim Hortons stores are in nowhere lands...these smaller volume stores can't afford to have full-time bakers on staff. And also it's a way to have a more uniform product within all the stores. They're only slowly starting to roll it out though, so it's not in all stores yet. Here's a little secret: they still haven't figured out how to make the Timbits in the frozen form, so those will be fresh for now! PS. You DO know they deliver frozen Ace bakery baguettes to stores around Toronto too, don't you?