tootallfortoques

I doubt that's the case. Instead it just served as an ad for Amex. The sad thing is that he would dick around his employees for the purpose of plugging Amex. Unless of course they were all in on it...

One thing that has really struck me about this show is how starkly it contrasts with a show on Food Network Canada called "Opening Soon". The show follows the opening of a new restaurant from site selection, design, staffing, menu creation, equipment installatiion, etc. right to opening night. The show should more accurately be called "Opening Six Weeks Late, $300K Over Budget, With a Whole New Menu". These are real people, often with their life's savings wrapped up in the enterprise. What it lacks in "drama" it makes up for in reality. I still find "The Restaurant" entertaining to watch, if nothing else because it provokes these strong reactions, but it's about as real as the daytime soaps all its staff are dying to get on.

Last night Rocco received a visit from "the big boys", Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert. While I was glad to see they weren't edited into a fawn-fest ("That blows"), with the insidious product placement that runs throughout the show, I wonder how this visit came about. [i had originally posted this as a separate topic, and hadn't read all of the Restaurant traffic from last night and today, including Bourdain's post. I'm still interested to know why he and Eric went to that overpriced Olive Garden]

Our chef prepares the amuse bouche: Salade de thon de Souterrain™ sans pain et dans une tasse en plastique.

Ooooooooh, you little trickstress! My heart stopped when I saw the home page. Congrats!