"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 1

[shamrock]

Steve KLC: Actually, I fully recognize my own silliness. Mea maxima culpa. But I'm glad you find it entertaining.

[shamrock]

Unless... Zenial is the young Edie-Falco-esque woman?

If so, I am the biggest jackass! Oh, SNAP!

[Rachel Perlow]

Page 35? It "only" shows 27 pages for me. Did you know you can change your page view options to show more posts per page? Click My Controls, go to Options/Board Settings. Change Number of Posts & Number of Topics to 40 (the maximum). Less clicking of "next page."

[shamrock]

Oh, that's good to know. Thanks, Rachel. Sometimes these boards have so many bells & whistles it's hard to figure out what's worth customizing and what isn't.

[shamrock]

Seriously, though, Steve Klc or anybody else: if I violated some kind of board etiquette by referring to instead of quoting my earlier post, please let me know. I am, after all, a newbie.

[Rachel Perlow]

Seriously, though, Steve Klc or anybody else:  if I violated some kind of board etiquette by referring to instead of quoting my earlier post, please let me know.  I am, after all, a newbie.

No, not etiquette per se, but it would have been helpful if you had, for both the person you were making the inquiry to and to the rest of us reading along.

Edit: See now, I edited my post when I saw that it started a new page (40 posts per page view). That way people don't have to go back to see to what I am referring.)

Edited August 20, 2003 by Rachel Perlow (log)

[KNorthrup]

I just figured that Steve was boggled by the fact that this thread has a page 35 to refer to. Very few get that far.

[shamrock]

Claro que si... I guess I'll have to tutor myself on all this quoting stuff. sigh

[Rachel Perlow]

Yes, I realized that. Just took it as an opportunity to tell people about that board feature. I think we should just set the 40 view as default.

[shamrock]

Sounds like a good idea, esp. since the posts aren't numbered.

[Steve Klc]

Sham--me personally--I couldn't care less how you referred to anything. Don't read any of that into it. That was just one of those moments, just a little thing, for me, that reinforced what kind of fun-crazy-interesting-addictive place eGullet is, when you read something like that--huh, see my post on page 35 if you get a chance--and just take it in stride. Please don't sweat the details and just keep on posting and having fun.

[GotChianti?]

Hey, GotChianti. 

Thanks for responding!  Many interesting scoops in your post.  I will respond to them in kind. 

You were the rent guy!  Ah, I remember you now. 

And yes, Fiddler on the Roof is a great, great show.  That tune is very catchy.  Heh.

I could tell that Perry's angst was very real.  Sorry to hear you were subject to the same frequent shellings.  That Asian-American guy seemed like a real piece of work.  I can't STAND senior chefs who pointlessly berate their underlings by aping drill sergeant behavior from Army movies.  It's SO old-school and SO unnecessary.  In virtually every modern workplace except the kitchen, it's commonly understood that by getting up in somebody's grill (literally AND figuratively!) you're only going to frazzle them and make them LESS productive.  Well, it probably isn't much better at Bouley.  Or is it? 

I'm shocked/pleased to hear about Laurent's effort to help you out.  He comes off worse than Nixon. 

What was your interest in working at Rocco's?  Did you have a hankering to do old-school Southern Italian cooking, work with Rocco, both or something else?

Shamrock,

I don't think you'd remember me as THE can't pay the rent guy. I was just ONE of the can't pay the rent guys. I think I might have misrepresented myself by saying I was in the trenches with Perry, although I was. Where he was on the line of fire, I was just in the line of fire. Mutual commiseration. I was a salaried FOH employee, but I actually did learn a bit about cooking old-school Southern Italian food, from Rocco's mom.

[zenial]

Zenial, can you weigh in on my earlier post (p. 35)?

I really can't comment. I try not to post other people's feelings. Unless I know they would want them heard.

[shamrock]

Hey Steve Klc, (how do you pronounce that? "Click?") -- thanks for your clarification.

And GotChianti, apologies for the confusion -- I thought you were a line cook, not FOH. I was thinking of a chef guy who talked one of the office managers in the basement 'cause he couldn't pay his rent. Where are you now?

[shamrock]

Hi Zenial. I respect your reluctance to disclosure...

[theminx]

That guy is not so hot on the grill yet, but he is so hot it's almost insane.  The camera likes him a lot better than Rocco, I think. 

I've read several comments (elsewhere) about that young man being "hot." Funny, after the whole little kiss thing, my husband turned to me and said, "How cute. Maybe they can share their acne cream too."

Cruel, yes. But funnier than Pete!

[branch]

So I spammed Rachel's poll to my old college buddies. 34 sent, 23 back with answer saying yes they watch the show.... what follows is my scary compendium of their answers

1) Do you watch The Restaurant? If yes, please continue..

.

23/34 said yes. If you knew the eclectic crowd I sent this to, you would be agast that this show had suckered in that many of them.

2) Do you like the show? How do you think it compares to other reality TV shows?

Universally loved except for the product placement, which sparked a very entertaining flamewar on our mailing list between the one guy who works in advertising and well, everyone else. Guess which side he was on?

3a) If you live in NYC, would you want to go to Rocco's? Even though the cameras are no longer rolling? OR

4/23 live in or around NYC. None have gone, none plan to... one made a comment he would rather go to the tgi fridays near wall street and spend his money on "foofy drinks".

3b) If you visit NYC on vacation, would you make it a priority to eat at Rocco's?

Of the 19 responders who live outside NYC:

-4 have actually made the trip to Rocco's already (not made a trip just for Rocco's... business took them there but they made it a point to dine at Rocco's). Of these people, 3 WUV'ed it and i mean W-U-V. The fourth said something about the combo parm followed by many words I can't repeat here.

-All but one of the rest would go given the chance

Hmmm... interesting results on this question hmmmmm?

4a) How much does Spaghetti and Meatballs cost at your favorite Italian-American restaurant? Taking into account that the food at restaurants in NYC tend to cost more due to high overhead, is $15 for Spaghetti and Meatballs too much money, cheap, or an appropriate amount?

4b) Same question for veal parmesean, only the price is $23.

There was a lot of laughter about this one. As one commented "hell that's 15 cans of Chef Boyardee"

5) If you do go to Rocco's would you expect: the food to be good or bad? the food to be served hot or cold? to see celebrities? to have a good time? the service to be good or bad? to see Rocco? to see Rocco's Mama?

Universally the people that have not been there say that they expected it to be just like the show. Bad food, cold food, see celebs, be loud and raucous, the service to be poopy, and yes, not only see Rocco and Mama, but be disappointed if they didn't.

[Mark Sommelier]

Too bad we can't shout "You are the weakest link!" or vote anyone off the island.

[theminx]

4a) How much does Spaghetti and Meatballs cost at your favorite Italian-American restaurant? Taking into account that the food at restaurants in NYC tend to cost more due to high overhead, is $15 for Spaghetti and Meatballs too much money, cheap, or an appropriate amount?

After reading umpteen pages (well, I have 37 at the moment) of this thread over the last few weeks, I started jonesin' for spaghetti and meatballs. My husband is the pasta cook in our household, but we opted to go out last night to get our fix. I had hoped to come back to the egullet board and claim I had some fabulous meatballs for my $9.95, but sadly enough, they were rather dull. They had potential, if only they had been seasoned.... I was rather disappointed to come out of an Italian restaurant without garlic breath.

Cheaper than Mama's, but probably not half as tasty. If I can get my hands on some ground veal and pork, I'm going to try her recipe at home.

[jfd666]

anyone make this yet?

Mama's Meatballs and Tomato Sauce:

http://www.nydailynews.com/city_life/food/...65p-88770c.html

[guajolote]

Wow, that's a lot of eggs.

Aren't you supposed to pressure can tomatoes because of the low acidity?

[vox]

perhaps this has been mentioned already, but the biggest problem i have with the show is the blatantly unrepetent product placement.

maybe it's because i'm canadian, but i fail to understand how we are supposed to buy the fact that a perfectly reasonable eating public actually chooses to drink COORS LIGHT at a restaurant?

it's painfully awkward watch rocco, caught like a deer in the headlights, stilltedly delivering lines about american express' business plan.

and whoever believes that that pap theme song is actually good, is clearly tone deaf and therefore your opinion is null and void.

[vox]

p.s. i happen to love irony.

but then again, i love baudrillard...so it must be the post-structuralist in me.

[vox]

more thoughts...discussing the contrivances surrounded reality television is as relevant as talking about feminism and pornography.

basically, it's a tired subject that's been done to death.

OF COURSE IT'S CONTRIVED! it's heavily mediated!

[Rachel Perlow]

branch - thanks so much for the poll results! Veddy interesting.

guajolote - tomatoes are high in acid, or at least high enough for regular home canning.

vox - I didn't say the theme song was "good," I said it was the best part of the show. Not the same thing.