Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 2


Gustatorian

Recommended Posts

Rocco at the C.I.A asking the student,what is the name of my two restaurants?

I thought I would GAG.

His response should have been.Down Hill and Going Down Hill.

I disagree here. These students were there testing to get a job at his restaurant. His question wasn't about ego, it was a test to see if the students had bothered to do any homework about the guy they were interviewing with.

Famous story about an engineer who didn't get a job with IBM because the interviewer asked what IBM stood for and the applicant didn't know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did anyone see Rocco's instructor after Rocco asked Justin the names of his restaurants? His instructor rolled his eyes :wink: and smirked. Bullshit is bullshit and the instuctor knew this. This was strictly a PR move for Rocco.

I have to say the ribbon Mama recieved at CIA warmed the cockles of my heart. 39 more years and I can make meatballs in my grandson's restaurant. :shock:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, tonight's episode left me feeling kind of dirty. (and not just because I was deep frying while watching) It could have been a trick of the editing because I doubt that someone with an ego like Rocco's would be asked to give the graduation speech at CIA and not bother telling anyone!

Maybe they messed around with the chronology, Uzay, if we haven't alienated you here, did the crew really not know why Rocco was gone when he was at CIA?

But they really painted an ugly picture. Here is Rocco being honored by his alma mater, his mother being honored, likely one of the proudest moments of her life, and they juxtapose it with Choderow saying "Rocco was supposed to be here, but I guess he didn't bother to show up."

I felt bad for mama, who was probably watching tonight and seeing herself and her son (and no matter whether he is a jackass, he will always be her son) portrayed as spotlight hogging asses.

I don't buy that no one knew he was at CIA and if that meeting actually took place that night, I lost respect for Choderow for using it as an opportunity to sway the servers.

Ugly episode tonight. Ugly ugly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the chronology was true, Rocco agreed to be there. At the very least he could have mentioned the conflict.

If the chronology was false, that's a lot worse than a mere editing implication.

But didn't Mama seem to be in two places at one time? I could have sworn she was around the restaurant at some point when the day when Rocco was "supposed to be there" started, but was at the graduation at some later point. Someone needs to put the Tivo in reverse and write this all down. :wink:

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any clue as to who "Ralph" is and where he has cooked before?

Also, on the timeline, I thought that Rocco told Mama he was going up the day before the commencement address to find his new line chef.

If Rocco went up the day before then it is possible for Mama to be at the restaurant for a meeting and be up at CIA the next day - it's not that long a ride from NYC up there. I can't confirm this because I didn't bother to TIVO.

But I agree that it's unlikely that no one at the restaurant would be aware that he was scheduled to do a commencement address.

Another question - how likely is it that a server would be fired in what appears to be the middle of a shift? Isn't it much more likely that management would wait until after the shift was over, in part to avoid even the possibility of any kind of scene in front of customers?

While I KNOW I'm being manipulated by the producers of this show, I just can't help myself - I can't look away. To think that I successfully avoid Survivor to be sucked in by this....shit.

Stephanie Kay

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any clue as to who "Ralph" is and where he has cooked before?

He's been on the Food Network's Date Plate... a lame-ass cross between a dating show and a cooking competition. He didn't actually cook on the show. He just advised the contestants who competed for a date. Kat Cora was also on that show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This seems to be the chef JC was interviewing.

Bio: Ralph Pallarino

Growing up in a very Italian Chicago family, food was often the focus of Ralph Pallarino’s family gatherings. While the other kids were out playing, Ralph was busy inside making homemade pastas, oversized ravioli, and preparing fried eel!

With dreams of owning a restaurant, Ralph Pallarino attended business school where he often entertained friends with elaborate and creative dinner parties. In 1999, after cooking for a friend’s birthday party, another friend approached him with the idea to open a no-fuss Italian BYOB joint with Ralph as the chef. With no professional experience, Ralph's dream restaurant, Bella Luna, was born, offering fresh and uncomplicated seafood dishes to enthusiastic diners in Conshohocken, PA, right outside of Philadelphia.

Following in the footsteps of Bella Luna's success, Ralph and his partners opened Stella Blu, also in Conshohocken, a more upscale seafood restaurant that focuses on fine Italian fare but incorporates other cultural influences as well. Ralph enjoys challenging himself and educating the public by using obscure ingredients in his nightly specials.

Currently, you can catch Ralph on Date Plate, his first foray into television, where he hopes to give people great ideas on how to prepare good, fun food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Emily is quickly replacing Drew as the biggest ass-wipe on the show.

Gotta disagree here. I didn't see her do anything out of line or inappropriate or mean. I think if there had been more of her the first season the place would have run better. She was all about business, her points were reasonable and she was more than patient with the hostess even though she refused to have a conversation.

If Rocco went up the day before then it is possible for Mama to be at the restaurant for a meeting and be up at CIA the next day - it's not that long a ride from NYC up there.

Okay, I watched again and you're right. Rocco did go up a day before mama. But again, they've done so much with editing that I have no confidence that he was or was not really at CIA when he was supposed to be at the meeting. Who the hell knows. Sometimes the audio quality doesn't match up in the course of an actual conversation.

Oh, and the ending... The cell phone soliloquy, the newest literary technique. Soon to replace poor Yorick's skull...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Add in all the caveats about editing etc. etc.

I thought Emily (the maitre d') showed more patience than I would have. That hostess should have been fired as soon as she started giving lip.

I, too, find it hard to believe that Ego-Man would not crow to the bum on the corner, much less everyone around the restaurant, that he was addressing CIA, BUT -- he was going up there to look for a line cook and probably didn't want Chodorow to know anything about it.

That assistant waitress was justifiably fired on the spot. My only question is why it was up to the bar manager to lower the axe while the increasingly impotent-seeming floor manager stood by. Where was Laurent?

I know that it's brain-rotting fast food TV, but I cannot. Stop. Watching. :biggrin:

Edited by JPW (log)

If someone writes a book about restaurants and nobody reads it, will it produce a 10 page thread?

Joe W

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Rocco's next book won't be a cookbook. It will be a children's book: "Where's Rocco?"

The way they cut the show, it appeared that when Rocco had his "we have to work this out" talk and JC said, "we'll talk tomorrow", Rocco forgot to say, "can't tomorrow, I'm getting honored at the CIA." Even JC would have to have understood why Rocco took the day off. On the other hand, Rocco could be so pissy that he didn't want to tell JC. But that's hard to believe.

How could they let a runner (the cute woman) work there for a few weeks without teaching her how to open a bottle of wine? I worked at Pizzaria Uno, and the management taught me how to open a bottle of wine. (The producers must have cringed when she was fired.)

Edited by Stone (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, lets see what I can clear up. I have to say that I am totally bored with the show. Instead of calling it The Restaurant, they should call it Rocco's Stupid Life. I love the stuff with Mama, because I know her a lot better than Rocco and she is truly a wonderful woman and she is the reason I go to work. There is just nothing interesting about the show. We have had 3 hours of were is Rocco so far and I am so done with it. The stuff that happens amongst the staff nad down in the kitchen is much more interesting, trust me, I was there. The editing is a bit tricky, they filmed for 18 days and every 3 days is supposed to be an episode, so there is a lot of time crunching going on. As far as knowing if Rocco was at the CIA, we didn't know or cared for that matter. We are so used to him not being there. I show up to work and to make some dough, and I personally like it better when he is not there. He has no idea what is going on at Rocco's that he just gets in the way. We had no idea that Jeffrey was interviewing other chefs, but I would welcome this Ralph guy anyday from what I saw last night on the show. We need to talk about a couple of people here. Emily, or Precious as we like to call her at the restaurant is hell incarnate. She has very little experince working in a restaurant is generally rude to people, everyone, if she isn't crying in the middle of the shift than she is making someone else cry. I have never worked with a more incompitent manager in my life. Speaking of incompetence, Janniene, the waitress in training, is or was a horror show. You have no idea how many bottles I tried to get her to open, in the 9 days she trained. She is sweet and good to look at, but I think her problem was that she thought she was on TV show and not trying to get a job at the restaurant. I am pissed that they didn't show all the fun we had with her. This girl would be talking on her cell phone in the middle of the in the middle of the rush, and thought is was totally acceptable. We also pulled of one the best restaurant gags on her. We sent her to fetch a bowl of steam from Union Pacific. She totaly fell for it and we had a great laugh. None of that made the show. I MISTAKENLY thought I saw her do a shot, with her guests, of course they don't show me asking the guests if she had and apoligizing for my mistake. But hey good riddens.

I just want to say that I was at The post James Beard awards party at Olives last night and had a great time hanging out with talented best in our industry. My current boss, Todd English, was inducted to the Hall of Fame.

Some Party!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But didn't Mama seem to be in two places at one time?

There was a quick piece of dialog where Rocco confirms with his publicist that he (the publicist) is sending a car for Mama, so I think that was covered.

But manipulation abounded last night. There was another piece of dialog dropped in when Corporate Do-Rag Chef Guy was quizzing Chef Tony. At some point, near the end of that scene, you could hear something to the effect of "Rocco's never here, he leaves it all for me and Mama." We never see who's saying this but we are edited into believing that it was Chef Tony. And it may have been him, but it could have been said at any time and I doubt that it was said directly to CD-RCG. I thought it was a shamefully intentionally act of misleading editing. If he really said, let's see him saying it, ok?

Also, if Rocco did have a conflict (CIA appearance vs. meeting with JC), why didn't he just say so while he was talking to JC? Is it so hard to check one's date book before hanging up the phone? It's possible that he did mention it and that moment was edited out so that we didn't see it. But again, if he didn't even bother to check or mention it, it just shows the depth of his lack of professionalism.

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rocco at the C.I.A asking the student,what is the name of my two restaurants?

I thought I would GAG.

His response should have been.Down Hill and Going Down Hill.

I disagree here. These students were there testing to get a job at his restaurant. His question wasn't about ego, it was a test to see if the students had bothered to do any homework about the guy they were interviewing with.

Famous story about an engineer who didn't get a job with IBM because the interviewer asked what IBM stood for and the applicant didn't know.

I cant believe for a moment that Roccos question had any other purpose other then

baste his ego.

If its a indication of what our future chefs and restaurants will be like if a student at the C.I.A had no idea that Rocco owned U.P. then we all better throw our hands in the air and have a Big Mac for lunch. :sad:

Not only should a student know what restaurants he owned but also that he was the chef at Dava,and when he was a chef de partie at Lespinasse Gray Kunz offered him a sou chef position but Rocco turned it down stating he wanted more experience first.

And before that he worked in Boston and before going to the C.I.A he made pizza.

Needless to say I could go on and on but the point being if a student at one of the top school's in the country did not have that answer before he even walked in the room then he better consider another trade.

Robert R

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rocco at the C.I.A asking the student,what is the name of my two restaurants?

I thought I would GAG.

His response should have been.Down Hill and Going Down Hill.

I disagree here. These students were there testing to get a job at his restaurant. His question wasn't about ego, it was a test to see if the students had bothered to do any homework about the guy they were interviewing with.

Famous story about an engineer who didn't get a job with IBM because the interviewer asked what IBM stood for and the applicant didn't know.

As a relative of one of the CIA students that was shown last night, this was not an interview to get a job at one of Rocco's restaurants. It was a culinary competition among the top students put on by Rocco's PR for the show. The winner had to work at work on the restaurants. In order to participate in the competition you had to agree that if Rocco selected you that you would work in Rocco's restaurant for a very short period of time (about two weeks, I believe).

Edited to add: Rumor among those whose competed that everyone wanted to come in second place.

Edited by s9498 (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm still hooked - but I was TERRIBLY annoyed at the Iron Chef-like music that accompanied the entire CIA bit (complete with a slathering of harp music! - PUHLEEZE!)

Regardless, I have to mention a bit of irony here... Recently on the Sundance network, they have been showing a film Eat This New York. IMDB describes it as: "Two best friends from Minneapolis struggle to open a restaurant in the food capital of the world, as the city's legendary chefs and restaurateurs reflect on their lives in the business."

While the release date of this film is 2004, there were a number of guest chefs interviewed during the filming in 2002, including Rocco, and he has these uncomfortable comments about "keeping true to one's self" and "following one's passion" etc... Worth watching.

To catch this film on Sundance:

Sunday 05.16.2004

6:00 p.m.

Thursday 05.20.2004

12:05 p.m.

Monday 05.31.2004

10:30 p.m.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a relative of one of the CIA students that was shown last night, this was not an interview to get a job at one of Rocco's restaurants. It was a culinary competition among the top students put on by Rocco's PR for the show. The winner had to work at work on the restaurants. In order to participate in the competition you had to agree that if Rocco selected yout hat you would work in Rocco's restaurant for a very short period of time (about two weeks, I believe).

Wow, that really sucks. :sad: Did he not keep that kid on at UP or Rocco's?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm still hooked - but I was TERRIBLY annoyed at the Iron Chef-like music that accompanied the entire CIA bit (complete with a slathering of harp music! - PUHLEEZE!)

Regardless, I have to mention a bit of irony here... Recently on the Sundance network, they have been showing a film Eat This New York. IMDB describes it as: "Two best friends from Minneapolis struggle to open a restaurant in the food capital of the world, as the city's legendary chefs and restaurateurs reflect on their lives in the business."

While the release date of this film is 2004, there were a number of guest chefs interviewed during the filming in 2002, including Rocco, and he has these uncomfortable comments about "keeping true to one's self" and "following one's passion" etc... Worth watching.

To catch this film on Sundance:

Sunday 05.16.2004

6:00 p.m.

Thursday 05.20.2004

12:05 p.m.

Monday 05.31.2004

10:30 p.m.

It's an amusing documentary that I've seen a few times now (I especially love the sign painter).

I saw it last night before The Restaurant was on. The ironies of Rocco's comments in the film and his actions as portrayed on the show are quite telling.

Plus, he physically looks a thousand times better (and thinner) in the documentary.

If someone writes a book about restaurants and nobody reads it, will it produce a 10 page thread?

Joe W

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plus, he physically looks a thousand times better (and thinner) in the documentary.

Ah, so I'm not the only one noticing how CHUBBY he's getting?!?!?

In Eat This New York, all you really see is Rocco's face.

The biggest difference I noticed was the skin tone. In the documentary, he looks healthy. On the TV show his skin always looks ashen and/or red.

I can't say that I like the guy as he has come across in all the media, but I feel for anyone who has been that stressed out that their health looks to be falling apart.

If someone writes a book about restaurants and nobody reads it, will it produce a 10 page thread?

Joe W

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i can't quite put my finger on it, but most of last night's episode made me want to shed more tears than the closing scene of Rocco looking in on Mama (which was cheesy as hell...).

i know, editing, editing, editing...but, i almost had to side w/ emily regarding amanda. maybe we only saw her "off" moments, but she really did lack any sort of focus you would expect from the first person you see entering the building. but, of course, they could have just grabbed the random spaced-out moments. and when your boss (i'm guessing emily serves as amanda's boss in some capacity...) is trying to deliver constructive (or not?) criticism, she should have at least had the werewithal to shut up and wait for emily to finish.

and drew....why? thought he got canned. maybe his daddy raised a fuss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...