"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 2

[Peter B Wolf]

jhlurie, your quote: ".........So did we learn anything new of substance in this episode ?........"

We might, but they did not: While setting tables, glass ware was handled (still) with fingers 'in them'

Rocco was tasting 'dished' food with his fingers directly from a plate server was supposed to have been picking up.

[tan319]

Well, after reading the'gun and knowing it's one side's story, I have to say I dislike Chodowrow more then ever.

Here you have a guy who strolls in while the chef is is consulting for him, hears about this reality show and want's in on the action.

Screws up on a location and then rushes into another, and that's documented on tape, that

Rocco wants more time to prepare for the opening.

Bragging that he gave Rocco a better deal then Ducasse, that's so screwed up.

This guy has managed to screw two great chefs.

Having worked for a pretty well known chef in NYC,, who has had numerous books out and was working on one when we opened one of his new concepts, these kinds of chefs aren't there every minute of the day, cooking with the guys, cooking on the line at night, etc.

They're there during the opening, making sure everything is right, of course we had a bit more time before we went public, but not every minute even then.

After the NYTimes review, the pressure goes down a bit and they can concentrate on their other projects, publicity, events they do which often takes them out of town and no one freaks out, because there's a crew that this guy has delegated duties too, and if someone is screwing up, they're out on their ass.

It seems to me that what's going on in the show concerning Rocco promoting his book alone, is pretty in line with what I experienced, minus the wackiness.

The chef is going to come in, if he's in town, 4 days a week, maybe more, sometimes to expedite for the rush, maybe to work on some new dishes in the late morning, early afternoon, talk with his guys, etc. He's not going to be there all day and night.

Friday and Saturday night, maybe Thursday too, he's going to be there unless he's on biz out of town.

Is Bobby Flay in Bolo or Mesa Grill every night?

Doubtful.

As far as Rocco's character is concerned, maybe he just feels more relaxed around his "other" joint, has Mama around, feels looser.

Having known a few people who worked at Union Pacific, I've never gotten the idea he was real relaxed there. Anything but.

Super on it, mad attention to detail, not real tolerant of screwups.

All of these chefs, short, fat, thin, or tall, attract women like flies. Rocco, at least until this season, would seem to have all the necessary attributes.

I'm still gobsmacked that he would risk everything he worked for to establish himself as a chef, put his cred on the line like he has, for a TV show, but I still respect him as a chef.

[Peter B Wolf]

Mags, to comment on your quote ".......I don't know if that statue is there as a function of Rocco's religion or as a kitsch-reference to Little Italy red-sauce joints ......"

a statue like this in a Restaurant is always "KITSCH",

and, it is certainly not needed to a ' Little Italy red-sauce joint ', as in my opinion Roccos is nothing but such place. ( that's from watching the show )

[Stone]

I'm still gobsmacked that he would risk everything he worked for to establish himself as a chef, put his cred on the line like he has, for a TV show, but I still respect him as a chef.

As an outside observer, who's only seen two episodes, if Rocco is really concerned about his credibility as a Chef, he' d take a more hands-on approach at the restaurant. That's where his credibility comes from. PR events with kids are great and book signings are fun, but he should remember that his first responsibility to run the restaurant, and until that's humming along, everything else should take a back-seat.

Especially since this is on t.v. If Rocco succeeded, he'd write his own ticket. After watching his no-show performance, how many investors do you think are lining up to finance his next venture?

Edited April 28, 2004 by Stone (log)

[Peter B Wolf]

I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk here about the double dipping on plated food that Rocco did last night.

I did

[Peter B Wolf]

According to the TiVO guide, The Apprentice is a game show.

....and loosing.

[Stone]

I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk here about the double dipping on plated food that Rocco did last night.

I did

Don't kitchen staff always have their hands in the food? tasting, testing, placing, etc.?

[WHT]

But seriously folks, it occurred to me just now, why would someone shrewd like Choderow put such an unknown and potentially troublesome element into an already volatile situation? Think he'll check his references more closely in the future?

I guess you didn't read his interview. His parents live near JC.

[Peter B Wolf]

Don't kitchen staff always have their hands in the food? tasting, testing, placing, etc.?

I did, for 48 years, but never after 'plating' !!

[KatieLoeb]

KatieLoeb:

Great rant. Print it on cards for home cooks. They can hand the cards to guests who, having enjoyed their table, won't stop badgering them to open a restaurant.

Great idea. Perhaps I can singlehandedly prevent them from joining the ranks of failed restaurateurs.

It's exactly that sort of idealism and sheer idiocy that creates the armies of failures. Would anyone attempt brain surgery without going to med school? Try a case before the Supreme Court without membership to the bar? OK - those are extreme examples that require academic credentials and specific state licensing, but the analogy remains valid. Every moron on the planet thinks they can open a restaurant and make boatloads of money. Obviously not so given the brutal statistics which include the seasoned professionals. It's not nearly as easy as it looks and the stuff you haven't even considered yet has picked your pocket before you can form your next thought.

I've said this here before - simply "owning" a restaurant does not a restaurateur make. If that were true then every McDonald's franchisee could claim the title.

[Jinmyo]

Don't kitchen staff always have their hands in the food?  tasting, testing, placing, etc.?

I did, for 48 years, but never after 'plating' !!

Exactly.

[Mabelline]

Katie, you said a mouthful, girl, when you underlined the state of preparedness 90% of folks put into opening a business. When I started a building business, it took two HARDASS years for competence, ability, and word of mouth to start really giving me a profit; rule #1:pay the help before you pay yourself-nearly broke me...but then it started to gain momentum, and I had it 22 years.

[theprophe]

I missed the first season, but sofar the 2nd is entertaining, even if its not much about the reality of running a restaurant.

[daysee8]

Don't kitchen staff always have their hands in the food?  tasting, testing, placing, etc.?

I did, for 48 years, but never after 'plating' !!

Exactly.

That was pretty much my point ... it wasn't the touching food that alarmed me (I had no problem with Tony telling one of the cooks to put his finger on the food) it was the double-dipping of plated food. Does it happen? Sure. But this happens so naturally for Rocco that he didn't even think about the fact that it was being done on camera.

Edited April 29, 2004 by daysee8 (log)

[KatieLoeb]

Katie, you said a mouthful, girl, when you underlined the state of preparedness 90% of folks put into opening a business. When I started a building business, it took two HARDASS years for competence, ability, and word of mouth to start really giving me a profit; rule #1:pay the help before you pay yourself-nearly broke me...but then it started to gain momentum, and I had it 22 years.

Good for you! I won't speak for any other businesses other than the statistical sample that I've been exposed to which is restaurants, but I'd imagine the cluelessness could easily cross industries.

I think with restaurants though, there's that cheery ingenuous Busby Berkley :music swells: [Judy Garland]"Let's Open a Restaurant, Kids!!"[/Judy Garland] mentality that is so pervasive. Anyone and everyone thinks they can do it simply because they eat at restaurants all the time, and somehow feel "connected" to the industry, or that they have an understanding of it that they don't feel about say, putting up a building, opening a hair salon, or doing brain surgery.

Clueless is as clueless does....

[mags]

Ahhh, I could tell you about people who gush on and on about how they'd love to open a bookstore. How jolly it must be, just sitting around all day drinking coffee from handmade mugs and discussing literature.

<hysterical laughter induces coughing fit>

[laurenmilan]

I think with restaurants though, there's that cheery ingenuous Busby Berkley :music swells: [Judy Garland]"Let's Open a Restaurant, Kids!!"[/Judy Garland] mentality that is so pervasive.  Anyone and everyone thinks they can do it simply because they eat at restaurants all the time, and somehow feel "connected" to the industry, or that they have an understanding of it that they don't feel about say, putting up a building, opening a hair salon, or doing brain surgery.

Clueless is as clueless does....

Thanks, now I can't get the image of "Restaurant Barbie" outta my head (bimbo randomly deciding to open a restaurant between her singing career with the Rockers, and attending flight school - and of course, it's the hottest dish in town naturally!)

You know, this is one thing that TVFN programming has over "the restaurant"... the new TVFN series "Recipe for Success", while still kinda feeling like "Behind the Scenes at 'Food Finds' ", did run a good message regarding people interested in the business, to paraphrase: "If you're a person who loves food, don't go into this business. If you're a person who's good at business, don't go into this business. If you're a maniac who loves to multitask, you should go into this business."

Simplistic, but I think it shows the common thread among the successful business owners (particularly the food biz) that I've known. TVFN could just flash a lot of cheery "Judy Garland" garbage about starting your own business, but they don't.

In my industry, web design, there were BUSLOADS of people starting their own web design consultancies, and a lot of them either never get off the ground or fizzle after a year. There were so many people who were good with business, but had no sense of how the design biz works or how to please clientele, and so many more people who loved design, but didn't know how to run an agency and turn a profit.

Edited April 29, 2004 by laurenmilan (log)

[KatieLoeb]

You know, this is one thing that TVFN programming has over "the restaurant"... the new TVFN series "Recipe for Success", while still kinda feeling like "Behind the Scenes at 'Food Finds' ", did run a good message regarding people interested in the business, to paraphrase: "If you're a person who loves food, don't go into this business. If you're a person who's good at business, don't go into this business. If you're a maniac who loves to multitask, you should go into this business."

Yup - that pretty much covers it! Thank goodness there's some "reality" programming connected with the restaurant biz that's getting a true and realistic picture out there. One of the things that I find the most disturbing about "The Restaurant" (aside from the fact that most of those people wouldn't last ten minutes anywhere I've ever worked) is that now this is how much of America believes high-volume "professional"-level restaurants are run. Although the exposure is great (or not) PR for the one enterprise depicted, I can't think of a more damaging bit of PR for the entire industry than what's being shown on NBC.

[Mabelline]

Perhaps there should be a forwarning like the forensics shows have:

WARNING--What you are about to see has no footing in reality. It's as real as your voice after a helium balloon!!

[daysee8]

You know, this is one thing that TVFN programming has over "the restaurant"... the new TVFN series "Recipe for Success", while still kinda feeling like "Behind the Scenes at 'Food Finds' ", did run a good message regarding people interested in the business, to paraphrase: "If you're a person who loves food, don't go into this business. If you're a person who's good at business, don't go into this business. If you're a maniac who loves to multitask, you should go into this business."

Yup - that pretty much covers it! Thank goodness there's some "reality" programming connected with the restaurant biz that's getting a true and realistic picture out there. One of the things that I find the most disturbing about "The Restaurant" (aside from the fact that most of those people wouldn't last ten minutes anywhere I've ever worked) is that now this is how much of America believes high-volume "professional"-level restaurants are run. Although the exposure is great (or not) PR for the one enterprise depicted, I can't think of a more damaging bit of PR for the entire industry than what's being shown on NBC.

If it makes you feel any better, as someone who has never worked a day in the restaurant industry, I can assure you that I don't watch The Restaurant saying "so that is what it's like". Rather, I watch saying "The place has a kitchen like a restaurant. It has a dining room like a restaurant. That appears to be about it".

[KatieLoeb]

You know, this is one thing that TVFN programming has over "the restaurant"... the new TVFN series "Recipe for Success", while still kinda feeling like "Behind the Scenes at 'Food Finds' ", did run a good message regarding people interested in the business, to paraphrase: "If you're a person who loves food, don't go into this business. If you're a person who's good at business, don't go into this business. If you're a maniac who loves to multitask, you should go into this business."

Yup - that pretty much covers it! Thank goodness there's some "reality" programming connected with the restaurant biz that's getting a true and realistic picture out there. One of the things that I find the most disturbing about "The Restaurant" (aside from the fact that most of those people wouldn't last ten minutes anywhere I've ever worked) is that now this is how much of America believes high-volume "professional"-level restaurants are run. Although the exposure is great (or not) PR for the one enterprise depicted, I can't think of a more damaging bit of PR for the entire industry than what's being shown on NBC.

If it makes you feel any better, as someone who has never worked a day in the restaurant industry, I can assure you that I don't watch The Restaurant saying "so that is what it's like". Rather, I watch saying "The place has a kitchen like a restaurant. It has a dining room like a restaurant. That appears to be about it".

You are clearly a more discerning individual than the "average" couch potato or Lowest Common Denominator (obviously their target market) to which I was referring.

[BuzzDraft]

... the "average" couch potato or Lowest Common Denominator (obviously their target market) to which I was referring.

Well! After a year of lurking, someone finally addresses me directly! I can think of no place more appropriate for my debut post than this follow-on to the thread that introduced me to this magnificent site and all of you in the first place. In a four degrees of separation thing, I stumbled onto a rerun episode of The Restaurant a year ago. I wanted to know who that self-worshipping arrogant chef was, and got his name from the Bravo site. Did a google search on him, and one of the first things to pop up was this link to the eGullet "Thread That Wouldn't Quit". I found it interesting that "Nobody" was watching this drivel, yet the thread went on for how many thousands of posts? I openly admit it. I was hooked on the show and thread with the show's actors posting behind the scenes tidbits, including this guy named Bourdain who appeared in one of the episodes with the sort of brutal but honest food critique I give to myself. One copy of Kitchen Confidential later, which I read in two nights, and a goal of eating at the French Laundry, here I am. And Alton Brown only lives a few miles from me.

I like to think I'm the best cook I know, and I know I'm the best homebrewer I know. My exposure to a real restaurant kitchen came when I was on a spring break in FL and tried to pick my sister up from the waterfront upscale lobster house in St. Pete that she and the executive chef, also now her ex, owned. The salad guy was a no-show that night, and I literally got Shanghai'ed. I was told later that I turned out 700 dinner salads (I doubt that) in my best Hang Ten beach shirt, and I was also poobah of plating the creme de caramel. However, I observed with fascination how a large professional, and very busy kitchen is run for a whole night. It was an epiphany.

As an "Above average" couch potato and very low common denominator, I'm one of those people who did my time for years sitting in my cubicle, dreaming of doing something else where one's creativity could have an outlet. Starting a restaurant always comes to mind, along with the B&B option. I have many friends who think because they've been told at a party their Brunswick Stew is really good, they're ready to chuck a six-figure income and the boredom of a technology career to open a restaurant out west, where no one has ever tasted "Real" Brunswick Stew. One of them included plans for a drive through window, no less, to catch that salivating commuting-home-after-work crowd. I was invited to invest. I passed. I've seen what's involved, and I don't have the guts or dedication to give up my engineering career to go broke. I have a dog to feed, you know.

I think the show does send a false impression about what it takes to open, operate, and maintain a profitable restaurant. Even a combination of cooking skill and business savvy isn't enough. Don't underestimate most couch potatoes, though - we get it.

As for the show, I'd like to see a lot more of the BOH, where even though many want to carve each other up as the evening's special in the heat of the stress and yelling and frustration, not to mention the heat itself, but they still manage to crank out decent plates night after night and the customers up front never know the difference. It's too bad the cameras always gravitate to the gossipy drama queens in the FOH, where they elbow each other out of frame in a culinary version of roller-derby, but that's what brings in the viewers. Now it's the legal battle of egoes between JC and Rocco. It may not be real, but it is entertainment for an hour, at least until Chappel's Show comes on.

Thank you for your time and your dedication to good food. I've learned a lot from reading you for the past year. Here's one lowest common denominator that appreciates it.

TomH... BRILLIANT!!!

[TrishCT]

May I be the first to welcome you, fellow spud.

[Mabelline]

WELCOME...Cool commentary...but do you feel really like a lowest common denominator...???

[handmc]

the cameras always gravitate to the gossipy drama queens in the FOH, where they elbow each other out of frame in a culinary version of roller-derby...  . 

This is one of the funniest observations yet! It distills the show to its essence-no Emeril pun intended.

What I find frustrating is a show about a restaurant and the food has nothing to do with it. Seems like Momma is the only one doing any real cooking.

The double dip on the plate Eww! Has this guy ever heard of a HACCP plan. Yikes.