"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 2

[marcus11]

What do you think the salary is for tony as akitchen manager and laurant as the general manager . Anyone know?

[challah-baker]

I had to rewind to make sure Rocco really did say "Are those real?". And was anyone from the Health Dept. watching the hair pizza on the panini press?

Of course, we all need to watch to see if Rocco follows through on his promise to be in the kitchen more, but I think the sentiment amongst the staff is pretty clear from the guy who said if they can do that Tony they can do it to me. Pretty dumb management style, no?

And what is up with Laurent. As posted above, he was in on the meeting where Rocco decided to fire Tony. He is in the kitchen everyday and knows what is going on.

[Mabelline]

This really shocked me. On the Food Network bio for Rocco, it says he has a BA in Business. So what explains how that restaurant was run,or set up?

And, I saw Rocco's firing of Tony as Rocco's ''neener, neener, neeeener" to J.C. for telling him to get involved with what was up. He even used it as an excuse when J.C. rang him up...how childish.

[theminx]

He get's that he is a narcissist.  But he also thinks he is a great chef.  He may be a great cook, but he must have cut all the kitchen management courses.

I wonder if someone familiar with both the Union Pacific Rocco and Rocco's Rocco could do a compare and contrast.  I'd be amazed if he was as clueless at Union Pacific as he has shown himself to be at Rocco's.

I can't recall if this has been mentioned at all on this thread, but Rocco's cookbook won a James Beard Award this year, oddly enough for the category "Cooking from a Professional Point of View."

No matter what we all think about him and his shenanigans on TV, apparently there are professionals out there who think Rocco does some good work. Shocking, no? He can't be as clueless as he appears on TV.

[Carolyn Tillie]

[DAMN] I also missed it! [/DAMN]

Which begs my question -- in the previous episode, there was a big build-up to the Chowderhead interviewing the potentially new hotty chef... Did he resurface or was that just eye-candy foreplay that never went any further?

Edited June 1, 2004 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

The eye-candy chef didn't appear, but he and his brood of consultants had dinner at a place in Brooklyn and chatted up the chef -- who's nickname is Red, Rosso in Russian -- "Hey, we would only have to change two letters on the awning!" quothe JC.

[Lopaka]

Poor Tony...he should've taken the clue when cooks Tim, Rory and Diana ditched the place last season. A guy who won't pay his people is capable of most any perfidy.

[FistFullaRoux]

Poor Tony...he should've taken the clue when cooks Tim, Rory and Diana ditched the place last season. A guy who won't pay his people is capable of most any perfidy.

Well, at least Tony had the advantage of being Jeffery's employee. Rocco may have kicked Tony out of "his" kitchen, but he's still probably drawing a check from Jeffery while working somewhere else.

I mean, he was making 80K before the raise, at least according to Rocco.

[GordonCooks]

He get's that he is a narcissist.  But he also thinks he is a great chef.  He may be a great cook, but he must have cut all the kitchen management courses.

I wonder if someone familiar with both the Union Pacific Rocco and Rocco's Rocco could do a compare and contrast.  I'd be amazed if he was as clueless at Union Pacific as he has shown himself to be at Rocco's.

I can't recall if this has been mentioned at all on this thread, but Rocco's cookbook won a James Beard Award this year, oddly enough for the category "Cooking from a Professional Point of View."

No matter what we all think about him and his shenanigans on TV, apparently there are professionals out there who think Rocco does some good work. Shocking, no? He can't be as clueless as he appears on TV.

In an effort to improve my own cooking - I now salt things with my hand over my head. The results have been spectacular

[Raynickben]

He get's that he is a narcissist.  But he also thinks he is a great chef.  He may be a great cook, but he must have cut all the kitchen management courses.

I wonder if someone familiar with both the Union Pacific Rocco and Rocco's Rocco could do a compare and contrast.  I'd be amazed if he was as clueless at Union Pacific as he has shown himself to be at Rocco's.

I can't recall if this has been mentioned at all on this thread, but Rocco's cookbook won a James Beard Award this year, oddly enough for the category "Cooking from a Professional Point of View."

No matter what we all think about him and his shenanigans on TV, apparently there are professionals out there who think Rocco does some good work. Shocking, no? He can't be as clueless as he appears on TV.

In an effort to improve my own cooking - I now salt things with my hand over my head. The results have been spectacular

I tried to salt over my head but I just made a mess (and then I had to throw the salt over my left shoulder since I spilled salt and well....more mess.)

[Carolyn Tillie]

BTW, I'd like to formally welcome Bluebean to eGullet! We hope you keep coming back for more....

Cheers!

[Gustatorian]

In an effort to improve my own cooking - I now salt things with my hand over my head. The results have been spectacular

One might also suggest that feeling up the diner causes the diner to ignore the crappy food and/or the billowing smoke from the kitchen.

[FistFullaRoux]

In an effort to improve my own cooking - I now salt things with my hand over my head. The results have been spectacular

So how does one get salt out of the ears?

Edited June 2, 2004 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[GordonCooks]

In an effort to improve my own cooking - I now salt things with my hand over my head. The results have been spectacular

So how does one get salt out of the ears?

Why, you just rub your ears with ground veal when you're making meatballs.

What a silly question

[Stone]

In an effort to improve my own cooking - I now salt things with my hand over my head. The results have been spectacular

So how does one get salt out of the ears?

Why, you just rub your ears with ground veal when you're making meatballs.

What a silly question

I like to clean it out with a flattened piece of pizza-dough. Gotta get that dough way in deep to get out all the little grains of salt. Then I put the dough straight onto the panini grill.

[bluebean26]

Thanks for welcoming me! :)

I love the sense of humour you all have here on the site. It's so nice to laugh out loud. :)

I realize it is a t.v. show for our entertainment and that they don't always show what actually happens. They twist things to make us think they are more interesting and so that we will watch. However, I do think that it is hard to hide one's true colours all the time.

And yes, I still think that Rocco's attempts at flirting are definitely creepy! I mean did anyone ever tell him that lines are disgusting?!?! They are almost as bad as a line I got one time, "hey baby, i'm horny... wanna $#%".. classy, pure class....

[jhlurie]

No matter what we all think about him and his shenanigans on TV, apparently there are professionals out there who think Rocco does some good work. Shocking, no? He can't be as clueless as he appears on TV.

Sure he can be. Being a chef is about a lot more than just being a good cook. You are an executive and have to know how to act like one. And above and beyond that being a co-owner? Yeah... I think you can be clueless and yet make great Meatballs.

[aliwaks]

Tuesday afternoon I stopped by my Dad's office on 23rd & 5th, found my sister there and we decided to go have a drink (or 2 or 3 as it usually turns out).

Since we were in the neighborhood (also the neighborhood where we grew up) we thought it would be fun to stop by Roccos to see what it was like. We stroll by @ 5:15 and are informed that it does not open till 5:30, not we open in 15 minutes if you'd like to sit outside and have a glass of wine we'd be happy to let you in in a few minutes. Flatly we're not open.

So we decided to go over to Punch and have a cocktail see if we really want to go the Roccos or if we are over it. I have always been partial to Punch its whimsical its lovely it feels like summer, so we stop in. I had just got back from the dentist and the left side of my face was NUMB, I might have been drooling, my drink of choice would have to come with a straw the server argued with me about my order I became somewhat vexed. Anyway we pass up the fantastic looking calamari with 3 sauces ($8 a bargain!!) have these cheese crisps with peekey toe crab, Julian a had 2 litchi martinis I had 2 watermelon infused vodka sodas, our server was so annoyingly inept that we figured we'd hold off on the calamari thus fortified with enough vodka headed down the street to Rocco's.

Soooo we get to Rocco's its @6 now, there are a few people there, not too busy but not empty. First thing I note is that it is smaller than it seemed on TV, having been to Commune I kind of knew that but who knew what kind of rehab had really been done. We walk in and all 3 hostess glance our way, we gesture towards the bar and sit down, eyes peeled for Rocco, Momma, Uzay whoever we recognize, we see Shane and his little ponytail.

We ask for cocktail lists & bar menu: OK, I seem to remember the bar staff complaining about the amount of speciality drinks they had to learn, there were only like 5 , I had like 12 on mine and my place was much smaller, anyway. We decide to get a bottle of wine, none of the by the glasses appealed to us so we look at the wine list. I LOVE Primativo and they have 3, one from Apulia($45) and two from Manduria or Manchuria ($43 and $59), we were going to get the Apulian but then asked about the less expensive Mandurian, there was a (dolce) next to it, which I was curious about so I asked Jen our bartender (v. nice by the way) she says she was new and didn't know about any of the wines. Juliana is a bartender and I have my share of experience and we vocalize our dismay to her, how that sucks that she wasn't given any wine training, not nasty just we feel bad for you kind of a thing. She calls over a more senior bartender whose name I cannot recall who promptly & nastily informs us that of course they don't get wine training, Rocco's is just a diner, and she doesn't know anything about the wines either.

They call over a server who's name I also do not recal but he resembled Ice-T, he enthusiastically looked at the menu informed us that he didn't know why it said Dolce either, I told him that dolce meant sweet in Italian and maybe the wine was a sweet one, he went and got the bottle, we all looked at it, it did not say dolce on the bottle and Ice-T said that it wasn't a sweet wine at all that it was really good. So ok lets try it.

Jen nice as she was was not too great at opening wine bottles, also her wine service was not so hot she poured 2 full glasses and dissappeared. With raised eyebrows we sample , UGH manichevitz awful just awful. We sit there unsure what to do, since we did pick the wine but we were malinformed about it.

Ice-T is the first one over "Hows the wine" "terrible" "oh lets get you another one", Then Jen calls Shane over who does not listen to our explanation and minor apologies, suggests a much more expensive wine, I coose the Apulian Primativo and we order mama's meatballs and some calamari. They take the first wine off the check but we get a few -uch amatuers type glances from the managers-

A note on the menu, there are only like 20 things on there, maybe 7 pastas, 3 grill, 3 saute and a handful of apps & salads. It 's like a four person kitchen menu. Anyway our food comes out IMMEDIATELY, three medium sized meatballs covered in sauce and a pitiful amount of calamari for $10 (just for reference the Punch calamari at 2 dollars less are plump and thick with a breadcrumb like coating and three sauces, ponzo, miso & a satay with a nice bit of watercress strewn about).

The Rocco calamari with thin, over cooked and under cooked at the same time, not exactly golden brown, tasted like they had gone from freezer to fryer and were served with a dish of thin thin tomato sauce with a humongous sprinkling of red pepper flakes. We ate them but we were quite liquored up.

Mama's meatballs were just as good as any meatball I had had in any pizza place, I love meatballs to me they are good as long as they are made with real meat (ok even Wawa meatballs can be good at the right time of night), but the were good a little expensive I thought. The bread was decent the olive oil it came with not so much.

As we sat there customers came in a group of gentleman all dressed up for dinner in sweatpants & tee-shirts, a table of women from a suburb, two women sat at the bar next to us drinking $7 chardonnay in the cheap glasses that they use.

We decided to finish our wine outside so we could smoke, paid the tab and Jules went to the ladies, no one rushed to bring the half bottle and glasses out for us so I asked Shane if I should bring them out myself, he said he would take care which he did. I went outside.

Jules comes back from the bathroom befuddled, she had walked through the entire restuarant almost to the kicthen passing wait staff bussers etc without one person asking what she was looking for, she actually walked in to the kitchen where she was informed that the ladies room was in fact toward the front of the restaurant near the door. This all confused her also because my sister rarely goes unnoticed, she is an extremely well endowed blond who that day was wearing a white off the shoulder shirt and tight white skirt, and no one stopped her as she walked into the kitchen. Perhaps they thought because she was wearing white she worked there.

While outside a waiter who obviously was not immune to Juliana's charms came by the chat us up. We asked for Rocco, he was across the street in his office, we waved, we sat while the suburban ladies took pictures of themselves in front of the awning. Mamma came out to say good-bye to some people. We said hello Mamma, told her we liked her meatballs. Mamma now a celebrity, immune to the fanfare and attention merely smiled, waved and went back inside. Incidentally she looks so much healthier than on the show.

So that was our night at Roccos it was amusing, I'll never go back, but I will continue to enjoy telling people about it.

It was kind of sad, like a restaurant of lost dreams. Rocco had this dream but was unable to make it happen, because of circumstances, his ego, his attention span, the lure of celebrity, what have you. I understand that I had the same thing happen to me (though without the country watching and without Jeffery Chodrows money) my dream restaurant didn't work out the way it could have and should have.

Poor Rocco, Poor Jeffery, Poor Mamma and Poor Jen having to work with that nasty girl and not being told how to open a bottle of wine.

[Carolyn Tillie]

This is only slightly related to the show, but here is word of a Rocco sighting -- in Napa no less! This weekend is the infamous Napa Auction (which consistently raises $5 Million every year...). Inasmuch, a lot of wineries are having private parties and events which you can buy into. I just read about this one:

Anything Goes at the Franciscan Supper Club

Franciscan Oakville Estate

http://www.franciscan.com

Start time: 6:30 p.m.  Max Guests: 30

Event Description:

The Setting: An evening of unscrupulous extravagance with romance, roulette, and risk.

The Cast: New York’s swankiest chef, Rocco DiSpirito, the star of NBC’s "The Restaurant," seduces an rollicking group of revelers.

The Menu: Hedonistic pleasures and luscious liquid libations.

The Rules: Anything goes. Jokers are wild and high rollers have the edge.

Password: Tell them the Magnificat brought you, darling!         

Dress: festive

Too funny, huh?

[Comfort Me]

Aliwaks:

Thanks for your report.

Your "Restaurant of Lost Dreams" description is so sad. And so on target.

[TrishCT]

swankiest

I think there is a typo... shouldn't there be a "k" rather than a "w" here...?

[Mabelline]

This is only slightly related to the show, but here is word of a Rocco sighting -- in Napa no less! This weekend is the infamous Napa Auction (which consistently raises $5 Million every year...). Inasmuch, a lot of wineries are having private parties and events which you can buy into. I just read about this one:

Anything Goes at the Franciscan Supper Club

Franciscan Oakville Estate

http://www.franciscan.com

Start time: 6:30 p.m.   Max Guests: 30

Event Description:

The Setting: An evening of unscrupulous extravagance with romance, roulette, and risk.

The Cast: New York’s swankiest chef, Rocco DiSpirito, the star of NBC’s "The Restaurant," seduces an rollicking group of revelers.

The Menu: Hedonistic pleasures and luscious liquid libations.

The Rules: Anything goes. Jokers are wild and high rollers have the edge.

Password: Tell them the Magnificat brought you, darling!          

Dress: festive

Too funny, huh?

Sounds like the new age version of Roman Excess. I gag immediate (does that sound like phony Latin?) Gadzooks, that's tasteless.

[JenBrava]

We asked for Rocco, he was across the street in his office, we waved, we sat while the suburban ladies took pictures of themselves in front of the awning.

I wondered what happened to him after the show. I have to admit I'm obsessed with the show, but I know it has a healthy amount of BS and editing, like any reality show. According to my digital cable (and I'm Tivoing the show because I have no intention of staying home on a Saturday night to watch it live, plus I love fast forwarding through the commercials), JC is going to offer to buy out Rocco's portion of the restaurant. I didn't think he'd accept, hence the lawsuits, but I didn't know what the status of those were. That was an awesome update and critique of Rocco's.

[bloviatrix]

We just heard about this tonight:

Daily Variety reports that NBC Universal TV Group president Jeff Zucker told reporters on a conference call that his network had "made a mistake" by pulling The Restaurant from NBC's Monday-night schedule during May sweeps, which end tonight. Zucker's comments, which Variety dubbed "a rare moment of candor for a network executive," reflect the fact that the ratings for the shows NBC aired as replacements, reruns of Crossing Jordan and Law and Order, performed even worse in the ratings than the first three episodes of The Restaurant, and reality shows usually build audience toward the finish.

Click me

[PopsicleToze]

I didn't like the first season, but over the weekend I caught the last 2 shows, and they were great, at least for reality TV shows. Even the most basic of leaders know that when in the heat of battle, you do whatever you can to pull the team through. Rocco sure blew that when he went out to have his ego stroked and left the line cooks to sink or swim. I felt so sorry for those people as all of the dinners backed up. And firing Tony was just the wrong thing to do, and how they went about it was disgusting.