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"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 2

Gustatorian

By Gustatorian
in Food Media & Arts

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tan319

tan319

Posted
Posted

Tonight was what I wanted to see out of this, even if it was making me want to hop a plane back to NYC and :

#1- Seek out that little intern bitch of Chowderheads, drag him over to a 20,000 BTU burner and heat up one of his hands.

And

#2- Find that dew wrapped corporate chef of chowderboyeeee, rip that thing of his sillyassed looking head, and get medieval on him.

Even if Dispirito has probably ruined his "brand", that smug crap coming out of that CC's mouth about him was impossibly hard to take.

This place will go up in smoke, nothing has ever worked at that location for very long.

2317/5000

pjs

pjs

Posted
Posted
My final though - I wish my copy center had gotten the $10,000 card order.  We turn out cards at six to eight or nine cents each.  Over a buck a card.  Gotta raise my prices.

You know, Holly, I couldn't brass-die blind-emboss, gold-stamp, die-cut,, 4/4 with UV coating, perf and score, 5,000 foldover business cards on 100% rag for 10 grand without feeling dirty. Maybe I should move my operation to NYC.

PJ

"Epater les bourgeois."

--Lester Bangs via Bruce Sterling

(Dori Bangs)

mags

mags

Posted
Posted

Actually, I think this is really fab TV, in part because there's no clear-cut good guy. I'm so used to cookie-cutter TV shows, where there's always somebody you're supposed to root for, and I like the uhhh...moral ambiguity. Which is my way of saying that I think Brick and Big Daddy are both coming across like major dicks -- in their own special, individual ways -- but we all get to hope that Drew will fall into a vat of boiling oil. Perhaps one of the oompa loompas in the kitchen will give him a nudge.

On the thread devoted to last summer's episodes, some people were bugged that this didn't really represent restaurant life as they know it. Well, I've yet to see a TV show that represents publishing life as I know it, and the idea that Sex & the City represents the life of the groovin single Manhattan chick is ummmm.......oh yeah. I am all ABOUT buying $400 shoes. What I mean is, this IS a soap opera. Its billing -- that it's theoretically "reality TV" -- is just a marketing ploy. It's cheap, tacky thrills all the way, and I am loving it, though I do wonder -- even more than i did the first time around -- why the HELL Rocco consented to it.

Stone

Stone

Posted
Posted

Maybe this is counter-intuitive, being New York and all, but perhaps the reason people don't want to hang at the bar is because they don't want to be seen on a kitschy (tacky) reality tv show? That's why I wouldn't want to eat there.

jhlurie

jhlurie

Posted
Posted

It's a theory. However, since Chowderhead was looking at figures for a period when no cameras were present, perhaps it was only a NY consumer reaction to not wanting to be seen in a kitschy (tacky) restaurant, with really expensive meatballs. I mean... locals sit at a bar. Tourists are the ones swamping the restaurant itself. The locals are either disgusted with the place, or at best just don't CARE about it.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

theminx

theminx

Posted
Posted

I don't really think Choderow is the villain here, he's just a guy who wants to see his investment well-spent. I understand that completely. But still I had a dream last night that after he got Rocco ousted and the restaurant closed, he tried to sabotage my jewelry business by not-so-subtly ripping one of my necklaces off a client (Oprah!) and then claiming the workmanship was shoddy. :sad::unsure:

<shudder>

That's what I get for watching "reality" tv before bedtime.

Kathy

Minxeats
http://www.foodloversguidetobaltimore.com/'>Food Lovers' Guide to Baltimore

hannnah

hannnah

Posted
Posted
Did anyone else notice the restaurant didn't look as busy (to me at least) as everyone kept claiming?

We actually made a point of walking by Rocco's out of morbid curiosity back in February, shortly before the lawsuits were filed. Despite the fact that it was a Sunday night and incredibly cold, there were people waiting to get into Craft and Craftbar a few blocks away. There wasn't anyone waiting to get into Rocco's - it was maybe half full. I'm not sure what their definition of "busy" is, but it sure didn't look busy.

"Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cookbook! Little Red Cookbook!" --Eddie Izzard
jersey13

jersey13

Posted
Posted

What I found to be a complete waste of footage in that show last night was the book signings. Especially that scene when some big titted chippy in a spray on blouse was sticking her tougue in Rocco's ear. Holy crap! :wacko: And I know Rocco is a star and all, but does he always show up at his own publicity events looking like he was just shot out of a canon?? Bad enough that he's looking pretty tired and bloated...a decent pair of slacks and a sweater would have helped....... :huh:

JPW

JPW

Posted
Posted

Rocco and Jamie Oliver - same hair or just separated at birth?

:hmmm:

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

Joe W

Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
Posted

I didn't bother to watch it but think now I might tune in for episode deux.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

TrishCT

TrishCT

Posted
Posted

Jinmyo, I think you'll enjoy it. If Season 1 was like watching a train wreck, Season 2 is like watching the autopsies.

hillvalley

hillvalley

Posted
Posted

Anyone notice how his weight seemed to fluctuate? One minutes he is overweight and scruffy (the slimy book signing comes to mind) and the next minute he is skinny (when on the Vespa with that Italian guy). Someone needs to check there editing.

True Heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.

It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,

but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. -Arthur Ashe

rancho_gordo

rancho_gordo

Posted
Posted

I missed season one but last night was fascinating. What struck me was how self-concious all the "actors" were with the cameras on them. On other "reality" shows, the players are better at ignoring the cameras.

I agree that the intern and corporate chef need to be bitch slapped. Rocco's chef seemed like a nice guy and at this point has all my sympathies.

Visit beautiful Rancho Gordo!

Twitter @RanchoGordo

"How do you say 'Yum-o' in Swedish? Or is it Swiss? What do they speak in Switzerland?"- Rachel Ray

jhlurie

jhlurie

Posted
Posted

This really was a very different show than Season 1, although the "promise" that they will also focus on how much everybody hates the new bartender and the "spy" seems like an unwelcomed callback to some of the tactics used last year.

The corp. chef seemed okay to me, if not the intern. The first seemed pragmatic, while the second seemed to have less actual experience to back up his big words.

What's pleasant is that the subtext of Rocco blundering around town on his Vespa while goofy music plays, spending all of his time on book signings and TV appearances (and yo... it's like his OTHER restaurant doesn't even exist), and being smirked at by his employees is EXACTLY in line with what we were all saying about him last year--when the show's editing tried (and failed) to portray him as the hero. It's like they read the former thread here and edited him that way this time. Well, at least so far. Because I'm waiting for Rocco to start "rallying" people and have his pre-lawsuit comeback by the end of the run of episodes. But so far, Darth Vadar (Chodorow) is the one coming off much better, even with his faceless legion of accountants trailing behind him.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
Posted
Message for Jinmyo: PRIME Network is re-running Episode 1 on Sunday night at 9pm. If you can't get it, let me know.

If PRIME is the Canadian rerun channel, then I do get that. Thanks.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

Jason Perlow

Jason Perlow

Posted
Posted
Rocco's chef seemed like a nice guy and at this point has all my sympathies.

According to a recent New York Magazine article, he gets fired on camera, though. Not sure if its Rocco or Jeffrey that does it.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

Sparkitus

Sparkitus

Posted
Posted
Jinmyo, I think you'll enjoy it. If Season 1 was like watching a train wreck, Season 2 is like watching the autopsies.

Actually, the quote I heard is: Season 1 was the Stupid Season; Season 2 is going to be the Ugly Season. Should be fun.

VeryApe77

VeryApe77

Posted
Posted (edited)
How about the tacky blond cornering mama?

Wasn't that Chodorow's wife?

Edit: Looks like it was. Sorry.

Edited by VeryApe77 (log)
bloviatrix

bloviatrix

Posted
Posted

Re Drew, the intern: You know when someone says "they're all about respect" it means trouble.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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