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Blatant product placements be damned, Gothamist is hooked on The Restaurant, as it feeds into our NY food obsessions. The second episode revolved around both the "soft" and official opening nights of Rocco's, with just the right amount of drama (fire; mix of hardworking and lazy servers; annoying customers), Mama, and Rocco looking cute. And indeed, the ratings improved this past Sunday, winning its timeslot for the night.
As luck would have it, we found out that a very good friend's cousin was no-nonsense, uber capable kitchen manager John. And he was gracious enough to answer a few of Gothamist's questions about the cook's life, reality TV, and NY restaurants. This is what we learned:
- In the first episode, John tells Rocco at the job interview/audition that he's been a badass his whole life, but is ready for a change. When Gothamist asked "How much of a badass were you?", John just laughed and said, "Pretty bad...pretty bad."
- Rocco is a great guy: Hard-working and intense, has a great team of people behind his restaurants.
- A few restaurants (other than Rocco's) that John likes: Park Avalon and Beppe (both neighborhood joints), Blue Ribbon, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Esca, and Vong
- He actually asked that the cameras not film him, so he was surprised he was featured as much as he has been. Gothamist guesses that Mark Burnett's crack team knows dramatic potential when they see it.
- John has worked in restaurants for 15-20 years, has worked as a chef, but as Rocco's kitchen manager, he deals with the finances as well as ordering all the food and supplies. (Gothamist will be demanding to watch him in action at the Union Square Greenmarket some day soon.)
- And Mama is in there the kitchen at 7AM making meatballs. Ah, the Italian mother - anything for her child.
Gothamist's coverage of the Restaurant: Reviews of the food, the premiere of the show, early buzz, and the basic premise.
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Actually, he's so bad he once tried to barter his very lovely and talented cousin in a scandelous sex trade that involved the perfomance of oral on the owner of an island resort in exchange for one free week. Lovely cousin refused. Athough in hindsight it actually wasn't that bad a deal....
Yeah, that's exactly the kind of wheeling and dealing that Rocco's looking for.
It was a cool place god forbid she helped me out...we had nothing to go home for anyway.....What he lacked in looks he made up for in real estate
oh john... I mean 'km'... the guy was hideous. But still, real estate does speak volumes. My bad.
Being in the kitchen and dining room for over 20 years, I find this show to be a joke. rocco is an idiot that has no idea of how to run a restaurant, treat his employees, customers or venders. Just another example of a person with a culinary degree getting in the way of people who really know how to do the job-step aside rocco and let your staff run the place-idiot
Rocco, ask your Mama why, when I followed her meatball recipe they came out more like cakes instead of balls?
I just caught the reruns on Bravo. You must be a real masochist to work at that place. "Wanted: people who enjoy being shitted on."
Not only have I been to the restaurant and enjoyed it very much, I watched the show all the time and enjoyed that also. I am 55 years old and found the waiter we had to be delightful, good looking and served food that was hot and very tasteful. Its not just about ROCCO, its about the TEAM.
Let me take it one step further, I am looking forward to the airing of the new show. I thought it was a great show and enjoyed it very much. Mark Burnett, the executive producer is a very talented person with a vision, who has done shows like The Survivor and The Apprentice. When we were there for dinner, we had a waiter, named Bill and he was about 6"5, very nice looking and seemed very pleasant. We thought, oh, here we go, the cameras are rolling and this guy must be a model and he is going to be acting for the cameras. . Well, it turned out, that this server blew us away with his attitude and capability to make sure we had a great dinner and a great time. He did that with all his parties and so did all the other servers who were working that night.Its not just about Rocco or Mama. By hurting and trashing Rocco most definitely impacts all the good "staff" working there. Just look at it that way for a moment.