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Rocco is out of the restaurant biz

The TVClubHouse: Other Reality Shows ARCHIVES: Archives for 2004-2: Rocco is out of the restaurant biz users admin

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Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 2:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Rocco DiSpirito Is Out at Union Pacific
By FLORENCE FABRICANT and MARIAN BURROS

Published: September 29, 2004


OCCO DiSPIRITO famously opened his namesake restaurant in a reality show last summer and was famously thrown out by his partners in July. Now he has been removed from a second restaurant, Union Pacific, once the jewel in his crown, which will close at the end of the year.

Starting next week Mr. DiSpirito will no longer be the executive chef at Union Pacific, where he first made his mark when the restaurant opened in 1997. Main Street Restaurant Partners, his partners in Union Pacific, said yesterday that it would close on Christmas Eve, and until then Laurent Tourondel, the chef at BLT Steak, would act as a consultant. That leaves Mr. DiSpirito without a kitchen to cook in.

Rocco's on 22nd closed last week. In July, Jeffrey Chodorow and China Grill Management, its owner, were granted a court order barring Mr. DiSpirito from the kitchen, even though his mother, Nicolina, remained and made meatballs.

Steven Scher said he and his partners and Mr. DiSpirito "decided together it was time to close Union Pacific." He added: "Its run had ended. That was its life span. We had a long successful run together. Rocco will be moving on to pursue his other ventures, and we will be moving on to other ventures with Laurent Tourendel." Asked if Union Pacific still made money, he said: "Obviously, if it were extraordinarily profitable." He then paused and said, "I don't want to say anymore."

Mr. Scher said Mr. DiSpirito would be nominally involved with Union Pacific because he is a partner. Mr. DiSpirito could not be reached for comment but did release a statement by e-mail: "I found my culinary soul at Union Pacific, and my collaboration with Main Street Restaurant Partners has been a great experience for me. I have made a decision to take a break from the day-to-day operations of a restaurant to focus on other opportunities outside the restaurant world. Chef Laurent Tourondel is an excellent chef, and I wish him much success."

Union Pacific will now be a joint venture between the BLT Group, run by Jimmy Haber, and Main Street Restaurant Partners, which also owns Rain, Rain East, Django and Calle Ocho. Mr. Haber and Mr. Tourondel are still planning to open BLT Fish in the former AZ space.

"I will be consulting three days a week until the restaurant closes," Mr. Tourondel said yesterday. "I will be doing a very simple menu."

The owners say that Union Pacific will reopen next year as an offshoot of BLT Steak.

As for Rocco's on 22nd, Mr. Chodorow is bringing in Claude Troisgros, who has a restaurant in Rio de Janeiro and is the consulting chef at the Blue Door at the Delano Hotel in Miami Beach. Mr. Troisgros ran the restaurant CT, which occupied the space that became Union Pacific. His family owns the Michelin three-star restaurant Troisgros in Roanne, France, where Mr. Tourondel has worked.

Mr. Chodorow said Mr. Troisgois will be serving Brazilian food with French fare. "The décor will have a Carmen Miranda spirit," said Mr. Chodorow, whose feud with Mr. DiSpirito became a plot line of "The Restaurant."

Mr. DiSpirito, who is 37, attended the Culinary Institute of America when he was 16, apprenticed in France and worked at New York restaurants including Lespinasse and Dava before opening Union Pacific in August 1997. On Nov. 26 that year, the restaurant received two stars from Ruth Reichl of The New York Times, who raised it to three stars on Aug. 5, 1998. This year, despite having undergone a refurbishing, Union Pacific lost one of the three stars when Marian Burros reviewed it on Feb. 11.

In addition to his restaurants, Mr. DiSpirito wrote books and has been making frequent appearances on television, including selling sausages on the QVC shopping network
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/dining/29ROCC.html?ex=1254110400&en=92c402fda5d75e94&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 2:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
both of Rocco's restaurants close.
The restaurant featured in The Restaurant closed forever last week, long after chef/owner/drama queen Rocco DiSpirito was escorted from the premises and told never to show his swollen face there again. Next week, he will no longer be the chef at his first restaurant, Union Pacific, which will close in late December. While he left Rocco's on 22nd after a court order, Union Pacific's owners say the decision to remove Rocco from the kitchen and close the restaurant was made mutually. Right. Rocco says in a predictable "perusing other opportunities" statement, "I found my culinary soul at Union Pacific, and my collaboration with Main Street Restaurant Partners has been a great experience for me. I have made a decision to take a break from the day-to-day operations of a restaurant to focus on other opportunities outside the restaurant world. Chef Laurent Tourondel is an excellent chef, and I wish him much success." Next up for Rocco, according to an e.mail message he sent to Superchefblog and others: Rocco appears on QVC to hawk "Rocco's Cooking In A Vacuum system that will show you a whole new, easy way to cook healthy, flavorful food."
http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/

Scorpiomoon
Member

06-06-2002

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 10:54 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
What a mess.

But I'm sure, now that Rocco is a "star" cooking in a restaurant is beneath him. He's got bigger fish to fry now. Pun intended.

Jhezzie
Member

07-05-2001

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 11:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Geez. You would think he would take a 'break' from being a celebrity, to be a chef, for which he is very gifted and was once well respected. What a dope.

Mssilhouette
Member

07-11-2001

Friday, October 01, 2004 - 10:25 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Well isn't he just going the way of all "celeb" chefs. What happend to MR. "BAM" (I already forgot his name) his star moment got him a sitcom...A SITCOM!? Sheesh he was a freaking cook!

Same with ROCCO...you can either cook great food and be well known for it. Or you can be a "star"

Also what happened to Wolfgang Puck...he has a line of frozen food and what else is happening with him.

Good chefs do what they're good at...making food. Rocco was a decent chief who had a desire to be a celeb and be in the limelight. As such his cooking suffered. He was more about the atmostphere and schmoozing than cooking. At that point he was just a famous maitre d'.

Kep421
Member

08-11-2001

Friday, October 01, 2004 - 10:29 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Mr. Bam? You mean Emeril Lagasse?

He's alive and well on the Food Network. I don't watch him much anymore... but I do know he's still there.

It that's who you mean my "Mr. BAM"

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Friday, October 01, 2004 - 11:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Emeril? Think he's doing ok, show on FoodTV, at least 5 very successful restaurants. Yep, the sitcom was a bust, but he's still cooking.
Puck is on FoodTV too and has his restaurants as well. They are both very succesful.

Potted_plant
Member

08-29-2001

Friday, October 01, 2004 - 12:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wolfgang Puck is very successful, he has Restaurants. I think Emerill is doing OK too. It will be interesting to see if Rocco will fare ok, hawking cooking methods on TV. I must say, the vacum method sounds intriguing.

Trini
Member

07-06-2004

Sunday, October 17, 2004 - 10:43 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Why am I not shocked about Rocco? after seeing him on Miss "O" giving away all those cook books and introducing his pots and pans, I said he is not interested in cooking any more, just want to be Mr. Celeb. Then I saw him on "The Restaurant" he looked fat, slow and tired. He never stayed at the restaurant long enough to cook; but sat and took photos with all the ladies. He did not enjoy the commitment of cooking in the kitchen.
His Mom worked harder than he did.

Xena
Member

10-14-2004

Saturday, October 23, 2004 - 7:37 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I wanted the resturant to work for his mother, she seemed to love doing it. I heard that Rocco would just leave his mother to clean up by herself, but I don't know he seems to love his mother very much. He just got caught up in all the excitement.What happened to his resturant? Is that other guy running it?