Rocco DiSpirito: The Man Behind the Meals

How how did it feel to be named the sexiest man of the world?

I still think that was a mistake. I'm not sure what they were thinking. What does it take to make a great meal? Lots of things. Good ingredients, good food, good attitude, love for the craft, love for the people. Got a taste, you gotta taste, you gotta taste. A lot of chefs forget to taste their food. Yum. That is yum. So whenever you walk into a kitchen, you see chefs with their fingers and everything, it means they really care. If they're not messing around with everything, then they don't care. It's not gross, it's good. And my mom was like, Rook, there's no way I'm gonna give you money to buy that as a recognition. It's the devil's. You're patient zero? I was oh, were you in war when I started making a pizza? Oh my god. Uh I slept on the subway a couple of nights too.

I'm like, we'll just be interviewing Rocco, and I'm just eating it.

Take some help for your family too. I play very badly, but I cook good food. Okay, so I got to cook for one of the most famous rock stars in the world. I'm not gonna tell you who he is. You know, and anytime you feed someone, you want them to feel uh loved, cared for, nurtured, like they matter.

All right, big daddy had to come back here. Big daddy had to come back.

Are you sure we're gonna have room for you back here?

I don't know.

Yeah. What's up, everybody? This is Rocco Despirito. We're here at Bar Rocco with the Mac Daddy Show.

All right, everyone, welcome to another edition of Mac Daddy, Patrick MacInroe, Rich Big Daddy Salgado. We are at Bar Rocco. It's a new sp your new spot, Rocco Di Spirito. Four months old. We appreciate you having us there. How's what what what's the uh menu here? What are we into?

Uh the menu is uh all day Italian-American Brazzarut. Okay. But a lot of the classics like my mom's meatballs, but updated, updated as well. So it's a modern American take.

Did we taste his meatballs? We tasted his meatballs at the city that's where we met at City Harvest.

Yeah.

Races. That's right.

Exactly.

They were so good. You told me they were better than Rayos.

I wore to those meatballs.

On purpose, I didn't have lunch today. Okay.

That's what I did later. I did the same thing, actually. I was like, I know we're going to be over there.

Now, I don't know if you were aware of the rivalry in the meatball-making world, but you know, there's a there's a rivalry, and I remember one of you, I'm not sure which one it was, said uh my meatballs are better than Rayo's meatballs. So we're gonna have to protect that moment.

I think that might have been me, but I'm I don't want to piss up.

You want to protect him? I know he's got a table there, he doesn't want to lose it.

As I as I learned when you know, part of my gig with the International Tennis Hall of Fame was connected to this event, right, for the City Hearts. Yeah. Little did I know how intense you chefs are. I know, right? Not only on the tennis court, on the pickleball court, on the golf course, it's most importantly in the kitchen. Where does that come from?

It's true. Well, you know, we're pretty intense people. If you're if you're uh dumb enough and fierce enough to work in the kitchen, you're ending up uh a pretty intense person. And so being known for making food that makes people feel joy and feel happiness, you know, it's a it's very important to us. We do it because we love it. You know, this is not a great business to be in if you don't love it. Right. So uh we do it because we love it and we think we have something to offer, and we want that to be valued by the public at large.

So I took a jump before you got uh I was a little late, you know.

That's okay, but it allowed that's not what he said when we were waiting. Don't be late. Don't be late again, is all I have to say. Well, you know, it's how many episodes have you guys done so far? We we've done about 20, I'd say. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the first time he's late.

This is our first chef.

Yeah, yeah.

You're our first sheriff. Oh, wow.

Okay.

So we feel honored to be here in your new place.

But I gotta jump on you because I did have some meatballs. And boy, is obviously you see there are none left, so uh but he couldn't resist. He couldn't resist, I had to uh throw it out. Hopefully, move on. We put them right in front of him. Look at this.

We put them right in front of him.

What's your relationship to sports?

I mean, I know you're a big triathletic. Terrible relationship with sports. I was a wrestler in high school. We'll have to talk about that after. I was uh I wrestled 145. I think I won one out of ten, uh, unfortunately.

Wrestling's rough.

My uh junior year as a wrestler. I'm you know, I'm a big fan of sports from afar. Okay. From the stands. We like that. We love that from the stands. That is phenomenal, but anyway, you know, this is uh Paco Pesseroso with um Argentine red shrimp. That is a classic simple spaghetti pomodoro. Right. This is a paperdell with smokeshore rego, and this is our seafood tower. Hopefully, there's something you like here. Unbelievable.

I'm not fighting anything.

You mentioned I like the way he just eats what he puts in front of him, right? But this is great.

Well, you mentioned something interesting that I want to dig into a little bit because you you say you gotta love this because the business is so tough. I'm assuming that's what you mean by that, right? To be in it.

It's a labor of love.

It's a labor of love. But when you're in the kitchen doing your thing, like who's the real Rocco? Like, you're okay. I mean, because you know, like I was a Davis Cup captain, you know, you gotta kind of like sometimes get on people's case, sometimes, you know, you gotta obviously encourage people. Yeah. What's the balance for you?

Well, we're you know, I think many of us are still trying to find the balance because it's very easy for the intensity to grow. Yeah. Because you know, there's a there's a ticket machine that keeps printing tickets, and the faster and the more it prints, the more our anxiety goes up. So there are definitely some moments, you know, where uh we lose our cool. But I'd like I'd like to think, and I I do believe that it's all in the pursuit of excellence. We like in sports, you guys are in the pursuit of excellence. You spent your whole life training, and we do the same thing. We start young, we train, we work for the best people. We don't have leagues like you guys have, which we probably should have, but um we're proud of what we've learned and what we've accomplished. And when we have great knife skills and great saute skills and great fish skills, it's something we're really proud of. So um when we're asked to do that, you know, whether it's for friends and family or you know, for money, so to speak, in the professional world, like a restaurant, we take that seriously. You know, we take it very seriously, and we want others to take it seriously too. So to answer your question, there are some intense moments where we might yell and scream. We usually say sorry real quick. Right when we get back to the business of making everything great food, yeah. Properly a lot like in sports, right?

Uh you know, I've seen you guys on the field. Yeah, we we get feisty out there. Yeah, yeah. I get someone in my family that definitely knows a little bit about that. No, never heard of them. Yeah. Well, so you you grew up in Queens like we did.

Yes, that's right. Yeah, grew up in Queens and New Hyde Park. And New Hyde Park.

Yeah, how'd you get started in this business?

Funny story, my mom, uh, an Italian immigrant, came here in the 50s. Uh, you know, for her, everything was new and scary. So I liked a band called Kiss, and uh they dressed up like devils, you know. We know them well.

We're of your era, so we're gonna be.

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh and uh so I asked my mom for some money to buy Love Gun. It was an album that came out in 1977, it was amazing, it had a gun inside, a little paper gun, and my mom was like, there's no way I'm gonna give you money to buy these records from these devils. Right. I was 11, I think, and she said, If you want to buy these records from these devils, you gotta go get a job and make your own money, and then you can spend it yourself. She thought that was throwing down the gun, she thought that was a dare. Right. I was like, I can get a job, I can make my own money. I had no idea I could do that. Remember when you first discovered you could be independent? It's a big piffy. So the next day I was out on the streets looking for a job, and I got a job at Sal's Pizzeria. I got into cooking, and I've never done anything since. At 11 years old, I started learning how to cook, and I loved it. I just loved every bit of it. I loved the interaction with people, the cooking, the creative part, the money part. It was so cool. Captivated me.

So we're sitting here getting to know each other a little bit better, and we found out that we both grew up in the same town.

Same exact town, same high New High Park.

New Hyde Park, same high school. Well, to the same high school. Yep, we started naming people, and so you moved from Queens to New High Park.

Yes, that's like what a teenage eighty something. I was like, oh, you're the same age as me. I just turned 60. You're it's coming up. I'm 35. 60? What are you talking about? Right, right.

All that hair dye has gone to waste if you. Oh my god.

Yeah.

Well be that. Yeah, no, we're 66. 66 is when I was. Yeah, we moved. And I imagine you're similar.

Yeah, I'm six, I'm gonna be 61 next month. Yeah. And um, you know, we moved from Corona to New High Park when I was in fifth grade. All right. Yeah, both moved there.

And uh I moved from Jamaica to New High Park uh when I was in eighth grade, and that's when I started going to New High Park Memorial. You know, there was one radio shack, remember those radio shacks? Sure. Um, and they would uh never hire me. You never hire me. I meant Crazy Eddie. Yes, crazy eddie. Exactly. Yeah, and so a lot of the doors I knocked on were pizzeria's. My dad owned a pizzeria when I was much younger. So there was some experience. He had a little experience, right? Uh he was the nicest guy that you know said we'll hire you, and he paid me uh 50 cents an hour. I worked 60 hours a week, so I mean 30. Wow. That was great. I bought Love Gun, I bought um the new Rolling Stones album, I bought another album. I took my mom to Coney Island.

Oh, wow. That's amazing. How long did it how long did it take you to get enough for Love Gun?

Uh the first week, first week albums were like $6.99 back then. The first week I was able to buy three albums and take my mom to Coney Island, and we had a great time. It was a it was a ball. Plus, you know, interacting with people is fun, cooking for people, serving people is fun. Um, and I I just got the bug right away.

When did you start actually cooking?

Like when did they give you the uh three or four years before I started to really cook, you know, with like heat and fire and sharp knives and things like that. Um about 14 I started working at New Head Park Inn. Yep. Which you're familiar with.

I'm very familiar with, yeah.

It was it was like our hometown go-to restaurant for every every event, everyone graduation, yeah, yeah.

It was a place that was big enough. Yes, and hold uh.

And that's when I started that's when I started cooking. I'll never forget my first day there. I walked in and all these German guys cooking there, and there's a table piled this high with boiled pigs' heads. They were making Sulza, head cheese, and they were like, go over there and start picking apart that meat. I was like, wow, if I get through this, I'm sticking with this business. And so I did, and uh, I was there for many years actually, five five or six years. Yeah, yeah. We connected over Umberto's too. Do you remember Umberto's? I do, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, one of the greatest pizza to this day. Great pizza. The grandma pie, right? Yeah, life-changing.

That's his signature pizza.

For sure. Did he invent it? He invented it, he thinks he invented it, and I think he invented it too.

He invented it, and he's very proud to let the whole world know that he is the inventor and creator of it. And I've had my share of it, and uh, I've shared it with the like I said, we we've shipped it out one time to China.

Amazing.

That's how it works.

You need to take care of that pizza on the way there. Yeah, how did it do uh such a long trip? Did it survive and do well?

It did okay. The first time it didn't, the second time it did. Yeah, there was a guy that had the crazy idea, he was in love with Umberto's pizza. He wanted to uh you want to laugh? See that? Yes, Anthony Lopez, that's Umberto's son-in-law.

Oh, that's hilarious.

See that? He heard us, he heard us, he heard us, yeah. He heard us talking. So the guy wanted to open up an Umberto's in China, and we were like trying to figure out how you're gonna do that. Right. You don't have the employees, you don't have the water. Well, we'll freeze and send it all. I'm like, well, yeah, but that failed, but then you know, he's busy enough, he's got eight of them out in long hall.

So yeah, it was nice to see them finally expand because they were I know they were against expansion for a while.

Right. He didn't even want to do delivery, right? What I'm telling you, he didn't even like everyone like down the street, there used to be another pizza Gina's, and they would deliver. Until recently. Not recently, but maybe COVID. Uh pre-COVID, but the one thing he did during COVID, which was smart, they put generators outside. So he was the only guy that was making food.

Oh, I see.

That you could go and pick up.

Tell me, tell me how that affected you. I mean, I know how much it affected the whole world and the business, but I, you know, the stories about affecting people in the restaurant business. What was that like for you?

Oh, I barely remember it. COVID? Are you kidding? COVID, uh, you know, COVID obviously shut everything down. I live in New York City, I live and work in New York City, I had a couple of businesses. Uh shut down the hotel I was uh, you know, executive chef at, shut down my private food delivery business. Oh wow. That business was shut down. Uh but you know, COVID obviously was uh a very difficult time for anybody. I'll never forget the street. I've never seen New York City streets empty and free of vehicles and production in before or since. Sometimes I wish we would go back to one day like that.

I was I was one of the first that got it.

Oh wow.

So uh you know your patient zero? I was putting a pizzeria. Thank God I was here, but I uh I remember walking and it was like uh whoever I was on the phone with said, Anna, are you out running or something? I said, No, why? Why are you breathing so hard? I said, uh really I can't tell. Long story be told, I uh go to this uh those little Medevac places and the guy goes, uh we can't do nothing for you here. You gotta go get a chest x-ray. So I go do that, and then like looks like you have pneumonia. I'm like, Oh, it's that early, huh? What people didn't even know.

Yeah.

So I'm like, pneumonia? I go, alright, well, then they take my blood, and then I'm sitting there waiting, waiting, waiting, and they're like, uh, you're not going home. I'm like, why? Uh we gotta check you in. So, I check in, and I'm there for three days. So now the first day I'm there, they put me on oxygen, I fall asleep. So now my phone's like right here at the end of the table. I fall asleep. I wake up, my phone's like over there. And I'm like, what did I do? Kick it off or not? Or whatever. Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity decide to let all of America know. Well, Big Daddy's in a hospital with COVID and let's say a prayer for the city. Oh, wow. Oh, right. Do you remember what month this was? Yeah. Is it March or March? Probably was much. It was right in March because I had just got back from the NFL Combine, and that's in February. Okay. So when I came back from that is when I realized that I have some sickness. And I look at my phone, I'm like, all of a sudden, 42 missed calls and like 60 something text messages. And it was everyone asking if they were talking about me, because he didn't say Rich Song, he just said Miss Daddy. Big Daddy, the power of Fox News. Yeah, they put they put the they put the two or three together. But yeah, I had it first, and then the only bad thing about it was when I got out of the hospital was everyone was calling me because they wanted to know, well, how'd you know you had it? What was it, you know, what are you gonna do? Right, sure. Everybody tell me everything, tell me everything. After a while, I'm just taking what they give you. Yeah, after a while, I'm like, hey, do what the doctor tells you to do. That's all I did.

Yeah, you know, you so you were actually in the hospital? Yeah, you're in three days. Good thing you got out fairly early too. Yeah. And they my doctor said, Whatever you do, don't go to the hospital. Right. Unless it's an emergency. Right. Like they didn't want anyway. No one was coming out of the hospital. Remember that, or whatever, you know, oh, just take some silinol. And then one night I woke up. I remember because they were saying that you would you have trouble breathing sometimes. So I remember I woke up one night and I was like, Am I having trouble breathing? I was in the basement at my my house. So my wife and my three daughters were upstairs, they were like sending me food down. And I'm like, Am I having trouble breathing? I'm like, No, I'm not. You know, but I was like, it starts getting shit because nobody knew anything. Right. Don't go anywhere. And then I was driving around Westchester trying to find one of those tests, you know, to get it.

Right. Yes. Because you couldn't, there were no tests. Remember, yeah, there were no tests anywhere for a while.

And then they were everywhere, and then they'd take them every day. Then they have to take them every day to go anywhere. Right. All right, let's move to when you went to um culinary institute. Oh, okay. And how old were you then? Was that before BU or after?

Uh before BU. Before BU.

So you must have been pretty young when you went to the house.

I was very, I was 16. So remember do you remember I told you that uh Rich Di Martino, our guidance counselor, told me if you like cooking, I'll get you a job at the new Hyde Park Inn, and uh you should get out of here, get out of high school. So go to summer school, take all your credits, and graduate early. And that's I ended it up in the your class, the class of '83 instead of the class I was originally in, '84. So I did all that, and uh I applied to the Colonial Institute of America, and they had a waiting list, and I had to get letters of recommendation.

Wasn't that in Hyde Park? Hyde Park being in school.

That's right.

Because you know how many people used to say. I'm like, no, I'm in new Hyde Park. Right. Not Hyde Park.

That's right. It was where uh Roosevelt had a call where he was from. Uh, and then I went, you know, I think I was still 16 when I entered the school, and I just had the best time. It was the most amazing place. It was like, you know, uh Disneyland for anyone who was interested in cooking. Uh, you know, I imagine it's a lot like spring training the first year, or what do you guys think? Right, yeah, right. It's just like every piece of equipment you've ever heard of, and you know, 2,000 highly motivated lunatics like yourself, right, who want to talk about food all day long. Getting goosebumps they can do it, who want to talk about food all day long, because you know, we talk about food a lot. Getting other people to talk about food is difficult. Not for us, not for this team, right here.

Not for us. So I think we're gonna make this like a regular. This is, by the way, absolutely. I'm glad you like it. I'm gonna take that home because I'm like, we'll just be interviewing in Rocco and I'm just eating at the time.

Take some home for your family too. Does your do your family like uh you kidding me? What's not make some for you to take?

Should is is this a good is this your kind of pre-triathlon meal? Like what's your what do you think?

It's a great, great pre-triathlon meal for sure. This is a great way to carbload. Have spaghetti pomodoro, having three of those, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You must have seen I've done some triathlon. I have, yeah. Yeah, in a different incarnation of myself, I did triathlons.

Yeah, no more?

Uh well, I I ended up having back surgery, and you know, that kind of messed up my bike riding and certainly not great for running. No, you know, so uh I was unable to. I can't believe I got through as many triathlons as I I did. Uh I think about 11, which was pretty good for a guy with a spine that looks like that.

You know, that's really good.

Yeah, I found out in high school actually that I had a sp-shaped spine. Oh, so yeah. So sports, I was I was a wrestler at the time and I I got out of wrestling. I remember the day my coach, um, I can't remember it was Moran, but it might have been Moran.

Did he coach other things besides football or did he just no Moran was just basketball, baseball?

Okay.

And you know what he was known for? Our baseball field looked like a pro field.

It was a great field, yeah.

He did the landscaping himself.

Oh wow. That's awesome.

He would not let the guy, he was like one of those, he'd be out there with on his knees with scissors, amazing, trimming everything. Good old days. We're like, that's impressive.

Can you imagine trying to do that now if there'd be liability?

Oh my god, yeah, yeah. You need to be able to do that. He'd have all sorts of forms, really. He might call my lawyer. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Oh my god.

I got a hurt knee.

So you know about his field. And we were we our high school had a good baseball team.

Can we tell Patrick what we used to do? Yeah, tell me what's the things in that field?

Uh I didn't do it. Drink some beers. But uh drinking. A lot of things that went on. Yeah, a lot of drinking. A lot of drinking, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, a lot of shenanigans. Oh, yeah.

That was the hangout.

Yeah, that's where we used to go down to the field in Douglason. We used to go down and hang out, and they had to you know listen to Led Zeppelin and we'd bring the boombox and five years ago.

We always that's right.

That was the move. You know where we used to get our beer. You're from Douglasson? Douglason. Oh, cool. Yeah, that's where the seminary is that was theater to my high school. Okay.

We used to get our beer from Dirty Delhi, which was on Jericho Turnpike and Denton Avenue, because you could go from there right to the high school. When we weren't old enough, you would always wave at somebody, hey man, can you get us a beer? Right.

So when you go to so when you leave the culinary is that you you go straight to BU?

No, I go straight to literally straight to Paris. I went to Paris to work in a fancy restaurant. Right. I mostly work in the fancy world. Okay. Uh in before Paris and after, lots of four-star, three-star restaurants. Uh-huh. So I went to work at the Jardin de Scene on Avenue, you know, Georges V. I was a little bit. No. No, no, you were the lowest of levels. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was the guy who was like uh they told to to uh clean up a venison head, a deer head, you know, and uh crazy stuff. So you're there at night, you're 19, 20? So no, I I was 18, 18, turning 19. Wow. Uh and I was there for two years working for French chefs, great French chefs. And you know, back then French everything was was all was the rage for food, for culture, for fashion. Yeah. Uh Paris in the 80s was you know the bunch of spot for all kinds of cultural moments.

And so we had some fun during my tennis days there. We had some fun, we had some fun. Spots to go to during the tennis heydays of the 80s and 90s.

Yeah. Like Van Douche, maybe? Yeah. Remember Van Douche? Yeah, that was a big that was a big club. Oh yeah. Remember it well. That was the Grace Jones era.

Yeah. And there we we had the we had the great um gift to be with Yannick Noah, who was extremely. Of course. He was like he was like Mr. Paris. Oh my god. He would take us around, you know, all this way. And then he was, you know, walk right on Mr. Noah. So where were you living in those years?

So I lived, you know, in Paris, it was hard to find an apartment. Uh there was always a shortage of some kind. And they didn't rent to outsiders. You know, Americans were not really welcome. Uh, and they certainly didn't want to rent to us. So I was always subletting and sub-sub sub-subletting and staying with friends. I lived in the basement of the restaurant many nights. I lived, uh I slept on the subway a couple of nights. And it's tough in Paris because the subway doesn't go. Right. It's closed. Right. Not like in New York where you get a free, you know, you get some room and board for the 24 hours. Yeah. Back there, you know, I think 1 a.m. was the cutoff. So from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., you had to find something to do. Um, but I finally rented an apartment for for a few months in the 16th arrondissement, which was across the street from my favorite restaurant called uh it was uh Jamen. Three-star Michelin restaurant by Joel Robusha, which I ended up uh who I ended up meeting and working with a little bit. And so I really got immersed in fine dining there and learned about so much, so many great techniques and and French cuisine and ingredients, and was a big uh accelerator for me. It's like what do they call it now? An accelerator. Accelerator, yeah.

I was gonna say, what about your parents sending you, you just 18 and I'm just I'm going to Paris?

They were terrified. They were so up. My mom cried for weeks.

All right, tell me how, like, let's fast forward a moment. Okay, sure. Yeah. So like your first, your first restaurant. Like how many years was it until you were the guy in charge? Because I don't know if you put a lot in the city.

Long time. So it's a long time. You know, back then there was an expectation that you you did the training for three years and then you sort of did 10 years in between an apprentice and a sous-chef. And then only certain sous chefs, uh, it's not like today where the demand for cooks is so high and the supply is so low, only certain sous chefs ever got to be chefs. So it took, you know, 10-15 years uh of like really, you know, hustling waking up and hustling every day. Yeah, in New York City, you know, right working for the great chefs and putting in the hours, making $400 a week.

Forgive me for being an idiot, but a sous chef means you're working for the head chef.

Right. It's like the assistant coach or the uh yeah.

So you're learning the trade and you're working for the one chef.

But you have leadership responsibility. You have a leadership. You do you're in early, you're running a team, you know, anywhere from 10 to 20 people, you're expected to know everything that goes on in the kitchen, but you're not getting any of the credit. You're not usually you're not doing any of the creative work either. Right. You're not designing the menu, you're not meeting customers, you know, you're sort of uh it's probably one of the worst positions in the kitchen, although you make more money than all the cooks because you're getting zero credit, but you're doing a lot of work. You're doing all the work. Yeah. But it's but it's you got to put your time in as a sushi.

So you just have Michael Strohan uh uh with you.

Yeah.

How is he as a sushi?

He's a great sushi. You saw my post. He I said the best sushi of the daytime. Yeah, I think he's the best sushi for the daytime. There, you know, you athletes having ridiculous hand skills, and every time I cook with an athlete, or I as I told them on GMA when I did Dancing with the Stars, we had an athlete who won because you guys are just amazing at everything. You know, you guys have hand-eye coordination, you got great hands, you got great feet, and uh he he picks up cooking so fast. And I think he actually likes to cook.

He likes to cook, he does, and I know one thing, he doesn't use a microwave. Oh, he can't do that in his world now. No, no, no, no, no, can't be doing that. For a fact, but uh so one thing, you won the James Beard Award. Yeah, what was that like? What does that mean?

Very cool. James Beard was a uh early writer and early supporter of the the world of gastronomy and chefs, and they have this, you know, what we call the Oscars of the Culinary World, which is this awards uh program, and every year they give awards out to the best chefs. And uh one year I was lucky enough to win win one uh for a book that I wrote, and uh really of which you've written 20. Uh 15, 15, yeah. Yeah, working on the other five. Um, and it's one of the highest honors in our business. It really means a lot. Uh the fact that you're asking me about it means that you know you've heard about it. Yeah, uh, it really means a lot to customers, which is important. You know, we always measure what these accolades mean in terms of how many customers we've got.

Yeah, what's gonna what's gonna do to my business?

And there are people who will come in based on that, but also based on seeing me with straight hand on GMA, because just today we had people in saying, I saw you on GMA. And now Michael, now after Texas being on MacDaddy, yes, I know. Can you imagine what's gonna happen next year? I love it.

All right, look, how how did it feel to be named the sexiest man on the world? I still think that was a mistake.

I'm not sure what they were thinking. Yeah, what a meaning uh you know it was People Magazine asked me to do a photo shoot, and I thought it was about my restaurant at the time, Union Pacific, and uh they had me do crazy things holding fish and lobster cages and weird stuff. Uh, and then I found out later it was for that issue, and it was weird, man. It was weird. No, they didn't tell you. They apparently they do photo shoots because they're always doing articles, you know, people, and and the articles cover a wide range of you know subjects. Uh and I found out, I think like a week before it went to print that it was for that. I was shocked. I mean, I was definitely never been considered for anything like that. I I think Brad Pitt was on there. I was like, what? Come on, man. I kept the magazine.

Well, when you when you does this place open in April, yes, your new restaurant here. How much of the time do you spend working the room at this point?

Did you a lot a lot of time spent working in the room? So uh for the opening, I was here for every service for many, many months. We opened breakfast breakfast, lunch, dinner on the same day when you're doing that breakfast, lunch, and dinner uh for months and months and months. And uh only recently, because I have a project out east, that did I start doing weekdays here and weekends there. Um, but you know, it took a while to build a team that can, you know, obviously keep things going, and being in the dining room is a big part of what I do here for sure. Yeah. I can imagine. So it's a lot of time in there.

Well, you see, the the when the the owner or the head guy is out working the room, those are the ones that make the best host. Because you know what? People see that and they say, you know what, I want to come back just because that guy took the time to say hello to me.

It is a nice piece of the puzzle for sure. And it's um as the person, as the namesake, you know, character here, yeah, uh, you get to make a pretty big impact. People feel like they're loved. Yeah, you care about them. And uh, you know, when you feed people, you make them feel like they matter. Right. Because what's the first thing that happens when you're born? Your mother feeds you. It's like a literally profound, you know, it's the most profound thing a person can experience. So as a chef, we get to feed people every day and make them feel like they matter. And uh going out and talking to people obviously can help accomplish that.

The other thing that you obviously is important to you, because that's how we met you at City Harvest, which feeds people that that can't get the food that they need. It's a phenomenal event. Um, why is that such an important part of who you are and what you do, why you still get back through the that's a great question.

So many chefs are involved in uh food security charities like City Harvest. City Harvest, of course, being best in class, one of the greatest of all time. Um they I think they raise enough money to feed tens of millions of people every year. Uh and they host this wonderful event that Herb Carlitz puts together at the Montclair uh golf club, country club. Um Best Chefs come together. We play golf, we play tennis. I play very badly, but I cook good food. Yeah, which is why they keep argument back. Uh but you know, it's it's really easy for us to speak on food security issues, and it's really easy for us as people who provide food on a daily basis to help provide more food to people who are underserved. Um, so it's such a natural fit. It would be a crime not to be a part of it. Uh, and I think we all really love that we could make an impact, you know, and in our own community and and the country. And unfortunately, as rich as we are, there's 60 million people who are food insecure and don't know where their next meal is coming from. I don't know how that happens or how that works, but it's the sad state of affairs in the United States right now. So helping to change that is very, very important to me. Plus, I was raised, I don't know about you, but Catholic mom, Notre Dame, you know, we did charity work all the time. We fed the community, we did cake sales, we did all kinds of stuff. My mom was a really uh big participant in all that.

But listen, but there was a lot of great memories being there. And now I want to get your bad golf game, but your great food, to the Big Daddy Celebrity Golf Classic next year.

That sounds like a great time. I'd love to do it. Yeah, we uh we have time for cigars?

Oh, yeah, all that comes with the territory. Yes, yes. We have two days and both nights. Oh man. There's cigars at night, there's cigars on the course. I love it, I love it. And we support uh tunnels to towns. Oh, okay. So I'm an ambassador for them. Oh well, okay. We do a good job at that, and and that's a great charity. So I can't wait, I can't wait.

So you've pretty much done it all, um, Rocco, and your business. But what's the one what's the one more mountain you want to climb?

It's really interesting. I didn't realize uh nor was it possible when I started in this business to to have you know your hand in so many different kinds of projects, writing books, doing TV, the great charity, celebrity TV shows, the whole deal. Dancing with the stars, for example, you know, uh that was that's wild. That would be possible. So I'm very grateful and super thankful that our our business evolved into what it's evolved in this time. And obviously, Food Network and Julia Child and Jacques Papin have a lot to do with that because they brought it to the masses via television. Um and I have I have luckily, luckily been able to experience a lot of things. I just started working with Cook Unity, they they are delivering my meatballs at you know, basically any home in America now, which is super fun. That's outstanding. Yeah, it's so fun.

Um, whoever gets those is gonna be very very happy.

But um, you know, I don't know if I could do one thing, uh it would be a counter-style restaurant. Okay, I could literally stand there and cook everything.

You love to cook like a diner?

Maybe a diner, maybe something a little more elevated, but uh I made fun of a little bit because I I should be managing and I like to be cooking and I like to be on the line, I like to be at the pass checking dishes and making sure the food is going to the right places, um, which I shouldn't be doing at this point. But um, I think a counter style, you know, like a Japanese kaiseki restaurant or something like that, but with a mix of Italian-American food and other foods would be really fun. Where I could just serve 12 people at a small stuff.

Wouldn't that be great? That would be awesome. I'd sign me up. Yeah, I know, right?

You guys would be the you'd be the first ones there.

And you just eat what I make and that's it. What's your favorite? What's your favorite meal to eat and to cook?

Okay, favorite meal to eat is uh, you know, it's it's not fancy. It's pizza, it's pasta, it's sushi. Favorite meal to cook is risotto because everybody loves risotto. Oh yeah. You love risotto. I love risotto. You love risotto, yeah. Everybody loves risotto, and no one can make it for themselves. So I love to cook risotto for people because it's a little bit technical.

You go with the asparagus, you go with the mushrooms.

I start with uh a la Parmigiano, which is just Parmesan cheese and butter. Then I add saffron if I want to get a little more fancy, and then some shrimp if I want to get more fancy. Okay. But uh just risotto with Parmesano Regional is so good. Sounds good. It's all about that rice, getting the texture right on that rice.

You ever get heated or lose it in the kitchen?

You know, like just I do too much, unfortunately. I still take everything very personally and very seriously, and uh if if food is not up to expectations, usually my expectations it really hurts me personally. I I want everything to be you know perfect. Um, we were talking about how it's same as sports, right? You want to win. People get mad at sports when they don't perform up to the standards because it's our personality. You know, this this is basically now my personality. So everything I ever stands for, everything I believe in, everything that makes me feel good about who I am. And uh and I know people can tell the difference. Whether they complain or not, I know they know. And when you serve food to people that blows their minds, nothing better. They get goosebumps, their heart stops for a second. You know, my mind is blown life changing.

All these are yeah, I'm like and I'm taking some home. Last question for you, Rocco, and we appreciate you opening the doors up at your place here for us. Um, if you could cook for maybe a person or a place, you know, like one place or per person, you would say, I want to serve them their best meal, or at a play, maybe it's at the White House, I'm just making it up.

Okay, so I got to cook for one of the most famous rock stars in the world. I'm not gonna tell you who he is. Okay. Uh I was with teasing man. I was at a concert with his personal chef who maybe had a few too many tequilas. Okay, a few too many uh. I can relate to that. I can relate to that. He said, I need you to pinch hit for me and and cook. And we go to this guy's house. This is a guy I'm you know huge fan of so long, so for so many years. Uh, and I below it. I completely I forget everything I know about cooking. No way. I'm so nervous. No way for one of my heroes. I break things, I drop things, I make mistakes, I overseason things. I completely effed it up. And um, I would like a chance to do that over. Wow.

So if you're watching it, you know who can't have a chance to do that over.

Some somehow I probably cooked a lot better than that.

This person probably enjoyed that meal, but no, they didn't. They didn't.

We had it was so bad. I messed up so bad. And this is not that long ago. I really at this point a very accomplished chef and should know better. Um, they went to the freezer and found old meals that were prepared by the. Like, you know, we're just gonna like decide. I would like a chance to do that away. You need you need what's called the do-over.

Yeah, I do, yeah. I need a do-over. Well, no do-overs for us here. Thank you.

Yeah, appreciate it. I'm glad I'm glad we did it. You're so welcome, you're so welcome.

Good luck with this place and anything else. Yeah, Bar Rocco, come in. Bar Rocco is a place to be, baby. Rocky Daddy, we're taking this home with us.

Yeah, the food is outstanding. You better get here.

This is like an intense interview show, huh?