It took a few weeks, but NBC finally brought back Mark Burnett's ugly reality child, The Restaurant, this weekend. Airing two episodes in the television graveyard known commonly as Saturday night, NBC reaquainted us with the ongoing feud between celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito and non-celebrity manager Jeffrey Chodorow. For those who are still in the dark - and that includes, you know, everyone - Rocco has gone off to be a giant celebrity (and by giant celebrity, I mean a teacher at the Learning Annex) while his restaurant has languished from barstool ennui and server discontent (Janine quit in a banana fritter flurry of emotion when she proved to be useless on the floor; a sadsack deputy crumpled under the fierce rule of the head hostess). With the investment losing lots of cashola, Jeffrey has increased his role from silent partner to loud meddler. The Chodorow Corporate Task Force, which briefly featured our favorite character, Intern Drew, swooped into Rocco's 21 to cut costs in all facets of the business, including that one tricky area: Rocco's ego. Easier said than done.
Saturday night's first episode was a general mish mash of contentious vignettes which ultimately contributed to the Rocco/Jeffrey feud. In a stagey opening scene, a determined Rocco descended into his kitchen pre-dawn and stirred up a nasty tomato sauce that even Mama had to spit out. The sequence was oh-so-symbolic of a cook fighting for his craft. Either that, or a self-indulgent moment that suggested Rocco might not be the culinary genius that thousands of tourists believe him to be.
We then welcomed frizzy haired Carol into The Restaurant pantheon of neurotics. A member of the Chodorow task force, Carol clearly woke up on the wrong side of her Upper West Side bed that morning as she swiftly accepted the role of coffee nazi. Sipping her Starbucks, Carol ushered the busboys away from a tray of coffee so that they could learn things like, you know, bussing tables. Carol's reign of terror was brief, however. She became surprisingly deferential to Rocco when he attacked her for introducing new uniforms that would make candy stripers proud. In all fairness, the uniforms were horrendous, but savvy viewers may have noticed that they were not that far from Rocco's usual striped wardrobe (which is usually concealed by his favorite gray sweater that reminds me of my tv room carpet).
With crazy Zabars rejects like Carol running around, cool as ice Laurent decided it was time to take action. He told Rocco that he needs to take a more active role in the restaurant, a suggestion at which Rocco initially balked, but seriously, Laurent is just too cool to be ignored. So Rocco called up Jeffrey and said "We have to talk", as if this was the first time this had been proposed. Rocco is fond of throwing around the empty macho rhetoric like "We got to settle this like two grown men", but then he oddly insists that his mother sits in on all discussions. Nevertheless, Jeffrey and Rocco were again unable to have any sort of a productive meeting, and it's pretty obvious why that is. You see, Jeffrey is fond of using facts and logic and reasoning to make his points. Rocco is fond of, what's the word? Oh yes. Bullshit. When Jeffrey says "I need you to work with me to solve problems x, y, and z", Rocco will often send some passive aggression back by saying "I'm all for it. It's what I've been asking you to help me with for the past six months but you weren't here." Essentially, Rocco implies that he's been wanting Jeffrey's help, but now that the Chodorow clan has come in to fix everything, he's threatened by a loss of power. Jeffrey should be more mature and just note that the past is the past and now they have to work together for the restaurant's future, but instead, Jeffrey can't resist the urge to fight Rocco back. Tonight's argument was particularly amusing because it featured Rocco boasting that it takes five people to replace him. He must mean physically because lately it looks like Mr. DiSpirito has been eating one too many pizzettas. Cheap shot. Yes!
« Our Impressions of the Big Reunion | Main | Let's Go Snorkeling - TVgasm's Coral Reef »
9