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The Eatery: Episode 5 Recap
By Randall The Vandal
May 30, 2004
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Wow, it doesn't seem like a week since Rocco and the gang has graced our television sets, now does it? Oh well, I guess time flies when you are having fun. It also flies when you are watching The Restaurant, too. For those of you who can actually come up with more exciting things to do on a Saturday night than to watch TV shows that will be repeated on Bravo next month, welcome to another recap of The Restaurant. It's a good thing I don't have one of those pesky personal lives, isn't it?
Off we go to the Chodorow headquarters where financier Jeffrey Chodorow is conducting a meeting with his high ranking staff, where it is decided that Tony, the executive chef at Rocco's on 22nd Street, deserves a hefty raise. Meanwhile, Rocco and Laurent have decided amongst themselves to fire Tony the next morning. Man, are Rocco and Jeffrey on the same page or what? I'm thinking that truce that was reached last week (or was it five minutes ago?) is more doomed than J-Lo and Marc Anthony.
Rocco and his super-hot girlfriend Yvonne (sorry, I told you I didn't have a personal life) are saying goodbye to Antonio, the visiting chef from Italy that has been working in Rocco's fledgling eatery. Finally I came up with a synonym for restaurant. Expect to see the word 'eatery' a lot in this recap. After expressing regret about not being able to spend more time with Rocco, Antonio bids his friend goodbye the Italian way, with a hug and a kiss. Touched, in more ways than one I presume, Rocco bids farewell to his colleague with the genuine New York City goodbye, which includes stealing his wallet and wrist watch. Classy.
Meanwhile at the resta...eatery, a famous French chef by the name of Jacques Pepin has arrived. Tony is excited and rushes upstairs to pay his respect to one of his idols. While fawning over him, who should walk in but Rocco, who is equally excited to meet the great chef. Tony looks more than a little agitated that Rocco has appeared. The man is gone for months at a time, but today he shows up. Tony just can't catch a break. Or his breath, especially after climbing up all those stairs. But it was worth it to meet such a legendary chef.
Outside the restaurant (damnit!), Jeffrey pulls up in his limo. How long is it going to take for them to fix his Honda Accord anyway? Jeffrey seeks out Tony and calls him into a small room to thank him for all his hard work and tells him of his new raise. Jeffrey whispers something into Tony's ears, presumably his new salary. Tony is happy to hear that his work is being recognized, but would have been happier if Jeffrey would get rid of all of those steps leading from the kitchen to the main floor. I haven't seen that much sweating since P-Diddy ran that marathon.
Meanwhile, Laurielle the appetizer cook, is swamped, and Tony the super hero jumps right in and helps her out until things settle down. Tony is having like the best day ever. Meeting his idol in the cooking world, getting an unannounced raise, helping Laurielle out. With the exception of having to climb those stairs or the fact that he's about to get fired, this day couldn't get any better. Back downstairs in the kitchen, Matthieu, a temporary cook, is finishing his last day before going to work for a big-time French eatery. How many commas were in that last sentence? It was, like, a lot, but not nearly as many as, like, this sentence. Matthieu gets ready to say adieu to the gang in the kitchen, but not before getting dumped with a concoction of A-1 steak sauce, flour, alcohol and chocolate in a big pot. Wow, those cooking people are as wild as rock stars from the 70s! Except for England Dan and John Ford Coley. Those two left a trail of ransacked hotel rooms behind in their wake that no one will ever match.
Rocco asks Laurent to get Tony to come up to his office across the street. Yep, it's time to climb those stairs one more time, big fella. Hey, at least he won't have to worry about those things anymore. Inside his office, Rocco and Tony step inside a conference room, where Rocco finishes up signing some cookbooks. Subtlety! I love subtlety! Rocco is famous and Tony is not. After pulling out Tony's review from September from his back pocket, which is almost as bad as the reviews The Restaurant got from TV Guide, Rocco fires Tony, due mainly to his lack of communication skills and his borderline insubordination. At the same time, someone is breaking into Tony's locker across the street, and all of the former chef's things are being placed in a garbage bag. Rocco decides not to mention this to Tony during their talk. Looks like Rocco isn't so big on communication himself.
The news of Tony being canned spreads faster than a kitchen fire in a poorly managed NYC restaurant, and all of the employees are stunned that Tony won't be around anymore. Laurent and a couple of unhappy employees pay a visit to Rocco in his office. Rocco will be the chef now, but in the meantime, Tony has locked himself in the conference room and has called Jeffrey. It's nice to see Tony learned a couple of things about immaturity from Rocco. It must have been nice to learn at the knee of the master, huh?
The gang at Chodorow headquarters reassure Tony that he is not fired and to come on down to their offices and everything will be fine. Later that night, Jeffrey makes another speech to the employees, this time about his unhappiness about Tony's dismissal. Outside the eatery, Tony gets some visits from some of his friends, including Carrie the waitress and Uday the captain. They all wish him well, and off Tony goes on his bike. It's actually quite a sad sight, seeing such a hardworking guy like Tony losing his job. It's also quite sad to see a 260lb Italian on such a girly bike. I hope he remembers to ring the little bell before entering oncoming traffic.
Jeffrey and Rocco have another of their yelling matches on the phone. Rocco claims that he is allowed to fire anyone he wants, while Jeffrey says that this may have litigation repercussions. Rocco responds with his usual 'nah-uh'. He's like Noel Coward with those witty retorts, isn't he? Usually, Rocco wins the phone fights in this show, but this time even Rocco seems to understand he goofed.
That night, Rocco is in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Unfortunately nobody is ordering storm tonight, so that could be trouble. Things are going smoothly until Rocco goes upstairs to complain about Gabe the cook, whom he wants to fire. Wow, even Donald Trump never fired two people on the same episode. Rocco is clearly power hungry. As opposed to the customers in the eatery, who are all just hungry. Maybe that's because the chef is upstairs schmoozing and flirting with the female customers again. The chaos in the kitchen is at a fever pitch, but Rocco seems as indifferent as you are to this recap.
Someone who is not indifferent is Jeffrey, who is at another eatery to judge a possible new chef. His name is Red. Meanwhile, Billy the line cook complains to Laurent back at the 'other' eatery how ridiculous it is for Rocco not to be down in the kitchen. Laurent agrees. But Laurent is also French, so the chances of him actually doing something about it are small. But Laurent surprises us by confronting Rocco in his office about how the night ended. Laurent must have some Toby Keith blood in him somewhere after all. After seeing Rocco pretty much avoid the kitchen the way John Travolta avoids good movie roles, he is forced to agree with Laurent. Rocco plans on spending the next 96 hours in the kitchen, having his secretary cancel his next three days' worth of meetings.
The season finale will air next week, and NBC, anxious to push this enormous event, decided to not even run a preview for the next show. So don't forget to tune in to the final show of season two of The Eatery next week! I'll be here to recap it for you. Unless I get one of those personal life things. Oh who am I kidding?
Randall the Vandal, is a humor writer who enjoys writing recaps of the reality shows currently dominating the airwaves. Known for stealing other people's ideas and writing styles, Randall the Vandal has spent many years honing his craft in the finest detention centers across the southeast and is recognized as one of the funniest writers emerging today. At least by his mother. His father refuses to comment.
Email Randall here: randallthevandal2004@yahoo.com
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