Rocco DiSpirito (born November 19, 1966) is an American

chef A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...

and

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

personality based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, known for starring in the series '' The Restaurant''.

Early life and education

DiSpirito was born in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, New York. He graduated in 1986 from the Culinary Institute of America in

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fra ...

, and in 1990 from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

with a bachelor's degree in business.

Career

DiSpirito is known for his

Italian American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

cuisine and his fusion cooking. DiSpirito is known as a

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in Books, printed publications. While telev ...

and a

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...

author. He is known for his involvement in Union Pacific, a restaurant he opened in 1997 in the

Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park, and the surrounding neighborhood (which is also referred to as Gramercy), in Manhattan in New York City. The approximately park, located ...

section of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. A year later, ''New York Times'' reviewer

Ruth Reichl Ruth Reichl ( ; born 1948) is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times'', Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and ...

, in a three-star review, reported that a woman at the next table was moaning in ecstasy as she ate, but it was impossible to determine what had provoked that reaction since so many dishes were worthy of such a reaction. DiSpirito departed Union Pacific in 2004. From 2003 to 2004, DiSpirito starred in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

show '' The Restaurant'', which followed the launch and operation of a new Manhattan restaurant called Rocco's on 22nd. The show was canceled, and DiSpirito was successfully sued by the restaurant's financier

Jeffrey Chodorow Jeffrey R. Chodorow (born March 2, 1950) is an American restaurateur, lawyer and financier. Early life and education Jeffrey Chodorow was born in the Bronx. His father died the year he was born, and he and his mother moved to Miami, Florida in 1 ...

to have the restaurant shut down, and DiSpirito banned from entering the premises. DiSpirito succeeded Arthur Schwartz as host of ''Food Talk'', an hour-long morning talk show on New York Radio

WOR (AM) WOR () is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, including '' ...

, from October 2004 through December 2005, and then hosted 12 episodes of the TV show '' Rocco Gets Real'' on A&E (October 4 through December 27, 2008). He was featured in a

Lincoln MKX The Lincoln MKX is a mid-size luxury SUV#Luxury SUV, luxury crossover SUV manufactured by Ford Motor Company and marketed its Lincoln Motor Company, Lincoln brand over two generations, as a badge engineering, rebadged variant of the Ford Edge cro ...

commercial and the ABC

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

'' The Knights of Prosperity'', and was a guest judge on Bravo's '' Top Chef''. DiSpirito returned in the ''Top Chef'' season three finale (''Top Chef: Miami'') — in which three celebrity chefs were brought to work as sous chefs to the contestants, with DiSpirito assisting Hung Huynh — and was a guest judge on the March 14, 2008 ''Top Chef'' season four premiere (''Top Chef: Chicago''). He appeared on

's '' The Biggest Loser: Couples'' (season 5) in an episode that aired on February 5, 2008 (episode 506), in which contestants were challenged to prepare three healthy courses based on DiSpirito's recipes; DiSpirito judged the food and determined the winning team. The following season he appeared on the second episode (airing September 23, 2008) of '' The Biggest Loser: Families'', taking the "worst" cook of each pair shopping and teaching them to prepare healthy recipes. DiSpirito was a contestant on season seven of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

'' and was paired with professional ballroom dancer

Karina Smirnoff Karina Smirnoff (born Karina Smyrnova, January 2, 1978) is a professional ballroom dancer. She is known as a professional dancer on ''Dancing with the Stars,'' where she won the thirteenth season with army veteran and soap opera star J. R. M ...

. He was eliminated on the October 14, 2008, episode and placed ninth overall. In 2006, DiSpirito performed a public service announcement for DoSomething to promote food drives for schools. On May 3, 2010, DiSpirito appeared as himself on the ABC television series ''

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

'' in the episode "Food to Die For." On June 15, 2011, DiSpirito debuted as host of a weekly

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

cooking competition, titled '' Rocco's Dinner Party'', on Bravo TV. DiSpirito appeared as a celebrity contestant on the June 21, 2012, episode of the Fox dating game show '' The Choice''. DiSpirito hosted the syndicated television program ''Now Eat This! with Rocco Dispirito'', which debuted on September 15, 2012. In 2013, DiSpirito hosted the Food Network reality show ''Restaurant Divided'', where he went to struggling restaurants where the owners had two differing visions and then picked which concept would save the restaurant. On August 20, 2017, DiSpirito appeared on celebrity chef Guy Fieri's ''Guy's Grocery Games - Superstar Tournament Part 1'', competing against other celebrity chefs for a $40,000 first prize donated to their chosen charity. DiSpirito made it to the finale and beat out the previous tournament winner Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. DiSpirito has appeared on ''

Guy's Grocery Games '' Guy's Grocery Games'' (often nicknamed ''Triple G'') is an American reality competition television series hosted by Guy Fieri and his son Hunter on Food Network. Each episode features four chefs competing in a three-round elimination contest ...

'' and has also appeared on '' Tournament of Champions'', both which are hosted by his friend

Guy Fieri Guy Ramsay Fieri (, ; Ferry; born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author, and an Emmy Award winning television presenter. He co-owned three now-defunct restaurants in California. He licenses his name to restaurants in cities a ...

. He has also made appearances on '' Guy's Ranch Kitchen''. After a lengthy hiatus as a restaurateur, DiSpirito returned to the kitchen in 2019 as the chef at the Standard Grill in New York City's Meatpacking District. In October 2019 it was announced that DiSpirito was no longer with the restaurant.

Health

In 2015, DiSpirito underwent an emergency surgery, a

discectomy A discectomy (also called open discectomy, if done through a 1/2 inch or larger skin opening) is the surgical removal of abnormal disc material that presses on a nerve root or the spinal cord. The procedure involves removing a portion of an int ...

spinal surgery for his acute sciatica. The surgery left DiSpirito in a wheelchair while he learned to walk again.

Awards

* ''

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

'' for his book ''Flavor'' * 1999, ''America's Best New Chef'' by ''

Food & Wine ''Food & Wine'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and sea ...

'' magazine * 2000, ''Most Exciting Young Chef'' by ''

Gourmet Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by their high level of refined and elaborate food preparation techniques and displays of balanced meals that have ...

'' magazine * 2000, Nominated Best Chef: New York City by James Beard Foundation * 2001, Nominated Best Chef: New York City by James Beard Foundation * 2002, ''Sexiest Chef Alive'' by ''

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

'' * 2003 Nominated Best Chef: New York City by James Beard Foundation * 2004 Winner James Beard Award: Best Cookbook - Cooking From A Professional Point of View

Cookbooks

* (2003, November 5) ''Flavor''. Hyperion. () * (2004, November 17) ''Rocco's Italian American''. Hyperion. () * (2005, December 6) ''Rocco's Five Minute Flavor: Fabulous Meals with 5 Ingredients in 5 Minutes''. Scribner. () * (2007, November 6) ''Rocco's Real Life Recipes: Fast Flavor for Everyday''. Wiley. () * (2008, October 21) ''Rocco Gets Real: Cook at Home, Every Day''. Wiley. () * (2010, March 2) ''Now Eat This!: 150 of America's Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories''. Ballantine Books. () * (2011, March 22) ''Now Eat This! Diet: Lose Up to 10 Pounds in Just 2 Weeks Eating 6 Meals a Day!'' Grand Central Life & Style.() * (2012, September 25) ''Now Eat This! Italian: Favorite Dishes from the Real Mamas of Italy—All Under 350 Calories''. Grand Central Life & Style. () * (2014, January 7) ''The Pound a Day Diet: Lose Up to 5 Pounds in 5 Days by Eating the Foods You Love''. * (2016, January 28) ''The Negative Calorie Diet: Lose Up to 10 Pounds in 10 Days with 10 All You Can Eat Foods''. HarperWave. () * (2017, October 17) ''Rocco's Healthy & Delicious: More than 200 (Mostly) Plant-Based Recipes for Everyday Life''. * (2020, March 3) ''Rocco's Keto Comfort Food Diet: Eat the Foods You Miss and Still Lose Up to a Pound a Day''. * (2024, April 30) ''Everyday Delicious''.

References

External links

* * ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

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about fallout from the reality TV show * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dispirito, Rocco 1966 births Living people People from Queens, New York American cookbook writers American people of Italian descent American television chefs American male chefs Boston University School of Management alumni Television chefs Culinary Institute of America Hyde Park alumni Diet food advocates Participants in American reality television series American restaurateurs James Beard Foundation Award winners 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers