Thursday, June 30, 2011

Reactions to Rocco's Dinner Party Episode Three

It's Italian Week on Rocco's Dinner Party - two of the competing chefs are the Italian Carro brothers, Fabrizio and Nicola, once combatants on the Food Network's Iron Chef America. The third chefpetitor is Ninamarie Bojekian, a "couture" caterer from Joisey.

The chefs present their Signature Dishes to Rocco, and for once he doesn't belittle them. Too much. The winners of this first challenge are Fabrizio and Ninamarie. Surprise! Nicola goes home.

The Italian juices just keep on flowing when Rocco announces that the theme of the dinner party is...classic Italian. So Ninamarie, being Armenian, goes with the only Italian she knows - Little Italy. Fab, meanwhile, wants to take his guests to the Italian countryside with his decor.

The guests for this event are also all-Italian: 'N Sync'r Joey Fatone, NY television personality, Sara Gore, comedian Tammy Pescatelli, restaurateur Silvano Marchetto, and token Bravolebrities RHoNJ Caroline Manzo and her tolerant husband, Albert.

Ninamarie goes first, serving her guests a lovely spread of fancy antipasti, a chopped chicken scaparelli pasta dish, veal Milanese with the unusual addition of peaches, and a chilled fruit dessert. Fabrizio goes more traditional with a less-fancy and more store-bought selection of antipasti, a bland lasagna, branzino with potatoes, and a panna cotta. Fab also goes the extra mile and prepares special carb-free dishes for the dieting Sara Gore, while Ninamarie basically ignores that request.

While Fab's dishes aren't praised as highly as Ninamarie's, it's probably this thoughtfulness that ultimately won him the $20,000 prize.

Did you watch Rocco's Dinner Party this week? What did you think? Please leave a comment!

Posted on AllTopChef.com

1 comment:

Jo said...

I've seen this episode, as a matter of fact it was the first time I was watching Rocco's Dinner Party... and I'm sure I'll never watch it again! Although we couldn't taste the dishes, there was a lot of evidence for Ninamarie's dinner being better than Fabrizio's. I can't interpret this sad ending otherwise than: some kind of macho agreement, or an agreement between Italians trying to "save" their national honour, or maybe both. And Fabrizio saying at one point "let's kick that woman out of the kitchen" only reinforces that impression, what a lack of style!
I think Ninamarie also gave a proof of a wonderful character, always keeping cool and smiling even when she lost, I wish her a lot of success and I would love to taste some dish from her catering company if I come to NYC one day. Great job Ninamarie!!