- published: 20 Jan 2016
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Rocco DiSpirito (born November 19, 1966) is an American chef based in New York City.
DiSpirito was born in Queens, New York City, New York. He graduated in 1986 from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and in 1990 from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in business. DiSpirito is known for his Italian-American cuisine and his innovative fusion cooking.
DiSpirito is best known as a celebrity chef and a cookbook author. He is known for his involvement in Union Pacific, a restaurant he opened in 1997 in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan. A year later, New York Times reviewer Ruth Reichl, in an ecstatic three-star review, reported that a woman at the next table was moaning in uncontrollable ecstasy as she ate, but it was impossible to determine what dish had provoked that reaction, since just about every entree was worthy of such moans. He left Union Pacific in 2004.
In 2003 and 2004, DiSpirito was the subject of the NBC reality television show The Restaurant, which followed DiSpirito and his mother during the opening of their restaurant, Rocco's 22nd Street, and his subsequent lack of cooperation with his investor, Jeffrey Chodorow. An episode showed Rocco and Chodorow taking a meeting at a table in the restaurant. Rocco complained about Chodorow's changes to the restaurant; Chodorow responded with his own complaint that Rocco never responded to emails. Rocco walked away from the table with no explanation, despite the fact that the meeting was not yet adjourned. Chodorow gave Rocco's chef a raise, and that same afternoon, Rocco fired the chef. Rocco claimed to be a part-owner, and Chodorow said Rocco was not an owner. The television viewer never did see whether or not Rocco produced a partnership agreement to support his claim.
Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an American journalist, television personality, and game show host. She is best known for her roles as the original moderator of the ABC talk program The View and co-host of the long-running NBC News morning news program, Today. She currently contributes to Dateline NBC and Rock Center with Brian Williams, and hosts the syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, having replaced Regis Philbin in 2002. She also presented Intimate Portrait, a series on Lifetime.
Meredith Vieira was born in East Providence, Rhode Island, to Mary Louisa Elsie Rosa Silveira Vieira (née Costa) (October 28, 1904 – November 5, 2004) and Dr. Edwin Vieira (May 15, 1904 – February 1987), both first-generation Portuguese Americans. She is the youngest of four children, with three older brothers. All four of Vieira’s grandparents came from the Azores — three from Faial Island, one of the nine islands in the archipelago. They all left for a better life in New England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, settling around Providence, Rhode Island. Vieira was reared in the Catholic faith, but has stated in recent interviews that she has "spirituality, not a religion."