Rocco DiSpirito

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Rocco DiSpirito (http://www.roccodispirito.com/)

Rocco DiSpirito (born November 19, 1966 in Jamaica, Queens) is an American chef based in New York City. He is a 1986 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York and a 1990 graduate of Boston University with a bachelor's degree in business. DiSpirito is known for his Italian-American cuisine and his innovative fusion cooking; his mother, Nicolina, is known for her famous Italian meatballs.

DiSpirito is primarily known as a celebrity chef and a prominent cookbook author (see Flavor, Rocco's Italian American, and Rocco's Five Minute Flavor). He is known for his involvement in Union Pacific, a restaurant he opened in 1997 in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan to good reviews. 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, his mother Nicolina, and restaurant co-owner and financier Jeffrey Chodorow during the opening of their restaurant, Rocco's 22nd Street. Due to disagreements between DiSpirito and Chodorow, Chodorow closed the restaurant and reopened it as "Caviar and Banana".

DiSpirito hosted his own radio talk show for WOR from October 2004 through December 2005. He was set to replace retiring WOR host Bob Grant on his mid-afternoon show in 2006, but left because of creative differences with the management over the new show. [1] According to his official web site, he is currently developing a new cable television show in Manhattan.

Most recently, he was featured in a Lincoln SUV commercial and on the ABC sitcom "The Knights of Prosperity."