Chef Life with Chef Rossi, Anti-Caterer, "The Raging Skillet" - 021

Chef Rossi, of the renowned Raging Skillet, is a master
storyteller, and this episode doesn't disappoint. She is not your
ordinary chef. She credits her success to everything from "kishka
and grits" to marijuana munchies to the Hasidim in Crown Heights
to foul-mouthed bar tending. Her stories are phenomenal, worthy
of a Moth competition. Oh, and don't take my word for it:
her cookbook (!)/memoir is being turned into a play and
screenplay!


Rossi, yes, she only has one name -– has been a writer for many
publications, such as The Daily News, The New York
Post, Time Out New York and Mcsweeney's to name a
few. She has been the food writer of the "Eat Me" column for
Bust magazine since 1998, hosts her own hit radio show on
WOMR and WFMR in Cape Cod called "Bite This," now in its twelfth
season, has been featured on "The Food Network" and "NPR” and is
a popular blogger for “The Huffington Post.”


As the owner and executive chef of "The Raging Skillet," a
cutting-edge catering company known for breaking any and all
rules, she has earned a reputation as the one to call when it's
time to do something different.


The Raging Skillet has been called "a new breed of rebel
anti-caterer" by The New York Times, "the wildest thing this side
of the Mason Dixon line" by Zagat and has been named among The
Knot’s Best Of Wedding Caterers for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2015 and now 2016. Having won six years in a row, The Raging
Skillet is in The Knot’s Hall of Fame.


On November of 2015 Rossi’s first memoir; The Raging
Skillet/The True Life Story of Chef Rossi was published from
the Feminist Press to rave reviews.


From Kirkus - "A humorous and witty chronicle of a woman’s
pulling-herself-up-by-her-bootstraps rise through the culinary
ranks."


From Publisher’s Weekly: "With an insightful and irreverent
voice, Rossi’s debut is well suited for foodies, feminists,
and creative revolutionaries."


Rossi’s motto is simple; "molds are a delicious thing to break!”


Notes from the show:


As a child, she always thought she would end up as President of
the US. Then she thought she would end up an artist. She has
always had a problem with authority and considers herself
completely unemployable.


Her parents bought swampland in Panama City, Florida (the
"Redneck Riviera"), diet of "kishka and grits."


At 13, her mother got a microwave and that was the end of
home-cooked meals.


She discovered marijuana, made stoner food.


At 16, she ran away from home. Her parents drove her to Hasidic
Crown Heights... "like being dropped off on Mars with matzoh
balls."


She explored different cuisines based on the ethnicity of women
she dated.


She hired a sous chef who was so good, should have been the chef.


She cooked for 10 years before going solo.


"The Raging Skillet" came to her like a light bulb.


Doing V-Day for The Vagina Monologues led to her listing in


Celebrities love to be treated like everyone else, and she likes
to treat everyday people like celebrities.


She is most comfortable with 150-200 people.


She did not like working in restaurants: too high stress yet
boring. She lived for the daily specials.


Her goal is to delegate more and have more fun.


By working for others, she learned what not to do.


She has a "Zen kitchen." No yelling allowed.


"Gordon [Ramsey], there's no way people aren't spitting in the
food."


She turns down competition shows.


"Why One Neuroscientist Started Blasting His Core" - The
Atlantic


Like Water for Chocolate


Stay super-organized. Never let things accumulate.


The food processor: "mi esposa."


The play based on her book is written by Jacques Lamarre.


Advice: go work for as many different types of kitchens.


She loves The White Trash Cookbook.