Todd English Winner Gets "English is Italian"?

By JULIETTE ROSSANT According to The King County Reporter, the winner of PBS's first (and, if we are lucky, last) Reality TV Food show Cooking Under Fire, which will air in April 2005, will become "executive chef for one of acclaimed Chef Todd English's Manhattan restaurants." Let's do some quick math here. Olives New York is capably managed by veteran Victor La Placa. Apply a bit of Sherlock Holmes's super-sleuth powers of reason, and we are left only the one Todd English restaurant in Manhattan: the just-opened English Is Italian. However, the arrival of Todd's second Manhattan restaurant, English Is Italian, was heralded by what seem to be the kind of super-short mentions that appear when celebrity alone is the news driver. Take Florence Fabricant. She wrote dispassionately in her "Off the Menu" section for The New York Times: "Tuscan, a restaurant with a simple name, has taken on an odd one: English Is Italian. Todd English is the chef: his maternal grandparents were Italian, hence the name. This revision of Jeffrey Chodorow's restaurant at 622 Third Avenue (40th Street), serves all-you-can-eat lunches ($29) and dinners ($39), and will have fresh buffalo mozzarella made tableside. Mr. English will still run the kitchen at Olives at Union Square." The New York Daily News noted: "Todd English is expanding his empire again - with English Is Italian. The restaurant opens at the end of this month at 622 Third Ave. (at 40th), former site of Tuscan." Maybe someone got on the phone, or maybe more news got out, because by the end of last month, the Daily News had expanded its heraldry to this: "Todd English has Figs in Flushing and Olives in Union Square. On Wednesday, the busy chef and Jeffrey Chodorow open English is Italian at 622 Third Ave. (at 40th St.), a restaurant honoring the chef's heritage. There's no menu - just homemade Italian dishes that guests are served family style. It's $39 a person for dinner." Crain's also mentioned the opening: "ENGLISH IS ITALIAN, 622 Third Ave., starting Wednesday. This is a modern-day Becco (reasonable fixed prices for appealingly simple Italian eats) on a much larger scale from Jeffrey Chodorow and Todd English." (Isn't Becco pretty "modern-day" itself, opened in 1993 by Lidia Bastianich and her son Joseph Bastianich, who is Mario Batali's partner?) The New York Post said: "Chodorow, whose empire includes Ono, Asia de Cuba, China Grill, Pure and the new Caviar & Banana, is teaming with chef Todd English to open English is Italian in the next few weeks, where Tuscan recently closed." The only thing I have found which tries to hype the new restaurant rather than obligatorily mentioning it is the January 2005 entry in Todd's Journal: ...English is Italian, my second New York City address, will be opening its doors on February 1! For years I have wanted to open a restaurant inspired by the traditional Italian "agriturismo" or country farmhouse, and English is Italian will be a whole new dining concept featuring my take on rustic Italian family-style cooking. No menus, just unlimited delicious antipasti, pastas, fish, meat, bruschetta, vegetables, desserts and more. Oh, and of course a fantastic wine list of regional Italian producers. I feel very passionate about bringing the culture of the Italian table diners, so this has been worth the wait. Hang on to the phone: I've heard these descriptions before! "Rustic Italian" is one of Todd's oldest mantras. But wait: there's more! Sneaking into the mantra is additonal description of "unlimited delicious antipasti, pastas, fish, meat, bruschetta, vegetables, desserts and more" -- ever heard of that idea before? Yeah, I thought so, and guess where you heard of it, Italian style? That's right, at your old neighborhood favorite Olive Garden, a concept owned by the powerful Darden restaurant group. Remember the TV ads? How about their "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" special from August 2004, which offered a "choice of unlimited pastas served with a variety of fresh, homemade sauces" or regular unlimited refill offers on soup and salad? Is "English is Italian" the low-price-point, mass-market restaurant of Todd's dreams? The one that Figs was supposed to be? His answer to his constantly envied rival, Wolfgang Puck and Wolf's highly successful Wolfgang Puck Express concept? I suppose were I an unknown who had won Cooking Under Fire, I'd be happy to head a Todd English restaurant -- but Todd hasn't even hired up much of the staff yet for English is Italianthat is, according to Todd's website, he is still looking for "Line Cooks, Sous Chefs, and pastry personnel." There are three months between the restaurant's opening and the first episode's airing -- makes me wonder: who is executive chef there now, and what kind of cooking staff does he/she have to start with? While I can do a little elementary deduction work here, my dear Watson, I never claimed to be a mind reader or a rocket scientist. I see some serious slippage here from the realm of Fine Dining and not necessarily to the betterment of everyday food. Maybe the name of Todd's new restaurant is incomplete (like its staffing and PR) -- may I suggest: "English" is Italian for "Olive (Garden)"? Or, how about something at once more Hollywood and yet more literary, like "Olives II: The Descent of Man"? Previous articles: Todd English Slums With Jeffrey Chodorow Todd English: Trip Over Table? Gordon Ramsay Joins Richard Branson in Fox's Reality TV Hell Alain Ducasse: Hyper Chef -- Now Serving Mars Todd English Flipflops Between Bush & Kerry? Real TV Cooking? Kitchen Confidential a la Sex and the City Super Chef vs. Governator: Todd English Fights For Foie Gras Rights Claude Troisgros: Riding de Rocco DiSpirito Star Todd English: American Chef Gone Wild