Chef Roland: This is going to be a very unique interview, because I’ve watched you over the last 5 years grow from being my intern up at Chops, to working in Manhattan, to graduating from the CIA. This will kind of be a good thing for me to get an in depth perception of, who Dominick Rizzo is now, what drives you, where your passion is. Lets start off by you telling me a little about yourself, where you’re from, what type of schooling and training you had.

Chef Rizzo: Well I’m from NJ, I started cooking in a restaurant when I was 14 yrs old…I needed a job so I started out as a busboy and thats where I really learned.  I graduated high school and went into the marine corp and I broke my femur. So I had to get out and my mom said I had to get a job. The only thing I knew how to do was get back in the restaurant, so I went back to bussing and then I started serving. Then the kitchen manager, his name was Joe, I asked him, "Hey Joe, can you teach me how to cook?" It took me like 3 weeks to learn one station. I didn’t know what a fish tub was, I didn’t know how to hold a knife, I didn’t know what a spatula was, nothing. Luckily I had a good reputation as a hard worker, and he took me by the hand the whole way. So I started out on the grill, sauté and then I was a lead line cook there, then it was time to, as my father said, get off the pot and do something.

He gave me the opportunity to go to the CIA, so I took it. I didn’t have a passion for it, and I just did it to do it, to go to school. While I was there, I started working at Caterina, the Italian restaurant on campus. But it was too nerve racking to be at school and really learn anything. You’d get yelled at by the chef, to know who Paul Bocuse, and Escoffier were and I still had no idea who they were, or why I really needed to know who they were. But working at Caterina, I developed a passion for it. Then working with you at Chops, I got to learn more about the passion and the love for food and I just developed from there.

BR: After schooling, you stayed and did your fellowship. What chef did you work for?

DR: I worked for Chef Li Puma, he was actually part of the unique group of people that were all line cooks and sous chefs at the Park River Café in Brooklyn. He had also worked in some of the best restaurants in  Manhattan. He was a line cook with Michael Mina, with Charlie Palmer, and a couple of the other chefs from the CIA, and they were just all good friends..and that little section of people from the CIA, set sort of a new wave in the industry,. Chef Li Puma decided instead of branching out and opening up a restaurant, that he wanted to return to school and have the opportunity to teach the students. That was the best experience I had, working with Chef LiPuma. It was really intense, I mean I’m a skinny guy, and I lost 30 pounds on my fellowship. We were only supposed to work for like 6 hours a day, and I was working about 11, on a fellowship. It was a great experience, it taught me how to teach people, how to have patience, how to cover your behind, so you can get the job done without worrying too much.

BR: So you actually had the opportunity to work in the new Colavita Center, and I say new, because when I graduated from the CIA it wasn’t yet in existence.

DR: At school there are 2 types of people, an approved type which are pressed for money or their family doesn’t make enough money, so they get the first opportunity for a job. I went there the first day of school, and talked to John Storm. I started out cutting bread…all night I would just cut bread…then I started food running, and then expediting, and learned more in the kitchen, because Chef Li Puma was the chef of the restaurant at the time, I asked him a few months later if I could do my fellowship with him, and he did the math and then said that he thought it would work out perfect. Before extern, I was front of the house, and then when I returned from extern I was back of the house.

BR: From there I understand you went to work in Manhattan.

DR: Yes, I got the opportunity from Chef Canner, who must have been there (CIA) when you were, he gave me the opportunity to go to Daniel on the weekends and stage . It was a great experience and it was a tough experience all in itself. I was in AM classes and I would wake up at 5am and then go to class until 2:30 and then go right from class to Colavita and that was 5 days a week. Saturdays I'd wake up at 8 and take the train and get to the city at 11 and then work from 11 to 1 or 2 in the morning and take the train home. It was a great experience, I mean the first day I got there they gave me a can of peppers, and told me to cut them in a perfect square shape. I did one whole can, I was very proud of myself and they told me I did a great job. Then they gave me a whole case…12 peppers in a can and 36 cans in a case. It was more of not what I was doing but more of what I got to learn. The first day I got there all I heard was mumbling over the loud speaker, and I couldn’t understand anything they were saying. But the more I got used to hearing it, the more I understood.

BR: So you went from there and you were working at Babbo for Mario Batalli.

DR: Yes, through Chef Scappin, one of the greatest Italian chefs I have ever worked for. He was up at the Culinary Institute. He got me the opportunity to work for Mario Batalli, but I didn’t do it for too long because I had the opportunity to come down here. For me, it was too opposite ends of the spectrum. Going into a restaurant like that, it was the #1 restaurant in Manhattan for 2 years running at that point, and I was going to see stuff that I was never going to be able to do, and see things that were miraculous. It was phenomenal food, a great system, and a great chef. But I thought to myself, "I can do this" you know, "this isn’t something that I haven’t been trained to do, or anything I wouldn’t be able to do." I started out in the pantry and I would go in ever morning like 3 hrs early, cause you never know if you’re gonna hit any traffic, so instead of sitting in Washington Park, I would make pasta with all the Latin guys in the morning…and they loved it cause I was taking work off them. I’d be pretty much their main pasta guy in the morning, for a couple of months. I got to learn all about the pastas, and then I worked in the pantry, I breezed through that, then I started on the grill…then...I had the opportunity to come down here.

BR: So tell me about this opportunity, what made you decide to move down here?

DR: I believe you were the one that originally told me that you have to have goals, you set your short term and long term goals. At that time I was doing it, but living in Harlem, and outside the city, and making like $300 to $400 every other week. I  couldn’t live off that amount. So I thought, what could I do after Babbo, go to another restaurant in Manhattan and be maybe a higher up line cook, or do something to get me closer to my goal. Then Skip Quillen (Culinary Concepts) called me up and gave me the opportunity to open up a restaurant. Start as an Executive Sous Chef, and then work my way into the Executive Chef position in the future. So I really racked my brain for about a week. He called me a couple of times and I said, " You know what, I want to be a restaurateur…my personal goal is maybe not to be Charlie Trotter or Grant Achatz, I want to be a successful restaurateur and a successful chef, but I don’t have to be the best chef in the world." So I figured I may as well get the feel, get the emotional feeling, of opening up a restaurant, and then it just culminated into this.

BR: So you actually opened up Blue Water Bistro as the Executive Sous Chef?

DR: Yes, it was Chris Metzler and I, Chris was the Exec Chef, and I was the Exec Sous, but it was basically from day one, he was training me to take over. We set up everything together…it wasn’t like I was kind of a shadow, and I got to learn it, I actually got to do it all, costing the menu writing the menu, and I actually got a couple of items on the menu which I was pretty proud of. It was a different experience for me. Where at the CIA, it was the chefs way and that was the only way, whatever you do was the best and that’s it. When you make the transition from working for a chef, to now work for an owner, which I’m sure you’ve realized by now. "Well that’s wrong, no, that’s actually right. He signs your paycheck, and he’s your boss, and you kind of have to go with it. I got the chance to really experience that, and at first I got beat down…and I hated it, but then I was like you know what, I’m better than that…you have to diversify, you know, work towards what you need to do…and looking at the future, when I’m an owner, I’d want a chef to react that way towards me. I don’t want a chef looking at me telling me his way is the right way.

BR: You’re absolutely right….so how’d you get involved with Pazzo?

DR: Skip came to me and said there were a couple of things that he wanted to change about Pazzo, There was nothing wrong, it was just he wanted to make some changes, move some people around and mix things up a little bit. He knew I was Italian, had an Italian background and that I loved cooking Italian, and he asked "If the opportunity arose, would you take it?" I jumped at it, but played it cool at first, said 'Whatever you need me to do" and I thought about it, called him back and said "Hey, if there is the opportunity, get me down there." Because its on 5^th Ave, which is a different experience for me, it is a little bit of a different clientèle down here…they more come for the food, which is different from some other places where they come for what they want or what the restaurant has for them. It's been a good experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m very happy I'm down here. It is more of a Manhattan, NJ kind of feel to it, its not that huge kitchen that you get lost in…its more of a home, more of a family, which I like.

BR: So how many people do you guys seat here?

DR: About 160 I believe

BR: So pretty intimate then you would say..compared to something like Blue Water Bistro or Chops.

DR: Yes.

BR: I know you guys are hard working back in that kitchen all night long, and it doesn’t give you the opportunity to touch each and every table. If you did have the opportunity to have a conversation with every person that came in here, what would you ask them, what would you say to them,what kind of information would you want to learn from them?

DR: The conversation for me would have to be with the right people…the people that come here for the experience…as opposed to the people that come here or have been here to get what they wanted and have their restaurant adapt to them. I like to go out and talk as much as I can. Even during season we don’t get the opportunity, as you said, very much, so I just come out and introduce myself, thank them for coming in, and kind of get to know them a little bit. You know I don’t want to portray myself as that Gordon Ramsey chef where I throw stuff…you go there for that experience once, but you don’t come back for that again…you don’t want to get yelled at twice. I ask people what they like and what they don’t like. And what I really like to do, especially during the off season, if somebody comes in and approaches me in a way and says "Hey I love that osso bucco, how come you took that off the menu?" , I say, call me 2 days in advance and I’ll have it here for you. And that to me is the best experience you can give to anyone, and that makes this restaurant go down to a 2 person restaurant, or a 4 person restaurant, this is their restaurant for the evening.

BR: So working for a couple of celebrity chefs Mario Batalli, Daniel Boulud, how do you feel about celebrity chefs, and more specifically, Food Reality TV Shows?

DR: I try to check them out when I can, more or less because people kind if push me to, and ask me questions about them ,and I don’t get a chance to watch it. Working for Mario was awesome, he was very humble and a very nice guy. I remember one time he was on the line, and of course I was nervous, and he asked, "Why are you doing that? And I said, "This is what I know…and he said, well let me show you this way, and if it comes out the same, then I don’t care." Obviously he cares about the food. He said "This is my way, and if it works,then you can use it, and if not, then it is just another way." I got a little bit of a different impression from Daniel Boulud, it was a little less of an intimate restaurant, different culture as I'm sure you remember as well working there before me. Marios’ being Italian, and for me, Italian is more about the love and about the family. French is really more Haute cuisine and rigid. But I thought it was a great experience. Reality TV shows are pretty cool, to be honest with you I would do it, just to be on the TV thing, cause I think I would be good on TV. It would be cool. I think it has its place.

BR: So coming from Colavita, Babbo, Chops City Grill, Blue Water Bistro, what have you learned along the way that made you who you are today?

DR: The word would be humility? Well not so much humility as, I guess, composure.Along with me growing as a person, and as a chef. I didn’t just walk into it, but  basically, problems are going to arise. Being the age that I am, I have to lead by example. I just have to. Nobody is going to listen to a 23 yr old saying you do this cause its my way, They are just going to laugh at me, so I have to lead by example and keep my composure when stuff goes wrong, when stuff comes up, fix it. Do things the right way, don’t cut corners, and you have to be innovative and do new things. Take a new approach, and be smart about it.

BR: Well congratulations again on getting married earlier this year…what are some of the challenges of being 23 yrs old, an Executive Chef, and a newlywed?

DR: The benefits really outweigh the challenges in my opinion, it keeps me out of trouble first and foremost. I cant screw up at work, its my job, I have to be a professional…so I have to go from being a professional at work, to being a great husband. My main goal really in life is to be a great husband. I want to make her life as good as she makes mine. It’s a lot of hard work , but its good work. I love coming to work, but, I love coming home from work as well. 

BR: So tell me a little bit about what’s going on in the industry now, what trends do you see, and what do you forecast for the future?

DR: The trends I see right now, along with all the fusion and the emulsions and WD – 50 stuff, with the scientific part of it, I see a lot of people going back like Bobby Flay who opened up a burger joint and Danny Meyer opened up a shake shack in midtown Manhattan, and like Gramercy Tavern where everyone is just going back to everyone’s favorites. Not necessarily reinventing the wheel, maybe just doing it with new ingredients and doing it better. Bringing the love back into it ..instead of doing gelatinous molds and crazy stuff, which I actually think is awesome. I fool around with them and everybody loves them and I think its cool, but I see people going away from the really crazy stuff and kind of coming back and grabbing people back down. Thomas Keller opening up the burger and bottles place…I feel in my opinion that people are trying to bring the love back into it.

BR: So Molecular Gastronomy, you play around with it, how do you feel about chefs that are adding science to their menus?

DR: I really think its cool if you do it the right way. I know for me, I am not anywhere near ready to put it on my menu. I know what I’m doing, but I haven’t figured out a way to portray it to the customer yet…like at WD-050, they do a phenomenal job, they are a cut above.

BR: Very creative I agree, and so how do you feel about Sustainable Agriculture, and Buying Local? Do you buy local?

DR: As much as I can buy local I do, and its been a challenge for me pulling myself away from the northern experience, bringing in different greens in the winter time and bringing it down here. I try to bring in, and its kind of tough for me in Italian cuisine, to bring in the mangos and the coconuts and papayas and the stuff that we have growing down here. I try to do the least amount to the food as possible, and I need the best ingredients to be able to do that.

BR: If you could work for any chef in the world tomorrow, who would it be and why?

DR: Hmmmm, to be honest with you, it would be one of the two, either Chef LiPuma if he would open up his own place, or Chef Scappin, Johnny Scappin. Chef Scappin was one of the original chefs that opened up Bice, He opened up Gigi's in Rhineback,  after his father, and he is just one of the most naturally talented amazing chefs I’ve ever been with,. His end is not the expediting or the managing part, I’ve learned more from the 6-7 months of working with him and watching him. It just comes so natural to him…and he has a story for everything. If you are cooking with octopus he would tell you the story about how he was younger and would grab them off the rocks in the jetty and pound them on the rocks to tenderize them. He tells the story and it's all about the culture of Italian cuisine for me.

BR: So would you say Italian is the style of cooking that you are best at?

DR: Yes. I get that question a lot, and I think that it only is that way, because that’s where my focus is right now. I believe I have the ability to pour my heart and brain into something and then that could be my best cuisines. If I moved to Chops or wherever, a different cuisine, and my heart and my love was into it, then that would be the best cuisine for me at that time.

BR: How much of an influence did your family have on you as a chef?

DR: Huge, Huge. Just because where we’re at in jersey we don’t have the star chefs, we don’t have the amazing food, so the little that I do when I go home is that much more to them. I’m a little celebrity chef when I'm at home.  I have Sunday Gravy which is the same recipe of the gravy my grandmother made for us on Sundays, You know just little things like that, when I call her and ask her for recipes, you can hear her, she gets choked up…"you’re the chef, you went to school for this"and I say, "You have 50 yrs experience on me, no school is gonna help that out." They enjoy it , they love it, and you know it. Everyone wants to give you their own recipe, try this, try that, its great..you can't shut that out.

BR: So do you cook much at home?

DR: I try to, during season I only get one night a week but I really really try to. When I do, my wife, Jaime, is one of my biggest fans.

BR: So whats in the future for you?

DR: Like I said my main goal is to be a successful restuaranteur, and I’m really looking around now. I am looking at different things. I don’t have to have a 5 star or michilen rated restaurant. I don’t need 8 Michelin rated restaurants, that’s not my goal. Whether I have a nice tapas bar, or a nice Italian place, or a burger joint, it will be whatever makes me happy at the time to make me successful. I don’t need to be a billionaire off of a restaurant, I want to have a good restaurant group, like a Danny Meyers, or like Skip has, where people can take pride in their dining group and stay diverse so that employees don’t get sick of the way they are working. If you’re an intern or a line cook, you get sick of Italian, you can go over to another one of your restaurants. It’s a great way to keep good people from leaving. With a good positive attitude and a good flow.

BR: So in your opinion, do you think Southwest Florida has what it takes to support upscale, fine dining establishments 365 days a year?

DR: I believe so, especially this end of Southwest Florida, being near Port Royal, Old Naples. I think the money is definitely here to do so, and in my opinion we just have to create the atmosphere again. I think we've gotten too far off the beaten path, and put too many restaurants up in one square block. I think that we as a collective group in Southwest Florida and more specifically downtown Naples, and you up in Ft Myers, that group needs to attract people. They need to have a community and support each other, business district, and we need to create the love down here, and create the experience for people and not just the "who is better" thing.

BR: So lets talk about you and your kitchen. What pieces of equipment do you have back there that you just can't live without?

DR: The broiler is one main piece…that makes the steaks 20 times better. I would choose a broiled steak over a grilled steak anyday. We put that in about a year ago. I love the induction burner. We can do anything from cold poaching to fry, to sauté, anything that is so delicate and precise. It makes it so easy and fun to do high quality items with good volume.

BR: And you guys roll all your own handmade pasta here, correct?

DR: Yes, we make our own papperdelle, fettuccine, cavatelli, orichetti, ravioli, all different types of specials. Tortellini….that’s one of my passions, I can sit there and make pasta all day long. If I could make money making pasta all day long, then that’s what I would do.

BR: Then maybe that’ll be your first own restaurant concept..a pasta house!

DR: That would be the coolest thing that I could ever imagine. I saw it once in Manhattan. The centerpiece of the restaurant was basically a pasta station, where they had two little ladies that just rolled out pasta all night long. I think that would be a great concept where you can go and say I want cavatelli, or gnocchi and they make the dough right there in front of you, I think that would be a phenomenal idea.

BR: How about your uniform, chef shoes, and favorite knives.

DR: Shoes are Klogs. The chefs uniforms that have the twist buttons I like the best, with a tighter fit, chefworks is one of my favorites. And I don’t necessarily love wearing the one with my name and title on it. I like to see how people react.

My favorite knife in the kitchen would either be the symmatar, for delicate fish, the boning knife and my chefs knife. Brand names are Equinox, Fdick, and Ludwig Schiff…they keep an edge really well.

BR: What do you think makes Pazzo stand out from the rest?

DR: The love. I've said it a bunch of times When the restaurant is open in the middle of the winter, and the doors are open, and we’re packed, its like a big welcome feeling inside. That's what I really love about Pazzo. In my opinion, you never feel hesitant to approach it, even if you just want to walk in, check it out, come have a drink at the bar, eat, or don’t eat, whatever it is. We really take pride. I know my line cooks have a passion, 2 of them are CIA graduates, one of them is a Johnson and Whales graduate. We have the ability, the care, and the know how, to do the volume with the quality. It's my main goal on that expo line, you cant be afraid to send something back. People would much rather wait an extra minute, they may not say anything, but they’d rather wait an extra minute to get that steak or pasta the way they want it, then to have it come out wrong and have to wait another 20 mins.

BR: How do you plan on continuing the success here?

DR: Just really work hard, harder than I have ever worked before…you know last season was really a "can he get through it? " season for me, you know a young kid, can he get through doing 500 people on New Years Eve?  Now we’ve got it down to almost a science. I have great line cooks, and knock on wood, I have a phenomenal line which gives me the opportunity to step away a little bit, work with more ingredients, work with more specials, learn more, go more places, see more things, and it gives me the opportunity to see what new ingredients are out there.

BR: So what makes a successful restaurant, and do you feel you are producing that?

DR: The love of the food, and yes we are producing a successful restaurant here. I think it takes all around care and happiness of the employees. If your not happy, whether it is as server or a line guy, people are gonna know. That portrays to the customer, from the customer portrays to the kitchen and the kitchen portrays to the server, and it’s a vicious cycle. If everyone is happy and has a mutual respect for each other, the level of service and the quality of food will shine. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel everyday, just provide good food, take what you know and what you’ve learned and use your personality I think my personality shows in a whole bunch of our food here.

BR: So what do you think you personally can do better, and as a restaurant as a whole?

DR: What I can do better, is diversify a little more.. I get a little closed minded, "Oh that ingredient isn’t Italian enough."  I need to diversify my palate more, along with my beliefs on certain foods and certain items. I need to work harder on finding newer items and better people to produce those items for me…as far as purveyors go. Our restaurant needs to get back to that original feeling of warmth and love to produce that special feeling back, which I think we’re doing very well so far.

BR: Dominick, thanks so much for taking the time to sit with me today.

DR: Thank you Chef.