Rocco Dispirito: Elbowing His Way Into a Hall of Shame Moment

Celebrity chef Rocco Dispirito has done a number of things on The Restaurant that haven’t made him look very good. In just three episodes, we’ve seen him throw a diva tantrum in the kitchen, call one of his waiters a f***-up in front of customers, ignore customer complaints about cold food in favor of doing publicity, and inexplicably combine paper serving dishes with sterling silver flatware. All of those incidents might make you decide you wouldn’t want him as a boss, or that you’d prefer not to eat at Rocco’s, but they are not worthy of mention in the Hall of Shame. Instead, Rocco earns his Hall of Shame Moment with the poor way he handled the broken elbow of waiter turned runner Gideon.

On the second episode of The Restaurant, Rocco demoted Gideon from his job as a waiter to a runner. Gideon was not happy to find himself cleaning toilets instead of serving food and earning tips, but he accepted the change without complaining. That night, Gideon slipped on the floor in the basement and crashed into a tray of dishes, hurting his elbow.

The management of Rocco’s reacted to Gideon’s injury with a stunning lack of concern. General manager Laurent told him, “That’s life, go home.” At no point did we see anyone ask Gideon if he was okay or fill out the necessary paperwork to report the injury to OSHA. Instead, Gideon clutched his hurt elbow for hours, waiting for Rocco to stop working the room and start paying attention to him. Once Rocco learned of Gideon’s injury, he put Gideon in a cab and sent him to the hospital. Gideon told Rocco that he was worried because he doesn’t have medical insurance.

Gideon must have been incredibly anxious about how he’d pay for a trip to the emergency room. Health care is, as we all know, incredibly expensive. Trying to pay medical bills on what I imagine is not a princely salary from Rocco’s could have sunk Gideon financially. At no point, from what we saw, did Rocco reassure Gideon that his bills would be taken care of. Instead, Gideon headed off alone in the middle of the night to the hospital.

At the hospital, Gideon told the doctor that his pain was intense. On a scale of one to ten, he said that it was a six, but a ten if he tried to straighten his elbow. The doctor told him that his elbow was fractured.

Sporting a new sling, Gideon headed to Rocco’s the next morning to check in. His co-workers, who clearly cared about him and were worried about their friend, greeted him with warmth and sympathy. When Rocco came outside to greet him, he asked what happened to his elbow, but clearly wasn’t paying much attention to the answer. Instead of listening to Gideon, Rocco hugged and kissed the rest of his staff. The one thing Rocco did seem to notice was that Gideon’s arm was not in a cast.

That morning, Rocco had a meeting with Carla and Laurent to discuss staffing issues. Rocco reported that Gideon said he broke his elbow, but that Rocco didn’t believe him because his arm was not in a cast. As soon as that episode of The Restaurant aired, Editor David Bloomberg e-mailed me and said that a member of his family recently fractured an elbow, and that it is normal not to put a cast on such an injury. With such a recent break, the swelling is often too severe for a cast. Granted, Rocco isn’t a doctor, and he doesn’t happen to know anyone who has broken an elbow, so he didn’t know that it’s normal that Gideon didn’t have a cast on his arm. That’s fair. But Rocco had absolutely no reason to think Gideon was lying to him about his injury. If Rocco thought it was odd that Gideon didn’t have a cast on his arm, he could have handled the situation much better. He could have asked Gideon for his doctor’s phone number so that he could ask questions about what Gideon could or could not do physically. (Hell, he could have just paid attention when Gideon was trying to explain to him, outside the restaurant, that his elbow was swollen.) If Gideon were being dishonest, Rocco could have found out. If he was telling the truth, Rocco would have been better equipped to deal with Gideon’s injury. Instead, Rocco chose to question Gideon’s integrity with no cause. Rocco returned to the restaurant and sent Gideon home.

Later that day, Gideon got a phone call from Foye, one of the hostesses, asking him to come back in to work. Gideon told her he would be in as soon as he changed into his suit. If we viewers had any doubt about how difficult a broken elbow can make even the simplest tasks, that doubt was erased by the images of Gideon getting dressed using only one arm. It was a pitiful sight watching him try to tie his tie one-handed.

After Gideon made all that effort to go into work, no one seemed to know what he was supposed to do. He asked Mama. She didn’t know. He talked to one of the bartenders about the possibility of working behind the bar. Finally, Laurent sent him to the coat check room. Gideon vowed that he would do whatever he had to do to work. Gideon had only spent a short amount of time in the coat check room when the woman who is normally assigned there arrived. Gideon decided to go to the top to figure out where he should go. He went to find Rocco.

Rocco was easy to spot, since he was surrounded by TV cameras and reporters. Rather than attending to this emergency with a member of his staff, Rocco was doing yet another round of publicity. Once Gideon finally got Rocco’s attention, Rocco told him to work the phones in the downstairs office. Gideon was ready to go, when Rocco finally gave the matter more thought and decided that he didn’t need Gideon’s help after all. He told Gideon to go home and rest.

Gideon was in a state of shock. He vented to his friend Pete, “He does not want to do this to me. I fell on his floor in his shoes.” Rocco saw them talking and immediately told Pete to get to work and propelled Gideon out the door, telling him he was “a distraction.” Rocco sent him home, telling him he should be resting and alternating hot and cold on his elbow. Again, wrong –only cold, not hot should have been applied to Gideon’s injury. Rocco should have tried applying heat to all of those cold dinners rather than to Gideon’s elbow!

Gideon may have been “a distraction,” but he was a distraction Rocco needed to deal with right away. I don’t think Gideon was so determined to get to work just because he really loved running food and had a strong work ethic – the guy needed money. We already saw Gideon stand in line all night to get his job at Rocco’s. Then we saw him chug a pitcher of wine for $14. Gideon needed money anyway, and after he hurt his elbow, he was probably especially worried that he’d have to pay medical bills and would miss work.

On Gideon’s website, he says that Rocco eventually paid his medical bills. But Rocco did not pay Gideon’s bills out of the goodness of his heart, but rather because he is legally required to. I did a little research, spoke to a personal injury lawyer (who I call “Dad”) and learned a few things about workplace injuries. If you are injured on the job, your employer must pay your medical bills, regardless of whether or not your employer caused your injury. Rocco, as the owner of a business, would have known that and should have reassured Gideon when he said he didn’t have insurance. Instead, Gideon was left worrying. What’s more, Gideon shouldn’t have had to agonize so much about not being able to work while he recovered from his injury. Those same worker’s compensation laws require the employer to pay a percentage (usually one half to two thirds) of the injured worker’s salary while he is unable to work. It’s called Temporary Total Disability, and Gideon would have qualified for it, since he was unable to perform his job due to his injury. Only getting half of your paycheck might not sound very good, but because that income isn’t taxed, Gideon wouldn’t lose that much money. Gideon’s offers to tend bar, work in the coat check room, or answer phones are what is called light duty work. Rocco would not have been legally obligated to give Gideon such an alternative, but it would have been the decent thing to do. That is especially true because working at Rocco’s provided aspiring actor Gideon with the important fringe benefit of being on TV. Had Gideon been given the opportunity to do a different job, he still would have gotten some camera time. In exchange for the benefits of having his medical bills paid and getting Temporary Total Disability, Gideon would be legally unable to sue Rocco for his injuries.

We know that Rocco did pay Gideon’s medical bills, and have no reason to doubt he did pay disability wages as the law requires. But with the whole world watching, Rocco showed that he does not value his employees. Gideon languished for way too long in the restaurant before anyone sent him to the emergency room. The next morning, Rocco displayed almost no concern for his injury. Instead, he doubted Gideon’s word, even though he had absolutely no reason to. Then he had Gideon come in to work only to send him back home again. At no point did he reassure his employee that his medical bills would be paid and that he wouldn’t have to worry about lost wages. Rocco showed a total lack of compassion, concern, and kindness for Gideon’s injury. This callous attitude has landed him in the Hall of Shame.

Betsy can be reached with any comments at betsyw42@hotmail.com.

Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/Reality TV Hall of Shame e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on these sites! And take a look at the rest of the site. You can find all of the shows in the Hall of Shame listed here, all of the people who have been inducted can be found here, and click here for the Hall of Shame Moments.

For more news about reality TV, be sure to check out RealityNewsOnline and SirLinksALot!