by Gina Scarpa

 

Last night, Bravo unveiled their latest reality show - Rocco's Dinner Party. Restaurateur and celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito is looking for a talented and unknown chef to cook for him and his friends at one of the many dinner parties that he likes to throw. This week's contestants are Geoff Johnson, Britt Kurent, and J.J. Johnson, who are all competing for $20,000.

 

To get things started, Rocco asks them to cook a signature dish, that will tell him everything he needs to know about them.

J.J. made seared scallops, Geoff went with poached lobster, and Britt decided to make arctic char. Seems we've got a lot of seafood lovers here!

 

It seemed like Geoff would be heading home early after making the awful mistake of serving rare monkfish but Rocco sends Britt packing first. She won't even get the chance to cook for his impressive list of dinner guests.

 

This week's theme is a speakeasy, which was a place for drinking and gambling during the Prohibition. As the winner of the challenge, J.J. chooses to go second and let Geoff be the guinea pig first.

 

When preparing and cooking in the kitchen of Rocco's loft, Geoff and J.J. have some friendly, yet competitive banter that makes things entertaining. Rocco kills the fun when he comes in with some dietary requests from his guests. One diner is a vegetarian who doesn't eat meat or fish and another who will eat anything except pork or alcohol. No alcohol at all - not even in the sauce! Rough times for Geoff, who was using it in just about everything.

 

This week's dinner guests are Michael Kenneth Williams (Boardwalk Empire), Bryan Batt (Mad Men), Christine Ebersole (Broadway), Kelly Choi (former Top Chef Masters host), Marcus Samuelesson (restaurateur and Top Chef Masters champ ), and Bill McCuddy (Forbes media critic).

 

Rocco and his guests really enjoyed the shot glass of soup that Geoff prepared, but thought he took a misstep with his cod. The biggest problem was that he didn't seem to know the difference between Atlantic cod and black cod. Rocco was pretty unhappy with the texture of J.J.'s grits but his oxtail impressed everyone, including Marcus.

 

J.J.'s food and rockin' theme of a Harlem speakeasy gives him the win and he leaves the loft $20,000 richer!

 

Rocco's Dinner Party airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Bravo.

 

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

 

 

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