There’s a fearless New York foodie known simply as Chef Rossi who spends a good deal of her time catering high-end functions for influential clients. But a chef’s tall white cap is not the only hat she wears. Rossi is an author, blogger, radio host, TV personality, entrepreneur … and lately, the subject of a touring stage production, Raging Skillet, appearing at New Jewish Theatre in Creve Coeur this month. Written by Jacques Lamarre and based on Rossi’s company and book of the same name, the play follows her mad journey from rebellious teen to avant-garde culinary icon. It also examines her up-and-down relationship with her late mother, whose cooking repertoire was based on McDonald’s and the microwave. “I love that the dialogue sounds like it is coming straight from my mom’s mouth,” Rossi says. “I think she is there when the play is on stage. It kind of gives her back to me.”
When she was a pink-haired, punk-rock teenager, Rossi’s Jewish parents sent her to live with a Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn in the hope that it would tame her wild side. “I had really terrible and wonderful experiences there,” she says. “I reconnected with many of the things that are great about being Jewish, and we have worked some of those into the play.” She also spent a childhood summer living with her family in a Florida community where “I don’t think any of the residents had ever met a Jew,” Rossi notes. “Neighbors would show up at our bungalow banging tambourines and say, ‘Jesus loves you anyway.’”
Given her colorful past, Rossi says it’s not surprising her success has been driven by a desire to be different. “When I first started catering, I had this awful 1980s name for the business, Parties by Rossi,” she says. “People would call us for boring event food, and I hated that. I decided the company needed a title that would make them not even call me in the first place! When I switched to Raging Skillet, the tone of the callers quickly changed. Questions became: ‘Can you feed 200 people from a bathtub?’”
Now, Rossi revels in creating dishes and desserts that give catering norms a wide berth. “I never inherited the rules of other chefs,” she remarks. “I like to let my kooky background come into play. I enjoy doing pulled barbecue chicken on Ritz crackers or mini waffles for fancy events, or I’ll whip up peanut butter and bacon sandwiches.” One of her best-sellers is called Oreo Crack because it’s so addictive. “You open the cookies, remove the cream, whip it with peanut butter, put the halves back together, dip in high-quality chocolate and chill,” she explains. “I love to end an evening party with these, passed on silver trays with delicate sprays of orchids: ‘Can I interest you in an Oreo Crack, ma’am?’ It’s an excellent conversation starter.”
Her all-time favorite catering experience was a VIP bash with The Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler. It featured anatomically correct food served to guests who included Whoopi Goldberg and Susan Sarandon. Rossi also has fed political celebs like Bill Clinton. “I created all of this exciting food for him, and it turned out he just wanted pigs in a blanket,” she laughs. “That was before he went vegan.”
The chef says she’s been blessed—or cursed—with an inability to lie, which has shaped her business philosophy as well as her personal life. “I once had this wealthy client, one of the first people to own a mobile phone,” she recalls. “She conferenced me on a call with her event planner, who automatically answered, ‘That’s fab!’ to all of her unimaginative ideas. ‘Yes, let’s serve the lamb with the raspberry jelly,’ he gushed. I replied, ‘Sorry, but I can’t do that.’ You could practically hear a 10-car pileup on the other end. ‘That’s gross,’ I continued. ‘I could do it, but I’d be very unhappy, and you’d still have to work with me.’ In my business, I find it’s best to be completely honest.”
Speaking of truth-telling, Rossi says she loves the play but admits she is glad it didn’t come out while her parents were alive. “I wouldn’t have wanted them to see the bad parts,” she says. The production got its start when playwright Lamarre approached her at a book event and said he wanted to put her story on the stage. “A few months later, he emailed me a first draft,” she says. “I hadn’t given him permission to write it, but when I read it, I laughed out loud.” Rossi says she has another book planned and also envisions her unorthodox story as perfect fodder for a TV show. “I think it would be a quirky Jewish cross between Seinfeld and Sex and the City,” she jokes.
New Jewish Theatre’s production of Raging Skillet is on stage at The J’s Wool Studio Theatre Oct. 4 through 21. Sarajane Alverson stars as Chef Rossi.