Chef Rocco DiSpirito On His Latest Cookbook, "Rocco's Keto Comfort Food Diet," & More
Rocco DiSpirito is an award-winning chef and the author of several highly acclaimed cookbooks. DiSpirito has been a television mainstay for more than 20 years. He is on a mission to change people’s negative perceptions of healthy food by making low-fat and low-calorie dishes flavorful and healthy, while dispelling the myth that healthy is more expensive. DiSpirito joined BUILD to talk about his work with Feeding America, his most recent book and more.
Video Transcript
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BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to "BUILD at Home." I'm your host, Brittany Jones-Cooper, coming to you from my home in New York City. I am pumped for today's guests, Chef Rocco DiSpirito. He's going to make us a special recipe. But first, I want to remind you guys about the campaign, No Kid Hungry. Because of school cancellations due to the coronavirus, there are a lot of kids who are missing their daily meals in school. In fact, 336 million meals have been missed. So if you're looking for a way to help, go to nokidhungry.org for more information.
Now I want to switch gears and welcome Rocco DiSpirito to the screen. Rocco, first, I want to check in with you. How are things going?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Things are OK. I'm locked down at home. I only leave the house to walk the dogs and necessary shopping. Otherwise, things are pretty good.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, you're in New York City?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: I'm what?
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: You're in New York?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: I'm in New York City, yeah.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, so what's the vibe in your neighborhood when you do go out?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: The vibe is very much desolate. There are not a lot of people on the street. People are taking the quarantine very seriously in my neighborhood. I don't know about other neighborhoods. I know that when the USS Comfort sailed up the Hudson behind me, a bunch of people who are following it like a herd of animals. And I was wondering what they were thinking, but the rest of us downtown are behaving pretty well.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: There's lots of masks all of a sudden. Lots of people with gloves. People are generally in good spirits and very helpful, very friendly. And they feel safe. And it's a little reminiscent of post-9/11, where after the tragedy, New Yorkers dug deep inside and found the inner human, and became very kind and generous. It's kind of returning to that a little bit.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, I would say the same when I've gone to stores. Everybody's been very polite. The energy seems very positive. That's been the biggest relief for me, as well-- is that I don't feel like I'm in it alone.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Yeah. No, that's a huge relief. The last thing we would want is for people to get upset and angry, because that's just going to lead to nothing good, of course. So a lot of people cooking at home, obviously. But most of the shopping carts are full of fresh food-- the ones that I see, at least. And I see a lot of people walking out of Whole Foods and Target with bags of fresh vegetables. So the one silver lining here is that people are learning how to cook again.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah. People are learning how to cook, but that's also had an impact on our restaurants, right? And I know-- I've seen in your social media you've been really passionate about encouraging people to still support their local restaurants. So what are you seeing going to be the impact on restaurants because of the coronavirus?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Well, clearly, the impact is of a magnitude that none of us have ever felt before. Even after 9/11, we all rushed to get back open. And in my own case, I was open within two weeks and we had customers in the first night. That's not going to happen here. It's going to be clearly, several weeks, if not months, before we can all rush back into our businesses and try to open up.
I have an at home delivery service. I've kept that open so far, kept all my employees employed. We're down to work from home, work from office situation, where there's, you know, two days in the office and the rest are at home. The impact is going to be an order of magnitude that we just can't quantify at this point. It's going to be in the billions, if not trillions of dollars. I'm going to guess that without serious intervention from the local community and the government, 25% of restaurants are never going to reopen-- never going to reopen again.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: That is so sad. It's such an important part of the fabric of New York City, specifically. I know that's going to happen everywhere, but it's just so tough.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Yeah think about the New York lifestyle, right? You go and get your manicure, then you go have brunch, then you go have cocktails. And you repeat the cycle all over again. You can't do any of that anymore.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, it's tough. But I just want to encourage people to look for ways of donate if they can. I have a lot of friends who work in the service industry and there's just a lot of people struggling right now.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: So a couple of things you can do that will be impactful right away are call your congressman. I posted many links to sites that will help you find your congressman so you can call and advocate for your community. That's extremely important, something everyone can do, won't cost you anything, and it's very impactful. Those phone calls mean a lot. It will automatically call your congressman for you and advocates for you. You won't even have to say a word. If you just follow some of the links that I post, they all do that.
Another thing you can do-- if you're employed and your friends are in the service industry, check in and see if they're OK. See if they need, you know, I don't know, a gift card, a small loan. Anything you can do to help them and be kind and generous. If there ever was a time to be kind of generous to people in the hospitality industry, this is it.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, you're right. It's all about community, and it's even more important now. And you mentioned in the grocery stores, you see people buying a lot of food-- they're preparing food at home, which is one of the reasons we also wanted to catch up with you. Because I don't know what to cook, Rocco.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: You know, I'm sort of like that, as well, but when I cook at home, I'm either cooking an elaborate feast or cooking a simple thing like a soup that's made with a can of black beans and a can of chicken stock. Or an omelet or a frittata or a simple pasta like cacio e pepe that's four ingredients. I make very, very simple food at home. And especially now while we're self-quarantining, we really want easy comfort foods.
So I thought I'd show you how to make an omelet today, since most people I speak to are fascinated with omelets. They all want to know what the right method is. And I just want to show you a 30 second version of an omelet that everyone can make at home and then you can start in a simple-- very simple place with just eggs. And then you just start adding lots of ingredients to make it something more elaborate.
Eggs are still on the shelves. I still see cheese out there. You know, there's anything from diced peppers onions to cubed ham to canned salmon for a filling. So the sky's the limit when it comes to fillings. I just everyone to know what the basic technique is, though, because if you don't know the basic technique, you can't make a great omelet.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: That's my problem.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: So it ends up [INAUDIBLE] scrambled eggs.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: That's my problem. So let's do it.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: All right, cool. So you want to get a nice pan like this, which is non-stick, kind of important. A non-stick pan will guarantee success with an omelet. It works in cast iron, black iron, stainless steel. It's all about the heat. Got to have high heat. Most people cook omelets on low heat. That's the mistake that that everyone makes. An omelet just a very quick cooked dish.
If you've ever been to brunch or ever been to breakfast in a hotel, and you're seeing-- you're watching 20, 30 omelets come out of the kitchen, there's a good chance there's only one guy cooking all those omelets. And that's because they're very fast at it. So let me show you.
This is on. Its on high. I'm going to let this get very hot. I'm gonna break three eggs. I like four eggs for myself, but for most people, three eggs is enough. Try not to pre-crack eggs. That does nothing to have the flavor or quality of your omelet. Take two forks-- that's all you need. Or if you don't have forks, a spoon. Yes?
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I've never seen this technique. OK.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: OK. Cool. That's why I'm here.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I like it.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Going to show you new techniques. Two forks just like grandma used to do. Two forks makes a whisk. And you want to beat them, but you don't want to aerate them. If you add air to the eggs, you're going to end up with a very fluffy tortilla frittata-style omelet, and that's not really a classic French rolled omelet. Do not add anything to the egg mixture-- no cream, no milk, no butter, or nothing-- except for salt, and a little pepper, if you want.
All right. Once that's done, check the temperature of your pan. It's feeling pretty hot. The best way to check this temperature is add oil. Make sure it's nice and clean. Non-stick pans, just white like this. That's all you have to do. They don't have to go to the dishwasher, don't have to go to sink. Add oil. You want a generous amount of olive oil. I like olive oil. You can use butter, of course, if you want, as well.
Wait till that oil is really hot. How do you know it's really hot? It's smoking. Have a plate ready to roll your omelet out on. You don't need all these tools. They're nice to have, but basically, any tool will work. OK, once the oil is hot and smoking, you can see smoke-- hopefully--
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Little bit.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Add your eggs. And you can see it's going to cook really fast. You want to shake and sir, shake and stir. Don't let it scramble. Don't let it scramble. That omelet is done. It's going to blow itself out onto the plate.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: What?
Whoa!
ROCCO DISPIRITO: And there you go. That's it. That's omelet [INAUDIBLE].
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Rocco, I've been doing it so wrong.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: You must have been doing it wrong. So most people slowly cook the eggs and push the eggs to one side, let the other side-- raw eggs cook. And then push the other side over. You don't need to do any of that. You want me to show you how to do a filled omelet?
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yes, please. That was best, I'm honestly in shock. It's so much easier than I thought it was going to be.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: It's just about shaking and stirring to the point where it's going to set, but not scramble. Cook it just another 10 seconds, you'll have scrambled eggs. You're trying to leave a thin membrane of cooked eggs surrounding the less cooked eggs. And you want it to be soft in the center because it will carry over cooking. It will continue to cook.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: So you said you're going to add some stuff? What are your favorite omelet additions?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: One more time?
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: What's your favorite thing to put in an omelet?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: What do I like to put in an omelet?
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Mm-hmm.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Cheese is a great stuffing for an omelet, of course. I like cubed ham. I like peppers, onions, mushrooms. Goat cheese is my favorite. We'll do cheese today. I have cheddar and mozzarella right here, right? So you're letting the oil get hot. Going to add your eggs. Wait till it's hot. A lot of people don't wait till it's hot. That's where the mistake is made. It's almost cooked. It's almost done the minute you put it in the pan.
Shake and stir. Don't let it scramble. Let it set. You want to add some cheese, no problem. This is the time to do it. Let it fold into your pan up by itself. Look, do you see how it rolled itself?
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah. Wow.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: See that? An omelet should jump out of the pan for you if you're doing the right job.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Wow. I gotta applaud this.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: About 30 seconds, the cheese will be perfectly melted. It'll be gooey and delicious. Let's see how this one looks.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Bravo, Rocco. Bravo.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: This one is still soft in the middle. It's not undercooked, not overcooked. It's perfect.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yes. Bravo.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: What's better than fresh cooked eggs? Almost nothing.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Wow, OK. So that was really, really simple. And I'm going to try that, because I have been doing it completely wrong. I like, do the whole thing, and I try to flip it, and it's in there for, like, minutes . And it ends up just being, like, a fried egg, I think.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: You want to learn how to make fried eggs? I can show you those too.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Sure.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: All right, let's do that. Same-- same pan. Not as hot, but still hot.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: OK.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Notice how I'm just wiping out. I'm not washing the pan. You also want to break the eggs into a bowl, but this time, you're not going to beat them, of course. You want to pour it from a bowl into the pan. That's a big pro trick right there. That's a super important pro tip. This is cooking pretty hot right now. Because I've been cooking the omelets at a very high heat, I want to lower the temperature. And we're just going to let the whites set up. Sometimes, I like to put a little oil around the sides just to make sure the sides don't stick. Of course, you could always push down from the sides to make sure that doesn't stick.
And then it just depends on what you like-- sunny side, over easy. At this point, these are going to be great sunny side ups in three minutes. Or I can flip over and they'll be over easys in less than a minute.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: This is beautiful. I have to ask, does this-- what does this fit into your keto lifestyle at all? I know you have a new book out.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Yeah. So I've been doing keto lately. Keto is my go-to when I'm having a rough patch with myself, if you know what I mean. Every once in awhile, you have a rough patch with people, but sometimes, you have a rough patch with yourself, and you don't treat yourself to be you should. So I go to keto, which was the original guide got me in shape for triathlons 15 years ago, to really reduce body fat and lose weight pretty quickly.
So now would be the time to remove the pan for sunny side up. Or if you like over easy, now's the time to flip it over.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: That only half flipped, but that's OK. And then you let it set on the other side and then you flip it back. But yes, it's a keto lifestyle, because it's mostly fat, protein, very little carbs. In the keto lifestyle, you want your calories to break down as follows-- 10% carbs, 20% to 30% protein, and the balance in fat. So 40 to 60% in fat. If you manage to do that, if you keep your carbs below 10%, which is about 30 grams a day, your body will burn fat.
So this would be considered over well, because I broke the yolk, which is how a lot of people like it. I used to be a breakfast cook, by the way.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, I like the yolk broke.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: So that's how I know to do all this. One of my first jobs in my [INAUDIBLE].
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I have to ask, are you going to eat all these eggs?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: What's that?
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Are you going to eat all of these eggs?
ROCCO DISPIRITO: Yes, these are my lockdown eggs. These, I got-- each [? flat ?] holds 36 eggs, so there's enough here for at least two weeks. I eat eggs at least once a day, sometimes twice-- in a frittata, in an omelet, in an over easy. Sometimes, with just some smoked salmon on top. Lots of time with spicy sauces on top. They're really versatile and amazing nutritionally.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I love that. And just one more thing. Your book, the "Keto Comfort Food Diet" is out now. And I hear a lot of people talking about keto. And it seems like now might be a good time to try something, because you might be a little bit more disciplined with it.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: This is a great time to try anything that you've been looking forward to learning or trying. Or if were on your list was, you know, lose 10 pounds, this is the time to do it. You've got probably, a lot of free time. You're probably home. You probably have time to focus on your diet. If this book helps, you know, if that'll make you happy. If it's another book, that's also great. But whatever you can do to get your head together.
Eating-- eating is a big part that. Getting your diet under control is a big part of getting your head under control. The sugar ups and downs and the emotional imbalances that come with eating lots of processed foods that contain vast amounts of trash carbs and sugar cause energy imbalances, and you want to stay away from that when you're stuck inside for a long time.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Yeah, you're right. You know, food is fuel. And we have to take care of ourselves more now than ever. So thanks for showing me how to make a proper omelet. I'm honestly wowed. It's beautiful.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: All right. You let me know where to send it.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I'm uptown, OK? I'll come get it.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: All right.
BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: All right, Rocco, we'll see you next time. Stay safe, stay inside.
ROCCO DISPIRITO: OK.
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