Who says you can’t go home again?
Oh, it’s been said, but clearly not by anyone who ever knew the RFH grad and famed raging skillet full of chef, author, playwright and punk rock queen of the Jews known as Rossi. Yes, that’s a mouthful of matzo ball soup with a little “L’Chaim!” on the side.
Continue reading Focus: Rumson-Raised ‘Punk Rock Queen of the Jews’ Rossi’s Homecoming 
Does the world really need another memoir?
It’s a question with which famed New York City caterer, author and playwright of The Raging Skillet known as Rossi — we’ll get to her real name later — grappled. Originally, the wild child and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) graduate of a different kind figured the answer was a hard “Yes.” After all, when it’s all about how a gay Jewish punk rock queen plucked the jewels out of her own crown, who could resist?
After ingesting too many opinions like a bad bowl of matzo ball soup — as if there could be such a thing — it was Rossi’s healing try at third-person fiction writing of her story that opened a buried crown-induced wound leading to a full-on bleed-out. It was when she doused the wound in hydrogen peroxide’s purifying sting that its authenticity got an air-out healing in what became her second memoir — The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews.
After all, she figured, the world could really use a good dose of what it takes to pull those jewels out of the crown of a 1981 Crown Heights experience as a not-so-good Jewish girl. Who couldn’t use a story of endurance and hope simmering under a heap of authenticity?
So, the second Rossi memoir, sans recipes and the more silly, albeit unbelievable, misadventures, was launched last week with a reading in New York. Now Rossi is coming home again to the Rumson-Fair Haven area with a reading, signing and gathering of hometown friends and townies at River Road Books in Fair Haven on Thursday, May 2, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m..
Continue reading Living the Dream: Staying Authentic with Another Memoir from RFH Grad Rossi 
Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) graduate, chef, radio host and author extraordinaire Chef Rossi has had a double heaping helping of notoriety lately. And it’s not junk food — more like sweet gourmet success to savor.
Continue reading Scene Around: Cooking Up a Recipe for Success with RFH Grad Chef Rossi
Yes, Rossi, as we all know her, is coming home to RFH land tonight!
The RFH grad and premier “anti-chef” of the hipster Brooklyn scene has written a memoir about her not so Orthodox Orthodox Jewish upbringing in a preppy Rumson comprised of short stories accompanied by relevant recipes.
Rossi was a kinky-haired, butt-smoking punk rocker with a raucous mouth in a Lilly Pulitzer RFH world in the 1970s and early 80s. Her look wasn’t one that people in these parts were exposed to very often. Neither was her “I am who I am” attitude. She’s still rocking it — in a more staid way, but definitely rocking.
So, it’s only right that the Retro Pic(s) of the Day pay homage to the RFH friend, star caterer, author and master of many other things — like, from day one, being her authentic self and being damn good at it.
Check her out in these priceless pics from her ol’ RFH days. Kids! The middle shot is of her and her infamous not-so-Rumsonite parents, Marty and Harriet. Oh, and by the way, the double shot is her RFH yearbook pic. Yes, we know, most RFH yearbook pics are taken in a natural setting and I can’t recall any, except this one, in which the grad sporting wearing pink feather earrings. It was usually Monet or pearl studs. And, where’s the Fair Isle sweater and turtle neck??
Rossi rocked the anti-prep look!
— Elaine Van Develde
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