The TV Zone

When I dropped by Peter’s restaurant in Babylon last night, an hour before the premier of Kitchen Nightmares, they were hooking up auxiliary speakers to the flat-screen TV. As Fox’s viewing public now knows, Peter’s was the first recipient—or victim—of Gordon Ramsay’s culinary counsel. Back in March, the pugnacious British chef had swept into this modest Italian restaurant and had exposed everything—family strife, non-working stoves, frozen crab cakes—to the cold light of a television production crew.

The restaurant is owned by Tina Pelligrino, but its dominant presence is that of her brother, Peter. (He’s not the restaurant’s namesake, Tina explained; the place was named for their grandfather who founded it.)

Now that the specter of Joey Buttafuoco has faded, the South Shore of Long Island needs another poster boy and, in the show, Peter Pelligrino rises to the challenge. He comes off as selfish, crass, vain and violent: skimming money off the restaurant’s profits to buy a fancy car, an expensive tan, gleaming teeth and jewelry. He insults the wait staff within earshot of their tables, he physically threatens his creditors and, worst of all, neither he nor Tina seem to care that their kitchen barely functions and sends out consistently mediocre food.

Was Peter nervous about his upcoming small-screen debut? “As Shakespeare said,” quoth he, “‘All the world’s a stage.’”

The fledgling thespian—“this restaurant is my Carnegie hall”—said he has studied with acting coach Olinda Turturro. Years ago, he was stopped on the street by “Bobby De Niro” who liked his look. This led to a small role in “A Bronx Tale” (uncredited) and other De Niro movies. “I read seven times for the Soprano’s,” he said.

The five days Ramsay spent in Babylon, Peter said, were life-changing ones. “He made me toe the line,” he said. “I concede—he was right and I was wrong.” At the end of the one-hour episode, the bull has turned into a pussycat. He works hard, praises his employees and even sponsors a Family Day for Babylon. I asked him if, six months later, he feels that he has still turned over a new leaf. “I turned over a whole forest,” he responded.

We’ll see. I witnessed some very dismissive words directed at his long-suffering sister.

But I don’t think he’ll be around for long. Peter is an avowed scenester who considers himself “part of the woodwork” at Cipollini, the trendy Manhasset restaurant. He’s also a regular at the Manhattan Eurotrash magnets Da Silvano, in the Village, and Nello’s on the Upper East Side. Tony Danza loves his artichokes.

And he’s got some television projects “in the works.”

For all that, he makes for some very entertaining TV. Which was probably his intention all along.