Restaurant owner from Kitchen Nightmares commits suicide [Archive]

radio667

09-29-2010, 02:10 AM

from cnn.com ...........New York (CNN) -- New Jersey restaurant owner Joseph Cerniglia, who appeared on the first season of Fox reality show "Kitchen Nightmares," plunged to his death in New York's Hudson River, the New York City medical examiner said Tuesday.

Cerniglia, 39, jumped from a bridge into the river last Friday in what the medical examiner ruled was a suicide.

His Fairlawn, New Jersey, Italian restaurant was struggling when reality show host Gordon Ramsey taped an episode with Cerniglia in 2007.

"Your business is about to f**king swim down the Hudson," Ramsey said to Cerniglia, while offering advice on how to turn his business around.

radio667

09-29-2010, 02:15 AM

from nj.com ................... Joe Cerniglia, the Fair Lawn restaurateur whose body was found in the Hudson River on Friday, committed suicide, the New York Medical Examiner's office reports.

Though a 911 caller reported seeing a person jump from the George Washington Bridge about an hour before Cerniglia's body was spotted in the water, a New York Police Department spokesman says the investigating is ongoing: "It could be a coincidence. It might not be. I don't know if it will ever be determined."

Cerniglia drowned, but there were blunt impact injuries to his body, according to the Medical Examiner's Office, which would be consistent with a fall from a bridge.

Cerniglia, 39, was married with three sons. He bought Campania restaurant (http://www.campaniarestaurant.com/) when he was 33, and though the innovative Italian bistro quickly won fans, he was sinking into debt and turned to reality television for some relief. In 2007, Campania was featured (http://www.nj.com/insidejersey/index.ssf/2010/01/hot_chef_joe_cerniglia.html) on Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares," (http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares/) in which the profanity-prone celebrity chef whips struggling restaurants (and restaurateurs) into shape. As soon as the episode aired, he told Star-Ledger restaurant critic Teresa Politano, the phone began to ring. "It didn’t stop for a long, long time.”

Since then, Cerniglia won the Ultimate Chef Bergen County competition (a local version of "Iron Chef") and was named one of the top five chefs in the Garden State by Inside Jersey magazine (http://www.nj.com/insidejersey/index.ssf/2010/01/hot_chefs_of_2010.html) earlier this year. He was active in the Slow Food movement and passionate about locally-grown food.

"He was just so interested in food and so animated," says Jill Hanifan, a Campania regular who ran into Cerniglia at foodie events. "He even
made you want to eat things you didn't like," he says, citing a pasta dish
concealing a poached egg. He was known for popping out of the kitchen
to talk to guests, but not for the purposes of getting his ego stroked. "He would sit down
and talk to you about food, about growing food," says Hanifan, who is a
master gardener. "I had made some green tomato relish, and he let me
talk. He wasn't just about me, me, me, I, I, I. I even brought him a
jar of relish. He was so cute trying it."

Cerniglia also cultivated a friendship with Todd Kuehm, whose family owns Farms View in Wayne, which provided Campania with much of its produce. On Saturday, Kuehm had just put aside some heirloom tomatoes that he thought Cerniglia would like when he heard the news of the chef's death.

"He wasn't afraid to try anything," Kuehm says. "It was like an adventure going [to Campania]. He actually did it with his heart." He was also always willing to lend out his services for a good cause, Kuehm says. "If anybody was down on their luck, he'd say, 'Let's do a benefit dinner.' He was always willing to go out of his way ... I guess if there was just one word to describe him, he was compassionate."

YouTube - Kitchen Nightmares s01e04 Campania Pt 1 of 5