Vol. 4, No. 5, May 2007
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Food Feast
Trump Plaza chef draws from childhood memories
Tony Campaniello always immersed himself in cuisine. The Trump Plaza executive chef recalls food fascination from youth. Process and preparation intrigued him as a young boy in southern Italy. The nightly meal wasn’t fast food. It wasn’t delivery. It was the harvest from a day’s work. “I was raised in a family where my uncles, aunts, grandmothers, everybody, would gather at my mother’s house, and it was always intense in the kitchen,” Campaniello recalls.
“I was amazed that every day they would go to the market, come home with three or four bags and start to prepare the meal. The simple things that were utilized to make a dish were amazing. I got an early passion for cooking.”
Fortunately for millions of customers, he never outgrew it.
Campaniello presides over a new jewel in the Trump properties’ resurgence. He directs the efforts at Roberto’s, Max’s Steakhouse, Fortune’s Asian Gourmet, 24 Central, the Broadway Buffet, Plaza Club, banquet facilities and the employee cafeteria.
Chef Tony directs an operation that brings in 1,800 pounds of turkey each week. It also buys 70-90 gallons of soup and 300-400 pounds of fresh fish daily. Campaniello inspects the food that eventually will be served to gamblers, guests and employees. He estimates the Plaza feeds 25,000 people weekly, perhaps 35,000 in the summer.
The number could be 10 million. Chefs count meals with the pride of parents feeding children. Customer interaction, by extension, is cerebral.
Campaniello appeared in full “game uniform,” including a tall hat, after greeting a media gathering commemorating the Plaza’s new luxury suites last month.
“The stomach is the most important organ we have,” he says, laughing. “It is the boss of the body. When you have a great meal, great service and a nice atmosphere you will feel happy. When a customer is happy, that makes our work seem worthwhile.”
It’s an interesting perspective. While restaurant owners watch bottom lines, chefs are the performers who view meals as gigs. Campaniello has played both roles.
After moving from Italy to America at 19 to live with his brother, Campaniello scoured the East Coast. He worked restaurants in New Jersey and Florida before coming to the Tropicana in 1981. A family restaurant then beckoned in Florida, so he left for a while and returned to the Tropicana. Here, he settled down to raise a family and make the difficult transition from manager to employee.
“I never felt like a boss in the family restaurant,” Campaniello says. “I was my own slave. I got up at 7 o’clock in the morning and worked until 1 in the morning. I was a boss on paper, but in reality, I was a chef. So, when it came time to work for someone else, it was no problem. I respect people who have a clear signal of what they want.”
Campaniello knew he’d made the right move via an indirect compliment. His boss ignored the restaurant Campaniello worked in and focused attention on the two next door. “I finally asked him why he didn’t come see us and show all that attention,” Campaniello says. “He told me he loved everything we did. He didn’t have to worry about us.”
That boss, Mike Mellon, ultimately went to Trump Plaza and brought Campaniello aboard in 1994. The Plaza’s new direction has cast a spotlight on his department. As a true practitioner of his craft, Campaniello welcomes it.
