Lights, Camera, Mangia!

NBC is hoping so. The network, which has yet to find ''Survivor''-like numbers with an unscripted hit, has rolled out eight reality shows this summer (including ''For Love or Money,'' ''Fame,'' and ''Last Comic Standing'') to modest ratings and critical barbs. As for Burnett, ''The Restaurant'' is an opportunity to prove that he's more than a one-hit wonder -- especially now that his other summer offering, The WB's ''Boarding House: North Shore,'' is wiping out in the ratings.

''The Restaurant'''s producers say they've found a recipe that works: meaty storytelling and indulgent serial plots (think intra-kitchen dating). ''A restaurant is the place where families go for dramatic moments,'' explains executive producer Ben Silverman, who will import a version of the U.K. hit ''Coupling'' for NBC this fall. ''People get engaged, people fall in love, people reveal to their parents that they're pregnant. And operating a restaurant with a superstar stud chef like Rocco, under the glass bubble of television, is very compelling.'' (Especially when a kitchen fire threatens to burn down his eatery on opening night, as viewers will see in an early episode.)

DiSpirito is undoubtedly a key ingredient in making this venture work. The 36-year-old, named one of PEOPLE's Sexiest Men Alive in 2002, is like a bouillabaisse of ''American Idol'' judges Paula and Simon. One moment, he's displaying an incredibly charming side, as he good-naturedly crafts a gourmet creation from vending-machine snacks during a morning radio appearance; later, he turns caustic, assaulting his kitchen staff with obscenity-heavy outbursts (''Gavin, you suck, man! Send me the f---ing food!'') and dubbing a fey waiter ''the little queen.''

He is, however, a mama's boy. ''We never disagree,'' DiSpirito says of his 78-year-old mother, Nicolina. ''She's right, I'm wrong, period.'' Known to all as ''Mama,'' she quit her job at a deli to help her son run the new place and she's there every night, cooking and slapping guests' cheeks in that affectionate, Italian-mom way. ''She's as charming as they come,'' DiSpirito says, ''and she works for free.''

The rest of the staff, of course, does not -- but they seem as if they'd trade the paycheck for a talent agent any day. Waiter and aspiring actor Pete Giovine, 25, is blunt: ''I'm looking to get on TV,'' he says, as a camera and mike hover above him. But he quickly adds that he has his limits: ''Some people get drunk and act stupid just to make a scene.''

It seems to be working for our date couple. As the woman's words become more slurred and the guy woos her with promises of a chic hotel, the control-room producers are transfixed. No one bothers to watch the other table on camera, where a father is telling his son and daughter-in-law he's bought them a new house. Turns out the most delicious drama goes better with a side of drunken foreplay.