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Anyone can cook a great steak or roasted chicken, but it's the people who have thought things through and have a business plan that works who ultimately get the backing of investors Tim Love and Joe Bastianich on CNBC's "Restaurant Startup." And for Love, who with Bastianich begins Season 2 of the unscripted series on Tuesday, Jan. 13, there is a certain intangible. "There's certainly an attitude in the pitch, for me, that I look for – a humbled confidence, I guess, is the best way to put it," says Love, a 43-year-old Texan who is owner and executive chef of several Fort Worth-area eateries. "You can tell when somebody knows what they're doing and at the same time doesn't want to sit there and show off but they're going to show enough of it and say, 'Hey look, you need to pick me because I'm really going to show you the reason why you want to give me some money.' "And it's a very fine line and I think it's a very personal thing," Love continues. "I mean, Joe sees that in some people and I don't and vice versa, and you'll see that on the show because it gets really difficult that we actually have to agree on at the top of the show, which always makes it interesting. It also makes us vet each other out on what we're thinking. It's great for Joe and I just as much for the people on the show." This season, more teams of would-be restaurateurs pitch their ideas to Love and Bastianich, with one getting the keys to a working restaurant on Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles, where they get 36 hours and $7,500 to get things up and running. This trial by fire is often these folks' introduction to running an eater y. "The thing about the restaurant business is this," Love says, "It is a business that is a marriage of commerce and art. And when you marry commerce and art, it's probably one of the hardest marriages there is and therefore experience is the one that can do that the best. So that is what really you start seeing come across on the show, I think. That is a very important statement, in my opinion. The art of marrying art and commerce itself is probably the hardest thing, and once you figure out how to do that the right way, that's when you start seeing success in the restaurant business." What book are you currently reading? " 'Downtown Italian' by Jerry Campanale, Gabe Thompson and Katherine Thompson." What did you have for dinner last night? "Last night, I had chicken enchiladas with some fresh guacamole that I made for me and my kids." What is your next project? "I'm opening up a restaurant in Austin, Texas." When was the last vacation you took, where and why? "The last vacation I took was in London for Thanksgiving. I took my family over there to celebrate Thanksgiving and obviously take in all the sights." Attitude is everything for Love on CNBC's 'Restaurant Startup' Tim Love BY GEORGE DICKIE Attitude is everything for Love on CNBC's 'Restaurant Startup' It's hard not to admire someone who hangs in there and keeps trying until he gets it right. Chris Rock now can be added to that list. His candid, bigger-than- life personality always has been a dicey proposition for movies ... not only those that others have cast him in (such as "Lethal Weapon 4"), but even those he's written and directed himself ("Head of State"). In "Top Five," he actually addresses that dilemma, just one of the elements that makes it such a smart movie while also being enormously entertaining. Mirroring his own experience, Rock plays a stand-up comedian turned film star, but the vehicle that's brought him success is the "Hammy the Bear" franchise. Yes, he portrays the bear. He trades on that to make a project close to his heart, a drama about the Haitian revolution – and critics do not respond well to it, making him wary about having agreed to spend its opening day in the company of a reporter (a charming Rosario Dawson). The encounter turns into an extensive trip into the past and present of Rock's alter ego, and some of the flashbacks are quite raunchy. At the same time, there's a gentility to other segments; when you take both ends of the spectrum together, it's dazzling that Rock has the confidence to attempt them in one project to such great effect overall. Hollywood gets satirized big-time along the way, with celebrity reality shows and the pressure of mass popularity among the subjects touched upon. Cameos by such familiar faces as Adam Sandler and Whoopi Goldberg add to the sense of reality that Rock generates in "Top Five," and he uses his famous friends to fine effect. When you've had only a lukewarm screen career, it can be easy to give up ... but Chris Rock never has given the impression of being a quitter. If anything, he only comes roaring back stronger, and "Top Five" is excellent proof. Truth be told, with pun intended, it's Rock- solid. Chris Rock is on 'Top' with his latest writer-director-star turn BY JAY BOBBIN Page 8 January 12 - 18, 2015

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