Some things are easy to change.
In elementary-school word games, it just takes a letter to change food to foot.
In life, career changes can take longer.
For John Viscovich, the change came in his 34th year.
Viscovich led a double-life of sorts as a youngster; being schooled at St. MelӪs in the Whitestone section of Queens and in the family restaurant business on Long Island. His dad, Bruno, opened Caf̩ Continental in 1968 in Manhasset.
Viscovich started off busing tables around the age of 7. As he got older, he worked every position ”” dishwasher, waiter, chef, sommelier, manager ”” learning every aspect of the business.
He never had “Friday nights” when he was in high school. They were spent in the restaurant. He continued working when he attended Fordham University, where he earned a bachelor”™s degree in finance and a master”™s in international economics.
In 1987, after he was done with college, he and his dad opened a restaurant on Second Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan, not far from his cousin Lidia Bastianich”™s restaurant, Felidia. The same Lidia of “Lidia”™s Family Table” television show.
The Viscovich”™s named their restaurant San Giusto, after the patron saint of Trieste, a port city in northeast Italy on the border of Slovenia. His dad was born in Italy, but his heritage is Croatian. The restaurant served up Italian staples such as osso bucco, with some Croatian influences, such as goulash.
Robin Leach, of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” was a regular. As was Felix Dennis, owner of Dennis Publishing. Also stopping by for meal was then U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Viscovich made a few appearances on Leach”™s show for the then-fledgling Food Network in 1994. Becoming friendly with Dennis also earned Viscovich a couple visits to the publisher”™s home on the exclusive island of Mustique in the West Indies.
Viscovich left the restaurant for about a year and a half to give Wall Street a try. Unhappy, he returned to the family business. But working in a restaurant can take its toll; you don”™t get to see family and friends because you”™re working Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It also takes a toll on the feet, having to stand all the time. Viscovich developed arthritis in his right ankle as a result of a nice hockey injury in college. In 1996, he decided to go back to school to learn something new ”” podiatry.
Viscovich earned his degree from New York College of Podiatric Medicine. He commuted from his home in Briarcliff Manor to study and also kept working in the restaurant. Once completing college in 2000, he began a three-year residency at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn. He encountered a lot of foot trauma there, primarily from teen-age criminals getting hurt trying to elude the police by jumping from fire escapes. In 2003, Viscovich joined Larry Rockmacher at his practice in Mount Kisco. He has since bought the practice and added an office near his home in Somers. Viscovich”™s dad closed the restaurant in 2001.
You can take a man out of the kitchen, but you can”™t keep him from cooking.
Viscovich says he cooks every night for his wife, Laura, and 4-year-old twins, Isabella and Quinn. The meals are not always as complex as the ones he used to create in the New York City kitchen; sometimes they”™re just simple salads. Even the children join in preparation, pulling the lettuce apart and picking their favorite cheeses, parmesan and bleu, to accompany the salad.
His signature meal is osso bucco, which his friends and family crave. An avid skier, Viscovich has been known to bring up to 20 veal shanks to Mount Snow in Vermont when he and friends have a long weekend on the slopes. Preparing the meal is a tedious process, from preparing the carrots, celery and onions to stewing the shanks for up to five hours. But once it”™s done, he says there are no complaints from those partaking in it.
And when it comes to footwear in the kitchen, what does the good doctor recommend?
How about no shoes like another TV cook Ina Garten, aka the “Barefoot Contessa”?
“I never cook barefoot; anything with arch support.” Kitchen clogs are a good choice, he says.
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