And then, COVID came along, sending the restaurant business crashing. Petroni was among one of four restaurant chefs to be featured in fellow Food Network star Guy Fieri's documentary "Restaurant Hustle 2020: All On The Line." In the documentary, chefs Antonia Lofaso, Marcus Samuelsson, Maneet Chauhan, and Petroni all talk openly about how COVID-19 affected the industry — sometimes with heartbreaking results (via Food Network).
Petroni spoke about what the experience was like in an interview with Lohud: "This was a very hard business to be profitable with even before COVID," he said. "But right now it's crazy scary, not only for the busboys and waiters and dishwashers but for the many sub-industries that touch the restaurant business. You're also talking about the livelihood of the cleaning crew, the linen company, the meat guy, the fruit and vegetable company and the people that picked those fruits."
At the end of the show, Petroni tells viewers that he's leaving Fortina, the restaurant group he helped create, behind. "Essentially it came down to [the] fact that I was ready to do my own thing the way I wanted to do it," he said, adding, "I want to focus on the cooking and the things that make me happy again and make me who I am."
Still, the future is looking delicious for Petroni, who is a married father of two. He has a clothing line out, with many of the hoodies and sweats featuring his catch phrase Gabagool, and told Lohud that he's working on something "cool and it's going to be awesome."
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