Jay Parmegiani, Chef/Owner

Jay’s culinary training begin at a very young age.  When he was seven, he started preparing the garnishes for the plates at his father’s first restaurant in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Classically French.  He learned early on the importance of a properly made hollandaise sauce, how to skim veal stock, shuck oysters, debone a chicken, trim beef tenderloin and add whipped heavy cream to a sauce for Coquille St. Jacques so it browns properly under the broiler.  Jay was always near the hotline observing the intense focus and stamina required to run a successful restaurant.   You could say he caught the bug early on.  His life was definitely not that of the usual elementary school kid.

When he was 10, Jay moved in with his grandmother for a short time in North Mississippi.  He can still remember the first time he had her fried chicken and cornbread—while not the usual seafood crepes, filet with béarnaise sauce, or oysters Bienville he was used to—it was a revelation.  Most of the time dinner would include black eye peas, greens, sweet tea so fresh from the pot that the ice would melt while you drank it, and fresh picked peppers from his aunt’s garden. She taught him the importance of constant heat in the skillet, and not crowding the chicken so it would stay crisp and brown evenly.

Jay returned to Vicksburg to start high school and worked for his dad at Jacques Café.  In the beginning, he was just in it for a paycheck. However, after a compliment from a prominent local businessman, Jay decided to pursue a career in culinary arts.  After a sketchy stint in high school, he spent time in Jackson, Mississippi working under Chef Dan Blumenthal at BRAVO! Italian Restaurant and Bar. Afterwards, Jay headed to South Florida to attend Johnson and Wales University in Miami.  During that time, he worked for Max’s Restaurant Group under Chef Menen Tekili in their Italian bistro Prezzo Bar & Grill.  He also spent time at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel under Chef Dwayne Adams learning a blend of New American and Caribbean cuisine.

After graduating from Johnson and Wales in 1999, Jay returned to Vicksburg to be with his family.  He spent the next 10 years in his father’s kitchen developing, testing and refining recipes for ROCA.  He wanted the restaurant to reflect both ends of the culinary spectrum—from his grandmother’s amazing Southern soul food to his father’s classically French-Italian fair.

As a third generation chef, including his grandfather, father and several uncles, you could say it’s in the genes.