Upon completing culinary school at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Chef Rocky was a pastry chef at the Stanford Park Hotel, worked at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, and launched a catering company with her husband. In 2005, she entered the private chef realm, and in 2018, she started working with the Rock.
Anyone who follows the Rock on social media knows his regimented meal plans.
“The Rock is very strict on his meals six days a week, and then one day he gets his cheat meals,” says Chef Rocky. “Cheat meals are like an all-out celebration of anything he could eat that he wants possible. When he asked for his cheat meals, he would say, ‘I want Rock-size.’ They’re not the normal-sized items that you would receive.
“Then one day he happened to ask for French toast. I was like, that’s amazing, I make this thick French toast for my family, and so I served it to him. He loved it and then he kept requesting it. And with the cheat meals I can slip things in for him to taste because it’s not on the diet plan. So he can go outside and explore a little bit. So every time he would request it, I would add the Teremana [the Rock’s line of tequila] -infused whipped cream. Then I would add toasted coconut. His favorite flavor profiles are coconut, peanut butter and banana. So then I thought, How about peanut butter coconut maple syrup with Teremana? That’s how it all happened and came together. I would just label it as Rock toast instead of French toast. And his name is my name, too, so it goes both ways. Then it just became a thing of its own.”
Let’s take a dive into the Rock’s social media. One of the first—if not the first—mention of Rock Toast was in February 2020, just prior to the country shutting down due to Covid-19.
“Extra thick brioche French toast, smothered with peanut butter (personal fav) and syrup. Washed down with my @teremana Reposado tequila shaken, chilled and poured back on the rocks,” reads the post, coupled with a rich, delectable plate of Rock Toast.
One week later, another cheat-day post involving French toast. “Brioche French toast smothered in peanut butter and maple syrup with cheesecake & @espn’s 30 for 30 on the side,” it reads. “For perspective, the cheesecake slice is actually half a cheesecake, so you can imagine how massive these French toast slices are. Enjoy your cheat meals, my friends and have a productive week.”
“He would post it and everyone would go crazy,” Chef Rocky tells Muse. “And then I would post it, but I wouldn’t say who I was making it for, and people would message me saying, ‘Where is that? Where can I get that? I would totally buy that.’ I’d be like, ‘Oh, you would buy this?’ Then we thought, maybe we could sell this. I approached the Rock and said that I wanted to make a business out of this. And he said, ‘I totally 1,000 percent support you. Go for it.’ “
