By the time Rocco DiSpirito was a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars,” in 2008, it had been so long since he’d worked as a chef that it wasn’t clear whether the job description still applied.

He’d come to prominence in the late nineties as one of the most promising young culinary talents in New York City—but quickly became one of the first celebrity chefs, spending more time on TV shows (including his own ill-fated NBC reality series, “The Restaurant”) and hawking products (Bertolli’s frozen food, a line of cookware on QVC) than actually cooking. And then he sort of disappeared. It isn’t clear whether, after a decade spent mostly out of the limelight, he’s still a celebrity.