OCTOBER 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 75
CHEF JOE CHIODI:
THE FAMOUS MEATBALLERS
By ERIC VOORHIS
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Crafting a perfect meatball
recipe and introducing it to the
prepared-foods market isn’t easy,
but Chef Joe Chiodi had a perfect test
kitchen to help him with the process:
his FDNY firehouse.
The full-time New York City
firefighter from Wantagh owns
The Famous Meatballers, a new
homegrown food brand that recently
came out with a fully cooked, heatand
serve packaged meatball being
sold at stores across Long Island.
“I served them up at the firehouse
and all the guys were just ranting
and raving,” Chiodi says. “Having the
guys as my lab rats was tremendously
helpful. I got such a big reaction. I
knew I had something special.”
Friends and family urged Chiodi to
open a restaurant, but he wasn’t ready
for such a commitment. Instead, he
decided to start his own food line.
On most days, Chiodi gets to Engine
262 in Astoria, Queens around 7 a.m.,
makes sure his safety equipment is
in order, and inspects the fire trucks
before being assigned his position for
the day. Calls he responds to during
a given shift range from false alarms
to car crashes and fires. Between the
action, he prepares family style meals
for the team of hungry firefighters.
He spoke to the Press from his
firehouse just before lunch on a
recent Tuesday. Chiodi had a large
pot of turkey chili simmering on
the stove. The team was starting to
get hungry.
“Usually meals are kind of a group
decision,” he says. “But when I’m
working, the guys basically just ask
me what I’m making and how they
can help.”
Eventually, Chiodi hopes to introduce
a few other products, including
the chili he’s been trying to perfect,
along with a turkey meatball and perhaps
a chowder down the line. But for
right now, it’s all about the meatballs.
“What I really want is for The Famous
Meatballers to be a household
name,” he says.
A good meatball is a little on the
softer side in terms of texture, according
to Chiodi. His meatballs are sous
vide, a method of cooking in which
they’re placed in a vacuum-sealed
pouch — sauce and all — and cooked
for a long period of time in water.
“I use a little more garlic than most
people, so the flavor really comes
through,” Chiodi says, adding that the
recipe is based on a combination of two
family recipes passed down to him.
He finds that sitting down for a
meal can be therapeutic, easing the
chaos of the job.
“We are extremely busy,” he says,
adding that not all his meals are consumed
at the firehouse. “We make
sure that we have time for our family.
And we try to sit down and eat as a
family as much as we can.”
The Famous Meatballers Italian
style Meatballs in Marinara.
Sauce are currently being sold
at Salpino Italian Food Market
& Catering; North Shore Farms;
and certain King Kullen locations.
For a more detailed list visit
thefamousmeatballers.com/locations.
MAIN DISH
Famous Meatballers owner Joe
Chiodi appears with Ray Cooney,
a retired firefighter and host of
the PBS NYCTV show Firehouse
Kitchen.