Wow. Aren't we lucky today? Oh I know.
Oh, what a day.
We had a chance to hang out with a local legend today. Joyce.
Somebody that, I've had a chance to to get to know over the years.
I know you have as well, but,
of the trade, a lot of weddings at this venue here in the shoreline area.
And he's just been a blast to work with.
And his dad, you know, it's just left a heck of a legacy.
We're going to talk a little bit about him
in a bit as well. And we're talking off off off
air a little bit about how legacy is so important.
And, we're going to get into that a bit.
But Joyce, I'm going to let you introduce
our esteemed guest here because you've known him
and you've worked with him, and he's just, quite a guy.
I know he's.
Me, too. Super, Antonio. Super.
We're going to call you Tony, though.
No, no.
So I want you know what I wanted to talk to you today about.
But you're sitting here with it, and this is where you really need to.
I hope you're watching on YouTube, because you will see this fabulous,
pasta and meatballs we're going to be eating.
I love meatballs, and the smell is just incredible sumptuous.
And I think the smell is really Chef Silvio's.
Silvio and I used to work with your dad
during public relations when his, cookbook came out. Yes.
So he would tell me stories about how people would come
into your family's restaurant that you grew up in.
You know, you were a kid doing your homework at,
Wow. Legendary.
Had more time there than right.
There you make it's like a quick second lunch
because you know, times always right?
Haha.
Yeah.
We're going to have lunch after lunch.
After lunch.
You know, like, obviously we're close with three long summers.
I set the bar to my home watching all of that.
Yeah, kind of follow me around the kitchen and stuff with,
Well, that's great, you know, and the whole.
And the whole thing about the Italian culture, too.
You're so close, right?
That whole family element and the food and everything else is just, It's amazing.
I mean, what's history? It was really. It sounds much like that.
And more and more back then, I mean, every single person in each
other's families that immigrated from Italy with there,
so that I would I was 7/8 years old.
I was walked down the street by myself. Wow.
Can't do that.
No, no.
And then, you know, there would, you know, call me dad.
I hear your sons walking down the street.
They're called Cavaliers.
There's like, Cavaliers.
Yes. It was, that one's name was Sylvia.
Like many others, my dad's name.
But, we used to go to black public.
You know, I thought that was high during that time, right?
Right. That was really cool. Wow.
So it was on, Worcester Street,
though, where the sauce kind of was born.
I think your father always made it,
but then people started going into the kitchen and asking, take home a container.
Is that how you got birthed?
Yeah.
So that I mean, that was always our, you know, famous,
sauce that that was used at the Monaco's and then going to get customers or friend
cities back and having a part of the house.
Can I have some containers of sauce?
You know, I saw, we've been for Florida for two months.
Can you join me?
Some sauce and some sauce to go.
And then he just started, you know, started sharing it
since he was doing it already and then just saw the local markets.
He had something that works for them back at the time was,
Anthony, actually, and, he, him just, market it just randomly.
And that's kind of just how it started.
But when we made it and started the restaurant.
Antonio I'm always amazed at how businesses start,
you know, just like that, just doing something for a friend
you know, can you give me a little jar or something.
Put something in a container
and doing it out of their garage and all of a sudden it just grows
and morphs into to this amazing business and this legacy that Silvio has left.
And it's been passed on to people like you.
Yeah.
So I used to. So he actually used to make it.
So we used to close to lunch and dinner, I think it was 130 to about 530.
And he would make the sauce and sauce and Jared in between that time.
Wow. That's how he started dropping the sauce and shipping it out.
And then I would just be there and watching him and stuff was,
you know, 17 years ago, someone handed me a jar of the sauce.
It was 17 years ago, someone that was affiliated with your with, woodwinds.
And she said to me,
you can eat this right out of the jar.
It tastes like it came from.
So I brought it home because I usually made my own sauce.
I put it in the cupboard, you know,
and then it wasn't until a month later where I didn't have
gradients in the house, and I said, oh, you know, sauce.
And my son said,
is this grandma sauce?
Yeah.
And that I tasted it.
Oh my God, this does taste I'm honest to God.
Like it came right off the store.
It is the freshest.
And then I thought well I think my father's family
was from the area like the Campania area.
Amalfi coast.
Well I'm impressed Joyce, you know your geography.
They're very nice. You know. You like that, Tony.
You're pretty good. Yeah.
Yeah, I yeah, I learned.
It was the best.
So I have people have given it to me and they call me people.
I don't really know that well.
And they say, Joyce, I no longer have to cook the the the sign, the sauce all day.
I'm just using silvio's sauce. Yeah.
So I learned a trick.
Yeah, because there's three flavors.
We have the Sunday sauce.
You got the carpaccio?
What am I saying? Right.
Yeah. Chosen.
And then from the offload. Yes.
So when I make this dish that John and De Laurentiis from.
Yes. Yes.
Is your dad and
I've met her, or Julia's because he had this cookbook out.
Yeah.
And she had a cookbook out, and we ended up
speaking to her, and,
she gave me the recipe
from, Dino De Laurentiis, which is her grandfather.
And the movie director.
Yeah. Yep.
And it was like a poor man's lasagna.
And you use six cups of sauce and you mixed it with the pasta
and at the very end you put the, parmesan cheese and you put slice of butter on.
And it was like amazing.
So what I, what I do every Christmas Eve is
I use one jar of each
because the Lord gives it a little bite.
Yeah.
And everyone says, oh, this sauce is so good.
What did you,
Chili peppers.
You said that's like, no, no.
And then I bring out the jars of sauce.
Wow. So when people call me and they tell me they use it,
I say, did you try it, though, with that jar?
No, I didn't.
And we start this whole love conversation over food right?
That's my back.
So thank you.
Back then everything started.
Every day we set out together.
And unfortunately, that's what I see now.
I would look forward to that growing up, too,
you know, dad would come home from work
and mom would have the food out ready to go.
We have this conversations.
And how was your day? And just the amazing,
you know, conversations that would come out of all that.
But your, your, your source is available in a lot of the area
supermarkets too as well, which I think is fantastic too.
So and locally here.
But for anyone not right, not local like in Vegas.
You said some people in Vegas, right?
We just I just love my, my sons do the, the shipping.
Wine and, they just sent out a whole bunch to Las Vegas.
Oh, yeah. Wayne Newton bought a whole bunch.
Hahaha.
That's right.
So that's why, you know,
sometimes people will call and they'll say, I don't know
if I, I'm sort of like, I'll do the customer service, end it.
Yeah.
But when I get on the phone with them, we are just like buddies.
Yeah.
They'll say la la la la and I'll say yeah.
And I do it this way. Like tell me. Yeah.
You know.
And then I learned how they make the sauce.
I only talk to new people about the sauce.
They found out, you know, like I make your you become instant friends.
I think it's because it brings them back to a time
when they were like, you know, their mother was making. Yes.
And it brings back memories.
And, you know, you're talking about that.
It's like you're going to be best friends with for ten minutes.
Yeah, yeah.
Is that commonality?
It's like if you're walking down the beach and you have a dog,
you're automatically more likable.
Or if you were pushing a carriage with a baby, people like you more.
There's something that people love it.
Yeah. Right down the beach with this,
well, what I want to do is open it up and put a spoon in there and eat it that way.
The way I eat almond butter. Right. We're going. Wow.
This thing, I think is just so unique about this
is that it's really pure and it's vegetarian based.
Yeah, I find that a lot.
And you get that flavor.
It's like, no, I get it. Honestly.
My dad worked on it for years
and years, and now, it's animal rescue, you know, from his family.
And, and honestly, it has that, like, meat flavor.
Like, that sounds awesome.
Does flavor without that.
There's only a few ingredients in here.
There's not a lot of natural.
I noticed that 22 because
because whenever I buy anything the less ingredients the better.
And if I can't pronounce it I'm not buying it.
Right. But I'm looking at your ingredients here.
And I like the fact that it's gluten free.
Like you were saying before. Vegetarian thing.
I mean, this looks and it is such a quality product
actually has to have a hard labor like that.
And the and the only reason is I want so much money paid for.
Yeah.
So we got our food for that.
But I think it was like a hundred thousand.
It was oh wow.
Just really.
So we could just say it right.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Right.
But he was I mean, don't quote me on it, but it was more money than,
you know, you could.
Yeah.
But this I just want to say before I forget Tony makes the sauce.
Nobody else.
Yeah. I was just going to ask you about that.
So you make it yourself.
So why do you even want to use
you know we call up we rent it off for the day.
But I still go there myself.
You know, nobody actually has the recipe.
Still, I wrote all the recipes prepackaged.
Joining.
Oh. So this recipe is all proprietary, Oh, secret.
The secret sauce trademarked the name.
So some sauce, it's trademark. Yeah.
So nobody else can actually, that's on the sauce now.
But yeah, the recipe is, very closely
guarded, when to use it often. So,
and, you know, we sell it can be jars, but I think go there for the day.
Really still.
So with the sauce, obviously there's a basic recipe you follow, but,
depending on the items that come in, like, tomatoes are always different, right?
Olive oil is always a little different.
So, you know, if you just follow the recipe exact
every time it doesn't come off the, so we actually can taste test that.
And we have other, you know, we have, other readers that test us, and,
it's called the bricks.
It's like the thickness of the sauce. Yes.
And you really do have to modify it at the time.
To get that same flavor at the time.
That's so you taste test it like halfway through.
Yeah.
So, so halfway through your taste test it.
After about a half hour of boiling,
we start to taste, test it, and usually boiled for about two hours.
So you don't fold it there.
And this is not assembly line.
Every single jar has to be perfect before it goes out to the public. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a long process.
And then, you know, we have obviously the machinery that jars, it puts it out.
I'm making the process.
It's it's it's all.
Yeah, it's, it's like a nice one.
And I think what else is unique about it is that it's relatively
small batches compared to other companies.
So very small.
When you buy it, you're getting the freshest, freshest ever
that you get from a jar. Yeah.
You even have a cookbook out.
So the jar actually we had those tested
they're actually good up until three years.
You put expiration in two years because we don't want to go that to three years.
But usually the oldest you'll find it in a store.
You make small batches. Right.
Wow. Yeah.
So, it'll be a month or two, you know, right off or something.
Two years. This wouldn't last more than a day. My house,
and the whole bottle.
I'm going to get the spoon right in there, like I said, and bam!
No preservatives because there's no dairy or meat in anything.
Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
So I want to just talk about these two books
because this is this one, your dad's, it's very marked up.
Yeah.
And,
illustrative one of mine, that was a printing process, right?
An act of love, An act of love.
It's, it's not only recipes, but it's a history behind a recipe.
Because some of these recipes go back
years. Yeah.
So the, there's this, the,
church.
It's from, I think it's from 518.
It's actually
for towns at the time of folks burials, it's over a thousand years old.
And, in the bottom of this month, many churches every time.
So, yeah, we'll talk.
Sure, sure.
So, there's a,
like, I call this some of it's more of, like, just
like tunnels and stuff.
And it's almost like a library.
So the church kind of, takes care of it, and it's down there.
But my family did appreciate my.
My father got that all the time.
So Anthony was, what was his position in the library?
Yeah.
I don't know his title, but I know he's like the head.
Yeah.
You know, he was an author, so, he looks. Yeah.
Like that.
Yeah. His brother commentaries.
That guy had been in there
and he was looking in there
and they actually found these old books from our families.
Our families from the same town. Yeah.
And they actually found like, some recipes in there to, like, take some pictures.
Now, that is amazing, isn't it?
But I love the whole idea of the tunnels below.
It's like it's cloaked in mystery, right? Cloaked in mystery.
I have to talk about this book.
This book is, a cookbook. It's a legacy.
And how many, how many chefs?
It's over 20, over 20 Michelin chef
made recipes only using silvio's sauce.
Do you know how incredible.
Yeah.
People from all over the world
we were shipping sourced to like, Dubai, Italy, France.
Really? And if you read that book.
So every so obviously the book was every chef had to.
Yeah.
And you give you get this book pretty much anywhere, right,
to put these books online. Yeah. Yeah.
People have you have to have that.
They need to have access to these books,
your books.
I wanted to ask you something about that.
There's one
now, this is this is a really this a simple recipe?
Yeah, simple.
But you have to make it right? Yes.
What?
So what's she is a key to this process.
That. So can you say it? It's it's,
kind de gotcha.
Pepe. I knew that.
It's extremely simple, but you can, overcook it.
You can, undercook it
so it'll it can be too watery to, like, take the quality of life.
So the timing of that is the most important thing that
that really it's very simple. Right.
So the timing, what should it be?
More al dente or the pasta should be authentic.
But, it's got to be the the sauce is beautiful, like creamy,
watery or too dry aspect.
Creamy.
I hate to use this analogy, but almost like, a lot of the social life
for dinner sports, you should use cheese like butter for pasta.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
But it's, it's gotta have a creamy consistency to those.
But it's amazing how it's just such a thin line.
Yeah.
Real thin line.
It's an art seconds like in seconds. Right.
Like you said, not so much the ingredients but how you're cooking it. Wow.
And also the penny. Penny all about that.
But I love it, you know?
Oh, mama, it's a jar. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Java cup.
Parts of heavy cream. And you have to.
I got my stickies on here.
They're like my go tos.
Oh, yeah, they are. They're stunning.
And just to
know that they're family recipes, that happen
that you would like, you would go, but you, but you would like to see.
Oh, God. Yeah.
And you may
I would just put the whole thing is you mentioned the super family
and you mentioned Silvio, and there's instant recognition with people.
There's like, there's such a high esteem for your family,
for you guys out here.
One of, this this guy that was, son's
some wine and things with him, and, he didn't know who I was.
He just was. He had cold calling, and he's like, oh, it's him.
I said, super. It was like, well, you 82 Silvio.
He knew my dad. Wow.
Yeah.
So you became instant friends and he's got my number I'm like right and stuff.
So that happens all the time and it brings people together.
Yeah it does, it does.
Him breaking bread I know here your dad would always say
that that he was sad that that was like a missing heart.
You know, that when you sit down, like you said, you would talk about
what happened in your day.
Yeah.
How many people are doing that now.
You know, I mean even like you know your friends like the relationship
usually gets another level like once you have that
Right. Yeah.
Friends. Too many friends that you want.
That's one of my favorite things to do.
My wife and I get together with friends and just do that
because the guard is down, and you can just be yourselves and
and just the endorphins and the serotonin, the dopamine, all the good feeling
chemicals in your body just, you know, come to the front forefront. Yes.
So we have to I know I'm, I'm,
I'm surprised we've lasted this long without doing in.
Yeah. This is fabulous.
This is the first.
So tell you serving us
okay.
Oh my goodness.
My goodness. This is great.
And to be and we're being served by Tony
the the head honcho here at Woodwinds in Branford you know.
Yeah.
So Tony if we didn't say it you own woodwinds
wedding and special events in Branford Connecticut.
Yes. Yes.
Your sauce. Yes.
Which we'll put the links in for that.
It's silvio's plural sauces.
Wow. Dot com.
And do yourself a favor and order some of this.
If you're not here in the local area where we're broadcasting from now, it's
going to be worth it.
They do ship like we said, they were just shipped out to Vegas.
And, let's get you on that mailing list.
Tony, I've got to ask you something.
Excuse me. Tony. Perfect.
I know I have someone who wants to,
I don't remember what he said.
If you're cooking pasta for a bunch of people,
if it's it's too long in the water, it's going to get mushy.
Yeah.
So how do how do you know?
Why don't you take it off?
I mean, it's a lot of interest to me.
Oh so you have to choose a high quality pasta.
You can't you know that's one of the kids can find us
our dish.
And then you know obviously there's a certain amount of time
you put in for every possible different you get all, you know how hard they are.
And you have.
Gone like an art of pasta and choice.
You could do the rest of the show.
I'm busy.
We're going to be finishing up now anyway.
Yeah. And,
Go on line, chef.
No silviossauces.com
or thewoodwinds.com, and, and it was such.
It was such an honor, be it, you know, talk a little bit of of shop
here, Tony, to be able to do a big party for your,
your dad when you had asked me to did the anniversary party years ago.
That was such an honor here. Woodman's.
Oh, no, I just.
Yeah.
Well, I've always felt the same thing about you, too.
You know, it's just good to see good people do so well.
And, your family has a great reputation, and it's always an honor
to work alongside you as well. Thank you.
Yeah.
Enjoy yourself.
So thank you.
Oh, yeah. Yep.
And Joyce and I are like family too.
We go way back to the
days, you know,
where we first met way back in the 80s.
The 1880s.
On, the radio now, my work over at iHeartRadio.
So I work on a bunch of different radio stations, but,
you know, whenever they need me to fill in, I do that.
I don't have any real set schedule outside of the weekends, Saturday and Sunday
afternoons and, but but it's fun.
It's still fun.
But the business has changed a little bit.
But you have to change with the times.
You got me the country music I did.
I never really listen to it before.
My my wife.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we listen to it.
I 92 5% on the radio.
Wow. I hear it's going to really appreciate this blog.
All right.
Because this this podcast is available on
all streaming platforms, including the iHeart Podcast Network.
And get it on YouTube, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, all that down the line.
So, Hahahahaha.
That's right. Yeah, yeah.
So go. Yeah. Thank you Tony.
We appreciate you so much.
And we appreciate this.
This is just been a real this the first time we've done a podcast.
This is episode number whatever it is.
And nobody ever fed us. Yeah.
So so we're expecting this each and every week now.
It's guys right.
Thank you Tony.
We appreciate you.
And thank you so much for tuning in to what's good with John and Joyce
every week.
It's good news positive.
We keep away from the negativity.
No politics.
And it's just been a lot of fun hanging out with Tony.
Thank you Tony. Thank you. Bye for now.