Last week, my North Jersey home became a Buffalo bar, Johnny Meatballs was Johnny Wings and I was graced with a visit from The Ultimate Wingman. We had a lip-smackin,’ finger-lickin’ festival of flavor going on—it was “Wing Wednesday” with a guy who definitely could go up against any of those Coney Island competitive eaters. Check out his wing-tastic website, 2011wings.com.

Allow me to explain who this mythical man is and how it was that we got together…

During this past holiday season, I made a visit to Vh1 Headquarters in NYC to deliver my Meatballs in Sunday Gravy to the hungry office staff. On that day I first met Mr. Ryan Hohman. He works at Vh1 so obviously he got to taste my famous balls when we met. Fast forward to New Years, when Ryan announced his personal journey to become “The Ultimate Wingman.” Ryan’s mission: consume 2,011 chicken wings in 365 days (http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/12/the-2011-chicken-wings-in-2011-challenge-how-ryan-hohman-can-achieve-his-meaty-milestone/. Mamma mia, this guy needs his own reality show!!!!!

I have to respect such a crazy culinary quest and it was, of course, my first thought as a fellow foodie to meet the man again—especially since we have a shared passion for wings. I love them!!! Ok, maybe not as much as he does. I don’t even think I could eat 2,011 meatballs in one year! However, one of my projects for 2011 is to introduce my new spice shaker to stores as the second consumable product in The Johnny Meatballs food line…

As most know, Johnny’s Meatballs contain my savory “Special 10-Spice Blend” of sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, parsley (and five other carefully selected seasonings.) Like the Frank’s RedHot® sauce motto goes, “I put that BLANK on everything!” My JM 10-Spice Blend is my “Herbes de Provence for 2011.” It makes a great dry rub on turkey or pork, fantastic on steak, a topper for fish or pizza…and yep, great on chicken wings!!!

I started working on my wing recipe, which I first tried on Super Bowl Sunday. Wingman was salivating over my facebook pics and I just had to get him over to the Meatball casa as one of his stops in his food venture to the Guinness Books. This takes us to Wednesday March 2nd, the day Johnny Meatballs and The Ultimate Wingman had the primo poultry party. I made about three dozen and I won’t tell you how many were consumed, you’ll have to wait for the upcoming youtube video for that. Yes, of course I had to get my girl Jessica and Full Out Media to come film all the live play-by-play of this event!

Ryan pulled up a chair and strapped on the bag, braving my barking bichon, a tornado of spices in the air, and chewed that chicken down to the bone. Reminding him that water is for the weak, I insisted he down a shot glass of hot sauce! (If he thought Johnny Meatballs was just going to be an easy notch on his belt along the way he was sadly mistaken—I put him to the test!) Look for the video soon on facebook and on mine and The Wingman’s websites. In the meantime, wanna try Johnny’s Super Special Wings in your home? Here’s the recipe…


First, dry-rub your chicken wings in JM’s Special 10-Spice Blend. Get them nice and coated just like as if you were dredging them in flour. Then, give the wings a quick deep-fry in a pot filled ¾ of the way with boiling corn oil (or use a “Presto Kitchen Kettle”—a great appliance which I recently purchased and highly recommend!) After the fry, toss the wings thoroughly in Johnny’s Hot Sauce. This is made with equal parts Frank’s RedHot® and melted butter, with about four more tablespoons of the spice blend stirred in. I serve them with bleu cheese dressing (Italian-ized with crumbles of gorgonzola) and (what else) celery and carrot sticks.

How man can YOU consume in 2011??? Today is “Fat Tuesday,” why not try your own food challenge today!