May 18, 2024 • 45 mins
In this episode, Sal and Boxer welcome back Carmen Carfagna, director of manufacturing to discuss the history of our World Famous sauce! We also have a surprise guest, Sam Carfagna, who drops in with the original sauce recipe and gives a unique perspective on the legacy of Carfagna's.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
Welcome back to episode three of Uncorked. I am Boxer along with our co
hosts Sal Carfana and with him hisbrother again this week for our third episode,
I want to welcome back Carmen.Hey, guys, welcome, hiy
Boxer, happy to be here.Welcome back Boxer. Well, thank you.
And something smells really delic here,guys, what is that in the
(00:28):
pan there? It's not a pan, but well, for timing sake,
we got the cooking started early thisweek and this is our mozzarella stuffed meatballs
that have been simmering in vodka saucefor about a solid hour. Now,
wow, it just smells just absolutelyscrumptious. So we'll be able to eat
(00:49):
those before the end of the podcast. Or maybe this is what it's all
about. Man, we need thatlive reaction from you right here. Yeah,
all right, let's keep the ballrolling. Well. As we mentioned
at the start, this is onCore too. This is a podcast that
celebrates all things that happen at CarfoniasCarfanya's. If you don't know, I
haven't heard the other podcast as arich history in Columbus as a small business
(01:14):
since nineteen thirty seven. If you'venever been here. Of course, they're
located on Gemini Place. They havetheir restaurant, their marketplace, their delicious
bakery. And just a reminder toothat you can find us and maybe you
have already on the iHeart radio app. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Also on YouTube if you want tosee the visual of this now,
sal and Carman, I completely understandyou want to see those visuals. Me
(01:38):
maybe not so much, but anyway, the YouTube version and Alex of course,
who's behind the scenes, does afantastic job of that. So you
know, we're going to talk agentlemen about sauce history. We're going to
talk about meatballs. Am I missinganything for today? Is anyone on corking?
The why? I was gonna say, the only thing we're missing right
here is the uncork. Let's dothe honors. It's the podcast namesake,
(02:02):
right, I know exactly if youwant to go ahead and plug this wine
here while I pop it, absolutelyso. Today we are going to be
drinking a Kianti Classico Reserva. Thisis from Cassa Emma and Kianti Classico Yay
to twenty seventeen Kiyanti Classico Reserva Kiyantiis a one San Giovasi wine. Kiyanti
(02:29):
is located in Tuscany. So againwe're talking about wines from Italy. Right,
They do not take on the thename of the grape as we do
here in America. Right A Napacab Right, So in Napa Cabernet savignon,
Right, that's the that's the winethat we're drinking, or chardonnay.
(02:49):
In Italy, they actually take thename of the region or the town that
it's made in. And this isKianti Classico, So this is Sangiovasi from
Kianti, Italy. And then Classicoshows that it's an even smaller area in
Kyanti. So Kiyanti the broad regionof Kiyanti. I say broad, it's
a small area, yeah, right, yeah, and then Kyanti Classico comes
(03:13):
from an even smaller area located withinthat greater Kiyanti area. And then the
reserve aspect of it makes it evenmore special. You are listening to on
Corke. This is the Uncorked podcastwhere, of course taping from Carfonia's off
Gemini Place here in Columbus. Carfondiashas been around since nineteen thirty seven,
(03:35):
and each week I should say eacheach time we do a podcast, each
episode we bring you different things,and we're going to be doing more of
a deep dive into their sauces andthe manufacturing and Carmen sales. Brother is
going to be speaking more on thatthe sauce history on top of it.
He just a question, since we'restill on the wine, if you don't
mind, either of you, whenit comes to the Americanized wine, why
(04:00):
did we decide to do things differentlythan what Italy does with naming it after
their regions? I actually like thatapproach. Why did we get rid of
the metric system? You know,well, how much time do we have
here? So we've I think Ithink for you know, simplicity's sake.
You know, it's Uh, mostplaces, most wine making around the world
(04:24):
does it the way that we doit right? Uh. The the Italians
are very specific on how their wineis named and produced, so I think
it's more of an Italian thing.You know. The French have that way
as well. You talk about Bordeauxstyles wines, Bordeaux is is that cab
(04:44):
cab franc more low basic three winesright, blanded Uh? And then it
has to be certain percentages of thisto be classified as a Bordeaux wine,
and then Bordeaux wines are only madein Bordeaux, France, Right, Okay,
Champagne Champagne is is made in Champagne, France, Right, but it
is it's the pino noir grape,right, it's made with champagne is actually
(05:09):
sparkling pino no war. One thingyou've mentioned before on other episodes, sal
is that Carfona says wines from allover the world. And that's that's the
great thing about coming to your winedepartment is you can get wines from anywhere
around the world just out of curiosity. We've also talked about your partnerships with
local farmers farmers here in Ohio.What about Ohio wineries? Do you have
(05:32):
partnerships there too, Well, it'sit's growing. We'll say that most of
that. It's really hard to havedistribution. We will have what is it
is it Hymen's Heinen's the We dohave one that's on the shelf. Most
Ohio wines are are sweet wines.Okay, Yeah, you might be able
(05:55):
to look it up and see ifAlex is gonna look it up here.
I believe it's it'sands winery and Ohiotype and Ohio winery h e and it
should pop up. And and Ithrew you a curveball, and I didn't
mean to throw you a curve curveball, but it's not a curveball because they
the wine Ohio winery. There's alot of history in Ohio and and wines
(06:17):
produced here. The majority of itcomes from the Lake Erie areas. All
those islands are they have a bedof limestone, and so what that that
they have a the so the theislands up there in Lake Erie. Kataba
has a few wineries Middle Bass Island. So anyways, they all sit on
(06:44):
the bed of limestone. And whatthat does is it is it it helps
like insulate the earth. So theygive them a longer grows season. Oh
wow, right, and so youget those beautiful Ohio peaches up in Kataba
Island and they have such a youknow, a rich soil up there because
of that limestone. But they havethat longer grow season. Well you get
(07:05):
the you know, it's a it'sa really great I guess it's a it's
a great spot to grow certain grapes. Right, And like was saying,
most of the grapes that grow reallywell up there are gonna be sweeter wines,
and there's there's definitely a market forthat, but a lot of these
manufacturers and these wine makers are notdoing huge productions, so it's not really
(07:27):
something that you can get a lotof. There's some out there, and
like sausaid, it's growing and youknow, we'd love to carry every high
wine we can as long as aslong as people are drinking and carbon and
so that's the one thing I wascurious is Heinamens is on put In Bay,
so it's up on South bast Island. Yeah, predominantly sweet wines.
(07:53):
But here's the the unique history aboutthat those wineries up there. They were
first created by the German monks thatfirst settled here in Ohio. Wow,
very very old. Heinemann's Winery actuallyis since eighteen eighty eight. Wow.
But the German monks, they broughtthe first grapes to Ohio and their first
(08:16):
grapes were Cabernet savignon and capronat francwhich is pretty unique. And everybody's kind
of like thinking, wow, whydon't we grow those right? And I
personally wish that they would. Butagain, the consumer is driving that demand.
But if you look on the linesof longitude right or latitude latitude right,
(08:37):
Yeah, that same parallel line onthe earth is where like Washington State
is where those where those islands areat in Washington State grows some fantastic cabernet
franc Cabernet savignon. So the ideais why can't we have that grow over
here, especially with the limestone thatCarmen was mentioning. Ye, that which
(09:00):
I didn't know about. It insulatesthe earth, so it almost it when
when it starts to freeze and frost, the water that is trapped within those
limestone takes longer to freeze because it'sat that warmer temp and so they get
in a a artificial I say artificialit's natural, but longer growth season because
(09:22):
the ground takes longer to freeze upthere. So that's why you get this
this nice fruit growth. You know, the the pears and the plums,
apples, peaches, especially the Katabapeaches are are very very boxer. Is
that if you we we we goup to uh the islands pretty frequently and
(09:43):
if you pull up on like thethe shoreline of Middle Bass Island, there's
actually some spots where cabernet grapes aregrowing wild because they're planted so long ago
and there's an abundance of grapes upthere that they're still growing wild. So
you pull in the shoreline and you'relooking like those look like grapevines. You
get up there, like that's cabernetsavignon, and so they're still growing wild
(10:07):
out there. It's like, youknow, crazy, are these grapes,
by the way, are these grapesyou can eat there? We were actually
on a little cove off of NorthBass up there, and my dad was
the one who spotted it. Youknow. Of course, of course I
said, does have those wineries upthere? Yeah, the one that famously
(10:28):
you know collapsed. What's that?Oh yeah, that's right, the tragedy.
Tragedy. But anyways, on NorthBass, we were in the cove
and it was like those look likegrapevines up there, and we you know,
swam up to the shore and pickingthem, and my dad's like sure
enough, he's like, that's cabernetsavignon, and and there's just growing wild
up there. It's like somebody needsto step in and preserve that history and
(10:50):
and uh, absolutely take care ofthose grapes. And whoever's listening, if
you can listen to it and youhave some some pool up there, my
goodness, gracious, it's like wego. That'd be great. But sal
and Carmen Carfana are with us.Of course. This is our third episode
of Unquorked. Hey, one ofour themes for this podcast is the sauce
and the sauce history and the production. And I don't know if you guys
(11:13):
want to get into it now,you know, visualizing if you if you
haven't checked on YouTube this episode oryou get the chance. Of course,
we're making meat balls, which Ican't wait to taste in just a little
bit. But you guys have anamazing history with your sauce, so yeah,
you know this is this is Carmen'sbaby, and I'm going to allow
(11:35):
him to talk more about it.But the sauce was our great grandmother's recipe
and my dad, Sam, ourdad, Sam Carfania was the one who
kind of took that recipe from herand started to produce it. And he
has basically like he started with likea twenty gallon recipe and he was making
(11:56):
it in the back of the oldmarket on one sixty one. This is
back in like the seventies and wasmaking it twenty gallons at a time and
courting it up and then freezing it. Uh. He actually still has that
original recipe. You know, heknew where it was. It's it's it's
locked up in the vaults. Iwas asking him for it. I was
like, hey, if you canget eyes on that, go back in
(12:16):
the in the recipe vault, right, yeah, which actually exists. Do
you really have a recipe vault hereat Carfana? Oh yeah, oh yeah
really yeah. All of our familyrecipes and everything that that we have that
is on pieces of paper and whatnot, soups, sauceage, sausages. Uh
does here he is yourself. Havea seat, the man, the myth,
(12:41):
the legend, Sam Carfan just walkin. Please have a seat,
sir. Wow, what do youfind? Oh Sam? The recipe?
I found it and it is lookingpretty ratty. But you know, I
got to tell you there's sauce stainson this piece of paper here that are
(13:05):
probably fifty plus years old. Mygotta be all right. This is the
original recipe of our Apasta sauce thattoday is distributed in more than twenty nine
states. It's amazing. By theway, if you're wondering what all that
chaos was, we were talking about, you know, the sauce, and
then all of a sudden, Salinand Carmen's dad comes in and Sam carfind
(13:26):
you this recipe. Wait a minute, how do you got this out of
the vault? Doesn't this go undergroundat night? It does, It's been
locked up, you know, undera safe that is well, it'll self
detonate if anybody tries to get intoit. But it's funny than dry box
there. You're asking too many questionsabout the vault. I'm sorry, I
(13:50):
got a team waiting, but wekept it up and kept it locked up
in it. Every once in awhile, you know, we have to
dig in there to find something,you know, because there's a stack of
recipes that just goes on and onand on, and we keep that into
it. Sam, quick question aboutthis. When you started the production of
this recipe, how does it workin the Carfonia family, because you have
(14:15):
so many recipes, so many richthings that you're doing. Did you have
to get permission from your grandmother?Had no permission from Nona, our grandmother.
We but we watched her. Welived with her, okay for the
for quite a bit of seven yearsof my life. We lived with them,
and then we moved across the streetfrom them. All of my big
(14:37):
fat Greek wedding style, you know. So every day getting off the bus
at three o'clock after school, mymother and father were working at the market,
and we would go over to ourgrandmother's home and have a big meal
and watch her cook. And theyhad a huge garden and they would process
all their own tomatoes. She grewbasil. We grow shrubs around our home.
(15:01):
You know. She did everything byhand. Her pasta making and her
recipes all came from the abrutal Molisiregion of Italy. So we're very affluent
and learned in food production because it'sso much over there, and the pasta
making and the water from that regionwhich makes the pasta so wonderful. Anyhow,
(15:28):
this recipe came from memory. NowI had an aunt or a Zia
Mary Jean, that worked with usat the time. She is the daughter
or my father's sister, and sheknew these recipes also from the back of
her hand. So together we formulatedthe first twenty gallon recipe. Yeah.
Now, Sam, can I askyou, and I hope this isn't a
(15:48):
dumb question, but why the whynumber twenty? Why that amount what our
kettle held? Twenty five gallon?That's why? Uh. In the in
the market, we had a smallerdouble jacketed kettle and that was a capacity
and we would hand dip it outand put it in court containers that were
(16:11):
uh uh to freeze, you know, and everything was all natural and it
hasn't changed a bit today. That'samazing. Sam. By the way,
Sam Carfon is with us. We'reon a corked we're talking about the history
of the sauces. Sam, Howold were you? Where were you when
when you got the idea we needto put this into production. We need
(16:34):
to mass market this well, youknow, being a one hit wonder small
market okay, you you have tobe put yourself in difference, you know,
uh from everyone else. Well,being of Italian nature, and we
knew that we had good products,and we felt like there was an opportunity
(17:00):
to package these products and sell themwithin our own market. You know.
Lo and behold where it's taken ustoday. But for many years we thought,
you know, keep it frozen keepit natural. And we found out
that tomatoes is such a natural preservativebecause of the acidity content that jarring.
It was a simple, simple method. You didn't need to add anything to
(17:25):
it to keep it fresh and tokeep it, you know, as natural
as possible. See, so noextra preservatives things like that to keep it
that's correct, you know, Soyou really you have a natural product.
You have a natural preservative in thein the cidity of the tomato itself.
And there you go, you know, starting with fresh ingredients and we always
use fresh onions, fresh garlic,olive oil as opposed to you know,
(17:48):
a polysaturated oil that's been rendered sooften. You know, the olive oil
gives it that kind of flavor andthen naturalness into health qualities as well,
you know, and and just thelittle bit of spices we use. You
know. There it is. Youknow, it's simple, it's delicious,
and most importantly you know it isit's it's thick, it covers a lot
(18:15):
of pasta, and it has body, you know, and substance to it.
And and that's what's made it sopopular amongst everybody. It's like,
my god, I take a quarterof your your sauce, and I've got
to you know, I've got toadd half a jar of water to it,
you know what I mean. Andand we're like, well, you
don't need to do that, youknow what I mean? People will eat
it with a spoon right out ofthe jar because it's so thick. I
(18:38):
just I love your passion for this, Sam. I just want to go
swimming in a big kettle of sauce. Now, I mean, I don't
know how that would look. Butthe Sam, just out of curiosity,
is it? Did I hear?Right? The number is a half a
million jars or produced a year orwhat what was that? Carmen? Oh
god, I've lost count, Butyeah, it's it's all for half a
(19:00):
million jars a year that we produce. Do you guys know daily or Sam?
Maybe you two? How many what'sa typical day of production? Like
like how many one thousand gallons?Plus? Okay, we have you mentioned
you want you can go swimming init? Right? Well, the kettles
that you should go over and see, you know, they're they're five hundred
(19:21):
gallon, they're actually six hundred gallon. We cook five hundred at a time,
okay, and we have two ofthem going. Okay, so there's
your one thousand gallons, which wouldequate to four thousand jars. So I'm
just so I'm trying to get thevisual here and paint a picture for those
that are listening to. So we'reat your manufacturing plant. We're getting ready
to make, you know, oneof your sauces. Let's just take the
(19:45):
you know, the original Apasta sauce, just out of curiosity. Do you
have a computer that is already programmedto dump the ingredients in the kettle?
Samper, Well, we have acomputer that that puts the cooking and times
and the temperatures together, but theingredients are all masked together, and they
start early in the morning, aroundsix am. And the same people that
(20:08):
have been doing it for years areare are those who first dumped the tomatoes.
The tomatoes come in fifty five gallondrums, now okay, and they're
brought up with a lift, amechanical lift that actually dumps into these huge
kettles, and then they add theingredients themselves. They start the cooking time,
(20:33):
which is programmable and automatic, andfrom there a way it goes until
bottling time. So yeah, westill the best thing about our sauce is
that we still make it the sameway you would make it in a kitchen.
Oh, okay, start with oliveoil, simmer onions, garlic before
you had the tomatoes in. Soit's not all just kind of bashing and
(20:55):
thrown in there. It's we makeit the way you would make it in
a kitchen to preserve the flavor.That's made our sauce so popular for so
many years. And what makes itunique too, is that cooked time.
Yeah, it's yeah. So wesay it's slow cooked, and it really
is. We we cook for fourhours before we jar. And the reason
(21:15):
why our sauce is so thick becauseit's been slow cooked for so long that
all the water evaporates out of itand you get this really beautiful thick sauce
that all the flavors marry together andyou get the richness and that body that
my dad was talking about. Yeah, and your sauces are nationwide in various
grocery stores. Correct, my,you're absolutely correct. Carmen has instrumental in
(21:40):
taking the sales across the country forus and opening up, you know,
market after market, and we're veryproud of what he'd done. But you
know, he's right. You know, I should have expanded on the fact
that it starts. There's a stepby step process. It is not just
dumped together and it's open kettle cookedlike you said. So it's a reduction
as if you were at home.Whereas other manufacturers, mainly the the the
(22:07):
mass produced, they're in a closesituation and sometimes they're in a situation where
they're just heated to a point andbottled right away, And this is not
done that way. So if youthink of the way you prepare this sauce
at home, or how we startedit in twenty gallons, it's the same
process. It's just in a muchmuch larger pot. Wow, that's amazing,
(22:29):
And forgive me. There's just somany questions I have about manufacturing that
I've never thought about before. Theother one is do you do you only
produce sauce if it's not in yourstore? Of course? Do you only
produce what you've been ordered? Likelet's say I don't know, Giant Eagle
or someone orders a bunch of yoursauce? Do you only produce what's been
(22:52):
ordered? Sam? Or we definitelyproduce two order so it's as fresh as
can be. Okay, and yes, we have a small amount of stock
for spontaneous orders. And often weget a distributor or a or a company
that needs you know, X amountof cases or palettes and and we have
(23:15):
to have that much on hand.But no, by no, I know
means is there anything that's stocked awayfor months and months and months? It's
made pretty much to order for sure. I'm guessing that's just a smart business
move, right because you know,if you have inventory just sitting there,
that's that's not good either. Absolutely, that's a smart business move. Yeah,
you know, and uh so sowe you know, we pride ourselves
(23:41):
in trying to be the best smallcompany that we can be, you know,
as far as business practices as wellas production practices, would you would
you say, Salmon and Carmen,has this Has this been a good extra
revenue stream? Is there a lotof cost maybe startup costs involved, Does
it eventual pay for itself eventually?And it is an endeavor that is very
(24:06):
costly, but it has a lotof upside as well. You know,
first of all, it's a tremendousfuture in it because once you get to
the point where we are in it, you know, distribution and we find
that the it's so well accepted whereverwe sample it, you know, it
moves so quickly and becomes an itemthat people are asking for. You know,
(24:33):
they go into their grocery store andthey're like, I tried this sauce,
you know, but I shop here, and you know, I tried
it over there, and can youget it here? And and sooner or
later, you know, they getso many requests for it. Boom,
we're getting the phone calls. Andthat that seems to be you know,
the attrition of how we just grow, grow, grow, and it takes
(24:55):
off for us in a way,and that has been something that you know,
I applaud these the boys with that. They they know that this is
such a good item that they cantake it further and further and further,
and we do. Sam Carfona,you seem like a very open minded.
Hey, my boys have something thatan idea, I'm willing to listen to
(25:18):
it. Have they ever come toyou with a just an absolutely crazy idea?
You're like, no, we're notdoing that. You know, I
do try to be open minded.I think I am. They probably don't,
you know, but I think Iam. And and you know,
at my age, I've had trialsand tribulations. We've started out and we've
(25:38):
fallen on our face. I'll neverforget the day that my brother and my
partner, Dino, came to meand and he said, what are we
going to do? You know whatI mean, We need to really pep
people. The grocery stores have limitedspace with frozen sauce, and that was
our startup, was a frozen sauceand I put it in the jar.
(26:00):
Research that we talked with the authorities. There are packaging authorities on this that
give you the parameters of, youknow, how long a sauce will last
in a jar, what you canput in it, et cetera. We
did that research, put it ina jar and said what do you think
and them boom. It took offlike crazy because the convenience of having a
(26:22):
jar in your pantry as opposed tothe small freezer you have under your fridge.
There's limited space there and most peopleif they opened their fridge their freezer,
they could probably dump half the stuffout because it's been in there for
so long, you know. Butit is limited space not only in your
home freezer, but in the grocerystore freezer, and it's expensive space,
(26:45):
you know, and so getting itout there into the marketplace in a frozen
manner was very very difficult, gettingit in a jar, getting it out
there. Boom the local foods exploded. Ocean helped us, you know,
and we started out and we wentwithin. We started in central Ohio and
(27:06):
kept expanding, expanding, expanding.We were part of the Ohio Proud network.
We branched out into local foods,you know, Cleveland, Sincy,
the the Dayton, you know,the larger metropolitan areas and every smaller area
and then Boom crossed over the linesand went expand Sam, I think you
(27:30):
could all probably answer this. Iknow we've talked about in other episodes,
just the competition, just how hardit is to have, you know,
a grocery store, you know,manufacturing, you have the restaurant for example.
But would you say that the andmaybe especially after the pandemic, that
there's a growing interest in a growingsupport network of all of us to want
(27:52):
to support that local business like Carfonia'sthat's been a name in our backyard since
nineteen thirty seven. Yes, Boxer, but they want to see you,
they want to see you, youknow, it's so important that when you
come into this store, there's Carfona'shere. You know, if that name
is on the front of the buildingand you're behind the products that you're selling,
(28:15):
they want to make sure people wantto see you in there and make
sure that you know this this company. Yes they're homegrown, Yes they're they're
independent, their their quality, youknow, all of the above. But
when you are there, backing,backing all that words and with your face,
it makes a world a difference.And we're here and it's so important,
(28:37):
you know, And I think thatthe next generation understands that because we're
into four generations. Not easy todo, okay, usually, you know,
if you don't instill that work ethicinto someone, your your children,
you know, then they're not goingto they're they're just going to think that
I can ride on that on theold man's money, and you know what
(28:59):
it does and worked that way.So you instill that that work ethic into
them and the pride every one ofthese kids. My brother and I we
educated these kids and said, hey, look, this is not an easy
industry. There's all this other stuffyou can do. They did it.
They went out, they worked forother people, they tried, you know,
and I shouldn't say tried. Theywere successful at what they were doing.
(29:22):
But there's something in the heart aboutbeing in a family business that says,
I just got to be part ofthis, you know, and carry
on that legacy and that name issomething that that that that gives you goosebumps,
you know, and the pride poursout of you and says, I
want to do this. And that'swhat these guys are. They they're they're
(29:45):
they're all pride and they're and they'reabout They're about keeping the tradition. They're
about they're about legacy. And andyou know, when you get to be
my age and my brother's age,you think, you know, we don't
want it to end here. Thisis something our grandparents started and my father
carried on. But each generation Boxer, they got to do more because the
(30:08):
family keeps growing and it takes moreand more and more. So what did
we do? You know, westarted out as a little grocer, you
know, Dad moved it into abig grocer. Brother and I turned that
grocery into restaurant and manufacturing. Pluswhat's their legacy, Well, you know
what they know that that today's marketsare going with with you know, you
(30:33):
can buy online, you know,and and therefore that's that's that's a new
frontier that we're moving into as well. And these guys will do it because
they have the passion. Sam I, Oh, I'm sorry, sam I.
I was going to say that aswe start to wrap up, is
that the next frontier for you isprobably a bigger investment in online ordering or
well, it's one of them.And they know that that, you know,
(30:56):
and I preach all the time,you can't sit on your hands in
this business. So that is afrontier. But it's one, you know,
and there's there's several others that thatthat they can venture into. There's
there's, uh, the food trucksout there, you know, there's there's
one of those. We just boughta trailer and we're outfitting it and and
uh, these guys love taking itto the Buckeye games, you know,
(31:18):
and and peddling our sausage, whichhas been another big item for us over
the years. You know that thoserecipes, So you got to keep going.
You got to keep going, Yougot to keep you know, expansion
this sauce line, you know,expanding it. We're at we're we're on
the verge of adding another larger productionfacility. We need to we need to
(31:41):
make it larger now. You know, we don't want to lose anything,
We just want to make it larger. You know. Well, this has
been fascinating, Sam. I'm soglad that you dropped in on this podcast.
I can't thank you enough for yourtime. And what one final question,
just out of curiosity, what arefamily board meetings like? If I'm
a fly on the wall, Well, what are they like? Well,
(32:04):
come on, don't hold back soundprobably a better answer for them. But
my side of the answer is it'sis it is. They're tired of hearing
the same thing over and over outof me. You know what I mean,
because I tend to like drive drivedrive into into their minds. You
know that that the same the samerhetoric and the same story over and over.
(32:24):
But it's so important that you know, as a parent, you don't
want your children to have to liveany of the the downfalls you had or
you know, you don't want themto have to step down a rung on
the ladder. You want them tokeep climbing it, you know. But
but I think that you have toexperience some of that defeat to be able
(32:50):
to understand what it takes to rise. And and uh so, you know,
the board meetings are not as heatedas you would think, but sometimes
they are, you know, butI would like to think that they're pretty
organized. And and here's what Iunderstand is that when I think that I'm
smart in this business, and yeah, and I've done some things that you
(33:12):
know, with my my brother thatwe together, we've we've grown this to
this point and we're very proud ofthat, these guys are a lot smarter
than us. And when I whenI think about that, and I think,
you know, it makes me,it puts me at ease that I
can walk out of here and gohome a little earlier that I can leave.
(33:36):
I took three weeks vacation this year. I wouldn't have been able to
do that if they weren't here nextyear a month, you know, I
mean, can't read any garment itsout. So so it's it's like,
you know, they got a goody. They know what the heck they're doing,
you know, and and and yousee it, you hear it.
(33:57):
And they don't make rash decisions.They're well thought out. They talk it
over. We talked together about it, and I'm in for a good argument,
and you can win the argument withme, then you know what,
you got a good You got agood chance to do it, Sam Carfona,
this has been a real pleasure.I hope you stop back soon again,
get back to work. Sorry,how about we how about we say
(34:21):
some meatballs before you say some meatballs? Yeah? Absolutely, Box. You
brought up a funny U or agood question that says they you know what
is what does my dad do withall of our crazy ideas we bring to
him? Yeah? Yeah, it'sfunny because most of the time that we
bring him a crazy idea, itwas his crazy idea thirty years ago.
I tried it didn't work out.Don't do it, you know, you
(34:45):
know, you think it's going tobe different this time than old recipes back
there. They got old sketches.I've gotten files and the last one wash
was it the wine uh? What'sthat wine uh uh testing thing? Salvatory?
You found it in one of thefiles that I had, the uh
uh where it pushes the nitrogen inthe capsule and then brings the wine out
(35:07):
and the corvin Yeah, you know, I invented that thing. Okay,
I just couldn't get it out,you know, that's too funny. All
right, Well we all have ameatball here, right, guy and dad.
This is called on cork. SoI poured your glass of kiante.
There you go, there you go. Salute means did you say saluta?
(35:31):
I said saluta, saluta saluta somemore dialect from the Abruzzo region. Salute
is the real word with an eat the end. But you know they
say mancha is to eat right,Well, you say manya because the elders,
you know, they they they hadtheir own little twist on all.
The language is just like we do, you know, southern parts, western
(35:53):
parts, eastern parts of the ofthe of our own country. Well,
in the Abruzzo region, the dialectsare a little bit different. And and
my future son in law who's fromthe Brutzo region, he just now sent
us ninety five pages of a butcheredlanguage, you know, that is in
(36:15):
dialect of that region, and soit's in print and reading through there is
so funny because growing up in ahousehold where the language was spoke in dialect,
you know, and then going intoschool and learning in school the language
in the proper form. It's adifferent language. It's a different language.
(36:38):
So yeah, we say saluta andsome in in the the language you would
speak in Milan and Rome would besalute. The things I'm learning every time
of this podcast, Sam, thankyou for that. I had no idea,
no idea, wait till you learnabout this me bo over here eating.
(36:59):
They were like, oh my,oh my, now, so a
couple of things on. Yes,yes, made with our meatball mix.
Our meatball mix is pork and beef. We make it fresh here at the
market daily. It's available in thebutcher shop. It's five I take these,
These are a third of a poundof meat meatball mix, and then
I stuff it with a small freshmozzarella ball. GA is what the size
(37:22):
of the ball is called. Soif you're looking for those mozzarella balls and
what size we're using, yeah,call them chilia gene. They're the tiny,
little, tiny little mozzarella balls showedup for the camera. Oh my
goodness, dish. Now, Ifry these in olive oil, I brown
(37:42):
all the sides, and then Iprefer having them steep in vodka sauce.
Why because number one, the meatballsthey got parmesan cheese, and there there's
stuff with fresh mozzarella. It's alreadya cheesy meatball, so why not at
it with our cheesy vodka sauce aswell. So you get that creaminess from
the mozzarella, you get the creaminusfrom the uca sauce. It adds just
(38:06):
another depth of flavor that I justabsolutely love. Like I said, carbon
and I have made these for somewine events and private dinners and it's one
of my favorite things. It's it'sjust become one of those that I'm just
like not to mention when you havethese cooking in that sauce for like I
said, a solid hour. Thesewere in there for over an hour.
(38:29):
I mean, they're so fork tender, they are just they fall afart on
you. But because you're effect becauseyou fry them, it creates a nice
crust on the outside, so itlocks in all those nice flavors. Do
you the other reason we use ourvodka sauce is because it's fricking awesome,
well, said Carbon, Well saidSalad Carmen our cells specifically, how long
(38:50):
does it take and do you havea recipe for this at Carfondias dot com.
How long does it take you tomeet make meatballs these so the meatball
mix is already made, right,you're just as fast as you can roll
them in your hands, boxer.That's all it is. Yeah, okay,
yeah, so just buy the mixby the mix rolling in your hands,
and some people can you can putthem on a baking sheet and bake
them. You can brown them upand throw them in sauce. We we
(39:15):
sell them already cooked and frozen aswell. Yeah, we do. We
sell them a lot of different ways. We got them in pans of forty
with sauce and cheese on them thatyou can just throw right in your oven.
You you have this sauce already withthem on. That's you have version.
We've got two different sizes box We'vegot well, we have multiple different
sizes frozen. We've got a smallthirty two hons container that's got six meatballs
(39:38):
and sauce, and then we havea family party pack that's got forty meatballs
and sauce and a half pan thatyou can throw right in your oven.
And then our Prepared Foods has themin three different sizes as well, and
you can get them by the pound. And then uh, we also have
(39:59):
them and our Fraser section unsauced,just frozen, ready to go, and
you can throw those right in sauceand let them heat up, or you
can bake them in you know,warm them up in an oven. However,
which way you want to do.And another reason why we chose the
meatballs for this podcast is because themeatballs are one of those items that is
also made at our manufacturing facility.We did the math okay based off of
(40:22):
two ounce and one ounce meatball,so our regular sized meatball and the appetizer
sized meatballs, and the meatballs areonly sold at this location, but we
are manufacturing over a million meatballs annuallyat that manufacturing facility and exhausting to think
about, but it's yeah, it'sbut it is pretty remarkable. How does
(40:45):
this rate with some of your topselling items at carfind is the meatballs?
Where where does it rank? Meatballsare Prepared Foods wise meatballs are always up
their top five item and our preparedfoods Specialty Grocery, the frozen meatballs again
top five weekend and week out meatballmix fresh meatball mix that is in our
(41:08):
fresh meat Yeah, that's about atop ten item weekend in week out.
So in spaghetti and meatballs at therestaurant is our number one selling item.
So we my wife and I,we my family really in general, we
shop here anyway. But I needto add the meatballs to the list for
the holidays because we buy a bigspread from you every holiday season. I
(41:31):
have to add the meatballs to it. Yeah, and I'll just get the
why not get the frozen ones especially, can get the frozen ones? Yeah,
absolutely. If it's you know,time saving, you can do that.
If you've got a big party,get the pan of forty meatballs and
get a couple dozen hard rolls andyou got meatball subs for everybody. But
if you've got time it's just youand your wife at home, you want
(41:52):
to make spagetti metals. Get themeatball mixed. It's I love our meatball
mix because then I could take themlike sal says, brown them, fry
them and olive oil, throw themright in your sauce and let him flavor
that sauce. And it is makesa world of difference in me. So
a moron like me can do thistoo. You can do it, Yes,
you believe in me. Something though. My brother in law Tom started
(42:13):
this years ago, but he takeshis fresh meatball mix. Do we sell
in the meat department, you know, And it's ready to go, it's
in the bulk. He forms anendto a patty and grills them on the
charcoal grill and makes a burger outof it, and and it is fantastic,
incredible, puts a piece of provaloncheese over the top, melts it
(42:36):
down, makes it like a likea cheeseberger. It is a fantastic sandwich.
And what a burger, you know. And and we've we we pushed
that often, you know, I'msaying U and have our meat staff,
you know, let people know becauseit's such a popular item. Like you
said, it's in the top tenand uh, you gotta try it sometime.
(42:58):
Oh my god. Well yeah,yeah, that's definitely on my bucket
list now for sure. Thank youSam, Thank you, Carmen, Thank
you sal. I know the nexttime around, the next episode will probably
be hitting I'm guessing parmagedd in alittle bit. You want to hit the
wine. Yeah, absolutely, sothe wine that you're that we're pairing with
us again. Cassa Emma. CassaEmma is named after the owner of the
(43:20):
winery, Emma lepri and This isa Kianti classical one hundred percent sangio vasi.
Why are we choosing this for thissangio Vasi especially pairs really well with
number one meats, but then alsonumber two Marinera sauces pasta sauces red tomato
based sauces. The acidity that's inthe tomatoes plays really well with the acidity
(43:42):
that's in the san giovasi. Itreally brings out the fruit that is in
that san giovasi. So you getto taste the wine and a whole other
I guess more of a depth,right that you get in there, a
little bit more that complexity comes out. Yeah, the acidities play on each
other. And this wine here,Casa Emma, has been growing very very
(44:05):
popular in our wine shop for thoseof you guys who are looking. It's
got a very unique label. Thereis a goose on that label. Apparently
there is a flock of geese thatlive at the winery. And it's an
all organic wine and made old worldstyle in Kyanti classico and thirty five dollars
(44:27):
retail for that bottle, and againour wine shop, you can go in
there, you can get the bottle, you can bring it into the restaurant.
You can open it here. Youcan enjoy it while you're shopping,
or take it home and enjoy itwith some mozarella stuff meatballs. Very nice.
So reminder you can get recipes andmore at carfonyas dot com. You
can see the video version of thisif you're not already doing so. Of
(44:49):
course, you can always The podcastitself lives on the iHeartRadio app. Just
search for Uncorked, but search Uncorkedand Carfaanya's on the YouTube page. You
guys have your own YouTube chat panel, so that's right. Boxer, thank
you, Thank you guys, andsala I guess without further ado, you
can take it away. Thanks forthis deliciousness today, appreciate it until next
time, of course, Boxer,thank you and Manja Bene
Welcome back to episode three of Uncorked. I am Boxer along with our co
hosts Sal Carfana and with him hisbrother again this week for our third episode,
I want to welcome back Carmen.Hey, guys, welcome, hiy
Boxer, happy to be here.Welcome back Boxer. Well, thank you.
And something smells really delic here,guys, what is that in the
(00:28):
pan there? It's not a pan, but well, for timing sake,
we got the cooking started early thisweek and this is our mozzarella stuffed meatballs
that have been simmering in vodka saucefor about a solid hour. Now,
wow, it just smells just absolutelyscrumptious. So we'll be able to eat
(00:49):
those before the end of the podcast. Or maybe this is what it's all
about. Man, we need thatlive reaction from you right here. Yeah,
all right, let's keep the ballrolling. Well. As we mentioned
at the start, this is onCore too. This is a podcast that
celebrates all things that happen at CarfoniasCarfanya's. If you don't know, I
haven't heard the other podcast as arich history in Columbus as a small business
(01:14):
since nineteen thirty seven. If you'venever been here. Of course, they're
located on Gemini Place. They havetheir restaurant, their marketplace, their delicious
bakery. And just a reminder toothat you can find us and maybe you
have already on the iHeart radio app. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Also on YouTube if you want tosee the visual of this now,
sal and Carman, I completely understandyou want to see those visuals. Me
(01:38):
maybe not so much, but anyway, the YouTube version and Alex of course,
who's behind the scenes, does afantastic job of that. So you
know, we're going to talk agentlemen about sauce history. We're going to
talk about meatballs. Am I missinganything for today? Is anyone on corking?
The why? I was gonna say, the only thing we're missing right
here is the uncork. Let's dothe honors. It's the podcast namesake,
(02:02):
right, I know exactly if youwant to go ahead and plug this wine
here while I pop it, absolutelyso. Today we are going to be
drinking a Kianti Classico Reserva. Thisis from Cassa Emma and Kianti Classico Yay
to twenty seventeen Kiyanti Classico Reserva Kiyantiis a one San Giovasi wine. Kiyanti
(02:29):
is located in Tuscany. So againwe're talking about wines from Italy. Right,
They do not take on the thename of the grape as we do
here in America. Right A Napacab Right, So in Napa Cabernet savignon,
Right, that's the that's the winethat we're drinking, or chardonnay.
(02:49):
In Italy, they actually take thename of the region or the town that
it's made in. And this isKianti Classico, So this is Sangiovasi from
Kianti, Italy. And then Classicoshows that it's an even smaller area in
Kyanti. So Kiyanti the broad regionof Kiyanti. I say broad, it's
a small area, yeah, right, yeah, and then Kyanti Classico comes
(03:13):
from an even smaller area located withinthat greater Kiyanti area. And then the
reserve aspect of it makes it evenmore special. You are listening to on
Corke. This is the Uncorked podcastwhere, of course taping from Carfonia's off
Gemini Place here in Columbus. Carfondiashas been around since nineteen thirty seven,
(03:35):
and each week I should say eacheach time we do a podcast, each
episode we bring you different things,and we're going to be doing more of
a deep dive into their sauces andthe manufacturing and Carmen sales. Brother is
going to be speaking more on thatthe sauce history on top of it.
He just a question, since we'restill on the wine, if you don't
mind, either of you, whenit comes to the Americanized wine, why
(04:00):
did we decide to do things differentlythan what Italy does with naming it after
their regions? I actually like thatapproach. Why did we get rid of
the metric system? You know,well, how much time do we have
here? So we've I think Ithink for you know, simplicity's sake.
You know, it's Uh, mostplaces, most wine making around the world
(04:24):
does it the way that we doit right? Uh. The the Italians
are very specific on how their wineis named and produced, so I think
it's more of an Italian thing.You know. The French have that way
as well. You talk about Bordeauxstyles wines, Bordeaux is is that cab
(04:44):
cab franc more low basic three winesright, blanded Uh? And then it
has to be certain percentages of thisto be classified as a Bordeaux wine,
and then Bordeaux wines are only madein Bordeaux, France, Right, Okay,
Champagne Champagne is is made in Champagne, France, Right, but it
is it's the pino noir grape,right, it's made with champagne is actually
(05:09):
sparkling pino no war. One thingyou've mentioned before on other episodes, sal
is that Carfona says wines from allover the world. And that's that's the
great thing about coming to your winedepartment is you can get wines from anywhere
around the world just out of curiosity. We've also talked about your partnerships with
local farmers farmers here in Ohio.What about Ohio wineries? Do you have
(05:32):
partnerships there too, Well, it'sit's growing. We'll say that most of
that. It's really hard to havedistribution. We will have what is it
is it Hymen's Heinen's the We dohave one that's on the shelf. Most
Ohio wines are are sweet wines.Okay, Yeah, you might be able
(05:55):
to look it up and see ifAlex is gonna look it up here.
I believe it's it'sands winery and Ohiotype and Ohio winery h e and it
should pop up. And and Ithrew you a curveball, and I didn't
mean to throw you a curve curveball, but it's not a curveball because they
the wine Ohio winery. There's alot of history in Ohio and and wines
(06:17):
produced here. The majority of itcomes from the Lake Erie areas. All
those islands are they have a bedof limestone, and so what that that
they have a the so the theislands up there in Lake Erie. Kataba
has a few wineries Middle Bass Island. So anyways, they all sit on
(06:44):
the bed of limestone. And whatthat does is it is it it helps
like insulate the earth. So theygive them a longer grows season. Oh
wow, right, and so youget those beautiful Ohio peaches up in Kataba
Island and they have such a youknow, a rich soil up there because
of that limestone. But they havethat longer grow season. Well you get
(07:05):
the you know, it's a it'sa really great I guess it's a it's
a great spot to grow certain grapes. Right, And like was saying,
most of the grapes that grow reallywell up there are gonna be sweeter wines,
and there's there's definitely a market forthat, but a lot of these
manufacturers and these wine makers are notdoing huge productions, so it's not really
(07:27):
something that you can get a lotof. There's some out there, and
like sausaid, it's growing and youknow, we'd love to carry every high
wine we can as long as aslong as people are drinking and carbon and
so that's the one thing I wascurious is Heinamens is on put In Bay,
so it's up on South bast Island. Yeah, predominantly sweet wines.
(07:53):
But here's the the unique history aboutthat those wineries up there. They were
first created by the German monks thatfirst settled here in Ohio. Wow,
very very old. Heinemann's Winery actuallyis since eighteen eighty eight. Wow.
But the German monks, they broughtthe first grapes to Ohio and their first
(08:16):
grapes were Cabernet savignon and capronat francwhich is pretty unique. And everybody's kind
of like thinking, wow, whydon't we grow those right? And I
personally wish that they would. Butagain, the consumer is driving that demand.
But if you look on the linesof longitude right or latitude latitude right,
(08:37):
Yeah, that same parallel line onthe earth is where like Washington State
is where those where those islands areat in Washington State grows some fantastic cabernet
franc Cabernet savignon. So the ideais why can't we have that grow over
here, especially with the limestone thatCarmen was mentioning. Ye, that which
(09:00):
I didn't know about. It insulatesthe earth, so it almost it when
when it starts to freeze and frost, the water that is trapped within those
limestone takes longer to freeze because it'sat that warmer temp and so they get
in a a artificial I say artificialit's natural, but longer growth season because
(09:22):
the ground takes longer to freeze upthere. So that's why you get this
this nice fruit growth. You know, the the pears and the plums,
apples, peaches, especially the Katabapeaches are are very very boxer. Is
that if you we we we goup to uh the islands pretty frequently and
(09:43):
if you pull up on like thethe shoreline of Middle Bass Island, there's
actually some spots where cabernet grapes aregrowing wild because they're planted so long ago
and there's an abundance of grapes upthere that they're still growing wild. So
you pull in the shoreline and you'relooking like those look like grapevines. You
get up there, like that's cabernetsavignon, and so they're still growing wild
(10:07):
out there. It's like, youknow, crazy, are these grapes,
by the way, are these grapesyou can eat there? We were actually
on a little cove off of NorthBass up there, and my dad was
the one who spotted it. Youknow. Of course, of course I
said, does have those wineries upthere? Yeah, the one that famously
(10:28):
you know collapsed. What's that?Oh yeah, that's right, the tragedy.
Tragedy. But anyways, on NorthBass, we were in the cove
and it was like those look likegrapevines up there, and we you know,
swam up to the shore and pickingthem, and my dad's like sure
enough, he's like, that's cabernetsavignon, and and there's just growing wild
up there. It's like somebody needsto step in and preserve that history and
(10:50):
and uh, absolutely take care ofthose grapes. And whoever's listening, if
you can listen to it and youhave some some pool up there, my
goodness, gracious, it's like wego. That'd be great. But sal
and Carmen Carfana are with us.Of course. This is our third episode
of Unquorked. Hey, one ofour themes for this podcast is the sauce
and the sauce history and the production. And I don't know if you guys
(11:13):
want to get into it now,you know, visualizing if you if you
haven't checked on YouTube this episode oryou get the chance. Of course,
we're making meat balls, which Ican't wait to taste in just a little
bit. But you guys have anamazing history with your sauce, so yeah,
you know this is this is Carmen'sbaby, and I'm going to allow
(11:35):
him to talk more about it.But the sauce was our great grandmother's recipe
and my dad, Sam, ourdad, Sam Carfania was the one who
kind of took that recipe from herand started to produce it. And he
has basically like he started with likea twenty gallon recipe and he was making
(11:56):
it in the back of the oldmarket on one sixty one. This is
back in like the seventies and wasmaking it twenty gallons at a time and
courting it up and then freezing it. Uh. He actually still has that
original recipe. You know, heknew where it was. It's it's it's
locked up in the vaults. Iwas asking him for it. I was
like, hey, if you canget eyes on that, go back in
(12:16):
the in the recipe vault, right, yeah, which actually exists. Do
you really have a recipe vault hereat Carfana? Oh yeah, oh yeah
really yeah. All of our familyrecipes and everything that that we have that
is on pieces of paper and whatnot, soups, sauceage, sausages. Uh
does here he is yourself. Havea seat, the man, the myth,
(12:41):
the legend, Sam Carfan just walkin. Please have a seat,
sir. Wow, what do youfind? Oh Sam? The recipe?
I found it and it is lookingpretty ratty. But you know, I
got to tell you there's sauce stainson this piece of paper here that are
(13:05):
probably fifty plus years old. Mygotta be all right. This is the
original recipe of our Apasta sauce thattoday is distributed in more than twenty nine
states. It's amazing. By theway, if you're wondering what all that
chaos was, we were talking about, you know, the sauce, and
then all of a sudden, Salinand Carmen's dad comes in and Sam carfind
(13:26):
you this recipe. Wait a minute, how do you got this out of
the vault? Doesn't this go undergroundat night? It does, It's been
locked up, you know, undera safe that is well, it'll self
detonate if anybody tries to get intoit. But it's funny than dry box
there. You're asking too many questionsabout the vault. I'm sorry, I
(13:50):
got a team waiting, but wekept it up and kept it locked up
in it. Every once in awhile, you know, we have to
dig in there to find something,you know, because there's a stack of
recipes that just goes on and onand on, and we keep that into
it. Sam, quick question aboutthis. When you started the production of
this recipe, how does it workin the Carfonia family, because you have
(14:15):
so many recipes, so many richthings that you're doing. Did you have
to get permission from your grandmother?Had no permission from Nona, our grandmother.
We but we watched her. Welived with her, okay for the
for quite a bit of seven yearsof my life. We lived with them,
and then we moved across the streetfrom them. All of my big
(14:37):
fat Greek wedding style, you know. So every day getting off the bus
at three o'clock after school, mymother and father were working at the market,
and we would go over to ourgrandmother's home and have a big meal
and watch her cook. And theyhad a huge garden and they would process
all their own tomatoes. She grewbasil. We grow shrubs around our home.
(15:01):
You know. She did everything byhand. Her pasta making and her
recipes all came from the abrutal Molisiregion of Italy. So we're very affluent
and learned in food production because it'sso much over there, and the pasta
making and the water from that regionwhich makes the pasta so wonderful. Anyhow,
(15:28):
this recipe came from memory. NowI had an aunt or a Zia
Mary Jean, that worked with usat the time. She is the daughter
or my father's sister, and sheknew these recipes also from the back of
her hand. So together we formulatedthe first twenty gallon recipe. Yeah.
Now, Sam, can I askyou, and I hope this isn't a
(15:48):
dumb question, but why the whynumber twenty? Why that amount what our
kettle held? Twenty five gallon?That's why? Uh. In the in
the market, we had a smallerdouble jacketed kettle and that was a capacity
and we would hand dip it outand put it in court containers that were
(16:11):
uh uh to freeze, you know, and everything was all natural and it
hasn't changed a bit today. That'samazing. Sam. By the way,
Sam Carfon is with us. We'reon a corked we're talking about the history
of the sauces. Sam, Howold were you? Where were you when
when you got the idea we needto put this into production. We need
(16:34):
to mass market this well, youknow, being a one hit wonder small
market okay, you you have tobe put yourself in difference, you know,
uh from everyone else. Well,being of Italian nature, and we
knew that we had good products,and we felt like there was an opportunity
(17:00):
to package these products and sell themwithin our own market. You know.
Lo and behold where it's taken ustoday. But for many years we thought,
you know, keep it frozen keepit natural. And we found out
that tomatoes is such a natural preservativebecause of the acidity content that jarring.
It was a simple, simple method. You didn't need to add anything to
(17:25):
it to keep it fresh and tokeep it, you know, as natural
as possible. See, so noextra preservatives things like that to keep it
that's correct, you know, Soyou really you have a natural product.
You have a natural preservative in thein the cidity of the tomato itself.
And there you go, you know, starting with fresh ingredients and we always
use fresh onions, fresh garlic,olive oil as opposed to you know,
(17:48):
a polysaturated oil that's been rendered sooften. You know, the olive oil
gives it that kind of flavor andthen naturalness into health qualities as well,
you know, and and just thelittle bit of spices we use. You
know. There it is. Youknow, it's simple, it's delicious,
and most importantly you know it isit's it's thick, it covers a lot
(18:15):
of pasta, and it has body, you know, and substance to it.
And and that's what's made it sopopular amongst everybody. It's like,
my god, I take a quarterof your your sauce, and I've got
to you know, I've got toadd half a jar of water to it,
you know what I mean. Andand we're like, well, you
don't need to do that, youknow what I mean? People will eat
it with a spoon right out ofthe jar because it's so thick. I
(18:38):
just I love your passion for this, Sam. I just want to go
swimming in a big kettle of sauce. Now, I mean, I don't
know how that would look. Butthe Sam, just out of curiosity,
is it? Did I hear?Right? The number is a half a
million jars or produced a year orwhat what was that? Carmen? Oh
god, I've lost count, Butyeah, it's it's all for half a
(19:00):
million jars a year that we produce. Do you guys know daily or Sam?
Maybe you two? How many what'sa typical day of production? Like
like how many one thousand gallons?Plus? Okay, we have you mentioned
you want you can go swimming init? Right? Well, the kettles
that you should go over and see, you know, they're they're five hundred
(19:21):
gallon, they're actually six hundred gallon. We cook five hundred at a time,
okay, and we have two ofthem going. Okay, so there's
your one thousand gallons, which wouldequate to four thousand jars. So I'm
just so I'm trying to get thevisual here and paint a picture for those
that are listening to. So we'reat your manufacturing plant. We're getting ready
to make, you know, oneof your sauces. Let's just take the
(19:45):
you know, the original Apasta sauce, just out of curiosity. Do you
have a computer that is already programmedto dump the ingredients in the kettle?
Samper, Well, we have acomputer that that puts the cooking and times
and the temperatures together, but theingredients are all masked together, and they
start early in the morning, aroundsix am. And the same people that
(20:08):
have been doing it for years areare are those who first dumped the tomatoes.
The tomatoes come in fifty five gallondrums, now okay, and they're
brought up with a lift, amechanical lift that actually dumps into these huge
kettles, and then they add theingredients themselves. They start the cooking time,
(20:33):
which is programmable and automatic, andfrom there a way it goes until
bottling time. So yeah, westill the best thing about our sauce is
that we still make it the sameway you would make it in a kitchen.
Oh, okay, start with oliveoil, simmer onions, garlic before
you had the tomatoes in. Soit's not all just kind of bashing and
(20:55):
thrown in there. It's we makeit the way you would make it in
a kitchen to preserve the flavor.That's made our sauce so popular for so
many years. And what makes itunique too, is that cooked time.
Yeah, it's yeah. So wesay it's slow cooked, and it really
is. We we cook for fourhours before we jar. And the reason
(21:15):
why our sauce is so thick becauseit's been slow cooked for so long that
all the water evaporates out of itand you get this really beautiful thick sauce
that all the flavors marry together andyou get the richness and that body that
my dad was talking about. Yeah, and your sauces are nationwide in various
grocery stores. Correct, my,you're absolutely correct. Carmen has instrumental in
(21:40):
taking the sales across the country forus and opening up, you know,
market after market, and we're veryproud of what he'd done. But you
know, he's right. You know, I should have expanded on the fact
that it starts. There's a stepby step process. It is not just
dumped together and it's open kettle cookedlike you said. So it's a reduction
as if you were at home.Whereas other manufacturers, mainly the the the
(22:07):
mass produced, they're in a closesituation and sometimes they're in a situation where
they're just heated to a point andbottled right away, And this is not
done that way. So if youthink of the way you prepare this sauce
at home, or how we startedit in twenty gallons, it's the same
process. It's just in a muchmuch larger pot. Wow, that's amazing,
(22:29):
And forgive me. There's just somany questions I have about manufacturing that
I've never thought about before. Theother one is do you do you only
produce sauce if it's not in yourstore? Of course? Do you only
produce what you've been ordered? Likelet's say I don't know, Giant Eagle
or someone orders a bunch of yoursauce? Do you only produce what's been
(22:52):
ordered? Sam? Or we definitelyproduce two order so it's as fresh as
can be. Okay, and yes, we have a small amount of stock
for spontaneous orders. And often weget a distributor or a or a company
that needs you know, X amountof cases or palettes and and we have
(23:15):
to have that much on hand.But no, by no, I know
means is there anything that's stocked awayfor months and months and months? It's
made pretty much to order for sure. I'm guessing that's just a smart business
move, right because you know,if you have inventory just sitting there,
that's that's not good either. Absolutely, that's a smart business move. Yeah,
you know, and uh so sowe you know, we pride ourselves
(23:41):
in trying to be the best smallcompany that we can be, you know,
as far as business practices as wellas production practices, would you would
you say, Salmon and Carmen,has this Has this been a good extra
revenue stream? Is there a lotof cost maybe startup costs involved, Does
it eventual pay for itself eventually?And it is an endeavor that is very
(24:06):
costly, but it has a lotof upside as well. You know,
first of all, it's a tremendousfuture in it because once you get to
the point where we are in it, you know, distribution and we find
that the it's so well accepted whereverwe sample it, you know, it
moves so quickly and becomes an itemthat people are asking for. You know,
(24:33):
they go into their grocery store andthey're like, I tried this sauce,
you know, but I shop here, and you know, I tried
it over there, and can youget it here? And and sooner or
later, you know, they getso many requests for it. Boom,
we're getting the phone calls. Andthat that seems to be you know,
the attrition of how we just grow, grow, grow, and it takes
(24:55):
off for us in a way,and that has been something that you know,
I applaud these the boys with that. They they know that this is
such a good item that they cantake it further and further and further,
and we do. Sam Carfona,you seem like a very open minded.
Hey, my boys have something thatan idea, I'm willing to listen to
(25:18):
it. Have they ever come toyou with a just an absolutely crazy idea?
You're like, no, we're notdoing that. You know, I
do try to be open minded.I think I am. They probably don't,
you know, but I think Iam. And and you know,
at my age, I've had trialsand tribulations. We've started out and we've
(25:38):
fallen on our face. I'll neverforget the day that my brother and my
partner, Dino, came to meand and he said, what are we
going to do? You know whatI mean, We need to really pep
people. The grocery stores have limitedspace with frozen sauce, and that was
our startup, was a frozen sauceand I put it in the jar.
(26:00):
Research that we talked with the authorities. There are packaging authorities on this that
give you the parameters of, youknow, how long a sauce will last
in a jar, what you canput in it, et cetera. We
did that research, put it ina jar and said what do you think
and them boom. It took offlike crazy because the convenience of having a
(26:22):
jar in your pantry as opposed tothe small freezer you have under your fridge.
There's limited space there and most peopleif they opened their fridge their freezer,
they could probably dump half the stuffout because it's been in there for
so long, you know. Butit is limited space not only in your
home freezer, but in the grocerystore freezer, and it's expensive space,
(26:45):
you know, and so getting itout there into the marketplace in a frozen
manner was very very difficult, gettingit in a jar, getting it out
there. Boom the local foods exploded. Ocean helped us, you know,
and we started out and we wentwithin. We started in central Ohio and
(27:06):
kept expanding, expanding, expanding.We were part of the Ohio Proud network.
We branched out into local foods,you know, Cleveland, Sincy,
the the Dayton, you know,the larger metropolitan areas and every smaller area
and then Boom crossed over the linesand went expand Sam, I think you
(27:30):
could all probably answer this. Iknow we've talked about in other episodes,
just the competition, just how hardit is to have, you know,
a grocery store, you know,manufacturing, you have the restaurant for example.
But would you say that the andmaybe especially after the pandemic, that
there's a growing interest in a growingsupport network of all of us to want
(27:52):
to support that local business like Carfonia'sthat's been a name in our backyard since
nineteen thirty seven. Yes, Boxer, but they want to see you,
they want to see you, youknow, it's so important that when you
come into this store, there's Carfona'shere. You know, if that name
is on the front of the buildingand you're behind the products that you're selling,
(28:15):
they want to make sure people wantto see you in there and make
sure that you know this this company. Yes they're homegrown, Yes they're they're
independent, their their quality, youknow, all of the above. But
when you are there, backing,backing all that words and with your face,
it makes a world a difference.And we're here and it's so important,
(28:37):
you know, And I think thatthe next generation understands that because we're
into four generations. Not easy todo, okay, usually, you know,
if you don't instill that work ethicinto someone, your your children,
you know, then they're not goingto they're they're just going to think that
I can ride on that on theold man's money, and you know what
(28:59):
it does and worked that way.So you instill that that work ethic into
them and the pride every one ofthese kids. My brother and I we
educated these kids and said, hey, look, this is not an easy
industry. There's all this other stuffyou can do. They did it.
They went out, they worked forother people, they tried, you know,
and I shouldn't say tried. Theywere successful at what they were doing.
(29:22):
But there's something in the heart aboutbeing in a family business that says,
I just got to be part ofthis, you know, and carry
on that legacy and that name issomething that that that that gives you goosebumps,
you know, and the pride poursout of you and says, I
want to do this. And that'swhat these guys are. They they're they're
(29:45):
they're all pride and they're and they'reabout They're about keeping the tradition. They're
about they're about legacy. And andyou know, when you get to be
my age and my brother's age,you think, you know, we don't
want it to end here. Thisis something our grandparents started and my father
carried on. But each generation Boxer, they got to do more because the
(30:08):
family keeps growing and it takes moreand more and more. So what did
we do? You know, westarted out as a little grocer, you
know, Dad moved it into abig grocer. Brother and I turned that
grocery into restaurant and manufacturing. Pluswhat's their legacy, Well, you know
what they know that that today's marketsare going with with you know, you
(30:33):
can buy online, you know,and and therefore that's that's that's a new
frontier that we're moving into as well. And these guys will do it because
they have the passion. Sam I, Oh, I'm sorry, sam I.
I was going to say that aswe start to wrap up, is
that the next frontier for you isprobably a bigger investment in online ordering or
well, it's one of them.And they know that that, you know,
(30:56):
and I preach all the time,you can't sit on your hands in
this business. So that is afrontier. But it's one, you know,
and there's there's several others that thatthat they can venture into. There's
there's, uh, the food trucksout there, you know, there's there's
one of those. We just boughta trailer and we're outfitting it and and
uh, these guys love taking itto the Buckeye games, you know,
(31:18):
and and peddling our sausage, whichhas been another big item for us over
the years. You know that thoserecipes, So you got to keep going.
You got to keep going, Yougot to keep you know, expansion
this sauce line, you know,expanding it. We're at we're we're on
the verge of adding another larger productionfacility. We need to we need to
(31:41):
make it larger now. You know, we don't want to lose anything,
We just want to make it larger. You know. Well, this has
been fascinating, Sam. I'm soglad that you dropped in on this podcast.
I can't thank you enough for yourtime. And what one final question,
just out of curiosity, what arefamily board meetings like? If I'm
a fly on the wall, Well, what are they like? Well,
(32:04):
come on, don't hold back soundprobably a better answer for them. But
my side of the answer is it'sis it is. They're tired of hearing
the same thing over and over outof me. You know what I mean,
because I tend to like drive drivedrive into into their minds. You
know that that the same the samerhetoric and the same story over and over.
(32:24):
But it's so important that you know, as a parent, you don't
want your children to have to liveany of the the downfalls you had or
you know, you don't want themto have to step down a rung on
the ladder. You want them tokeep climbing it, you know. But
but I think that you have toexperience some of that defeat to be able
(32:50):
to understand what it takes to rise. And and uh so, you know,
the board meetings are not as heatedas you would think, but sometimes
they are, you know, butI would like to think that they're pretty
organized. And and here's what Iunderstand is that when I think that I'm
smart in this business, and yeah, and I've done some things that you
(33:12):
know, with my my brother thatwe together, we've we've grown this to
this point and we're very proud ofthat, these guys are a lot smarter
than us. And when I whenI think about that, and I think,
you know, it makes me,it puts me at ease that I
can walk out of here and gohome a little earlier that I can leave.
(33:36):
I took three weeks vacation this year. I wouldn't have been able to
do that if they weren't here nextyear a month, you know, I
mean, can't read any garment itsout. So so it's it's like,
you know, they got a goody. They know what the heck they're doing,
you know, and and and yousee it, you hear it.
(33:57):
And they don't make rash decisions.They're well thought out. They talk it
over. We talked together about it, and I'm in for a good argument,
and you can win the argument withme, then you know what,
you got a good You got agood chance to do it, Sam Carfona,
this has been a real pleasure.I hope you stop back soon again,
get back to work. Sorry,how about we how about we say
(34:21):
some meatballs before you say some meatballs? Yeah? Absolutely, Box. You
brought up a funny U or agood question that says they you know what
is what does my dad do withall of our crazy ideas we bring to
him? Yeah? Yeah, it'sfunny because most of the time that we
bring him a crazy idea, itwas his crazy idea thirty years ago.
I tried it didn't work out.Don't do it, you know, you
(34:45):
know, you think it's going tobe different this time than old recipes back
there. They got old sketches.I've gotten files and the last one wash
was it the wine uh? What'sthat wine uh uh testing thing? Salvatory?
You found it in one of thefiles that I had, the uh
uh where it pushes the nitrogen inthe capsule and then brings the wine out
(35:07):
and the corvin Yeah, you know, I invented that thing. Okay,
I just couldn't get it out,you know, that's too funny. All
right, Well we all have ameatball here, right, guy and dad.
This is called on cork. SoI poured your glass of kiante.
There you go, there you go. Salute means did you say saluta?
(35:31):
I said saluta, saluta saluta somemore dialect from the Abruzzo region. Salute
is the real word with an eat the end. But you know they
say mancha is to eat right,Well, you say manya because the elders,
you know, they they they hadtheir own little twist on all.
The language is just like we do, you know, southern parts, western
(35:53):
parts, eastern parts of the ofthe of our own country. Well,
in the Abruzzo region, the dialectsare a little bit different. And and
my future son in law who's fromthe Brutzo region, he just now sent
us ninety five pages of a butcheredlanguage, you know, that is in
(36:15):
dialect of that region, and soit's in print and reading through there is
so funny because growing up in ahousehold where the language was spoke in dialect,
you know, and then going intoschool and learning in school the language
in the proper form. It's adifferent language. It's a different language.
(36:38):
So yeah, we say saluta andsome in in the the language you would
speak in Milan and Rome would besalute. The things I'm learning every time
of this podcast, Sam, thankyou for that. I had no idea,
no idea, wait till you learnabout this me bo over here eating.
(36:59):
They were like, oh my,oh my, now, so a
couple of things on. Yes,yes, made with our meatball mix.
Our meatball mix is pork and beef. We make it fresh here at the
market daily. It's available in thebutcher shop. It's five I take these,
These are a third of a poundof meat meatball mix, and then
I stuff it with a small freshmozzarella ball. GA is what the size
(37:22):
of the ball is called. Soif you're looking for those mozzarella balls and
what size we're using, yeah,call them chilia gene. They're the tiny,
little, tiny little mozzarella balls showedup for the camera. Oh my
goodness, dish. Now, Ifry these in olive oil, I brown
(37:42):
all the sides, and then Iprefer having them steep in vodka sauce.
Why because number one, the meatballsthey got parmesan cheese, and there there's
stuff with fresh mozzarella. It's alreadya cheesy meatball, so why not at
it with our cheesy vodka sauce aswell. So you get that creaminess from
the mozzarella, you get the creaminusfrom the uca sauce. It adds just
(38:06):
another depth of flavor that I justabsolutely love. Like I said, carbon
and I have made these for somewine events and private dinners and it's one
of my favorite things. It's it'sjust become one of those that I'm just
like not to mention when you havethese cooking in that sauce for like I
said, a solid hour. Thesewere in there for over an hour.
(38:29):
I mean, they're so fork tender, they are just they fall afart on
you. But because you're effect becauseyou fry them, it creates a nice
crust on the outside, so itlocks in all those nice flavors. Do
you the other reason we use ourvodka sauce is because it's fricking awesome,
well, said Carbon, Well saidSalad Carmen our cells specifically, how long
(38:50):
does it take and do you havea recipe for this at Carfondias dot com.
How long does it take you tomeet make meatballs these so the meatball
mix is already made, right,you're just as fast as you can roll
them in your hands, boxer.That's all it is. Yeah, okay,
yeah, so just buy the mixby the mix rolling in your hands,
and some people can you can putthem on a baking sheet and bake
them. You can brown them upand throw them in sauce. We we
(39:15):
sell them already cooked and frozen aswell. Yeah, we do. We
sell them a lot of different ways. We got them in pans of forty
with sauce and cheese on them thatyou can just throw right in your oven.
You you have this sauce already withthem on. That's you have version.
We've got two different sizes box We'vegot well, we have multiple different
sizes frozen. We've got a smallthirty two hons container that's got six meatballs
(39:38):
and sauce, and then we havea family party pack that's got forty meatballs
and sauce and a half pan thatyou can throw right in your oven.
And then our Prepared Foods has themin three different sizes as well, and
you can get them by the pound. And then uh, we also have
(39:59):
them and our Fraser section unsauced,just frozen, ready to go, and
you can throw those right in sauceand let them heat up, or you
can bake them in you know,warm them up in an oven. However,
which way you want to do.And another reason why we chose the
meatballs for this podcast is because themeatballs are one of those items that is
also made at our manufacturing facility.We did the math okay based off of
(40:22):
two ounce and one ounce meatball,so our regular sized meatball and the appetizer
sized meatballs, and the meatballs areonly sold at this location, but we
are manufacturing over a million meatballs annuallyat that manufacturing facility and exhausting to think
about, but it's yeah, it'sbut it is pretty remarkable. How does
(40:45):
this rate with some of your topselling items at carfind is the meatballs?
Where where does it rank? Meatballsare Prepared Foods wise meatballs are always up
their top five item and our preparedfoods Specialty Grocery, the frozen meatballs again
top five weekend and week out meatballmix fresh meatball mix that is in our
(41:08):
fresh meat Yeah, that's about atop ten item weekend in week out.
So in spaghetti and meatballs at therestaurant is our number one selling item.
So we my wife and I,we my family really in general, we
shop here anyway. But I needto add the meatballs to the list for
the holidays because we buy a bigspread from you every holiday season. I
(41:31):
have to add the meatballs to it. Yeah, and I'll just get the
why not get the frozen ones especially, can get the frozen ones? Yeah,
absolutely. If it's you know,time saving, you can do that.
If you've got a big party,get the pan of forty meatballs and
get a couple dozen hard rolls andyou got meatball subs for everybody. But
if you've got time it's just youand your wife at home, you want
(41:52):
to make spagetti metals. Get themeatball mixed. It's I love our meatball
mix because then I could take themlike sal says, brown them, fry
them and olive oil, throw themright in your sauce and let him flavor
that sauce. And it is makesa world of difference in me. So
a moron like me can do thistoo. You can do it, Yes,
you believe in me. Something though. My brother in law Tom started
(42:13):
this years ago, but he takeshis fresh meatball mix. Do we sell
in the meat department, you know, And it's ready to go, it's
in the bulk. He forms anendto a patty and grills them on the
charcoal grill and makes a burger outof it, and and it is fantastic,
incredible, puts a piece of provaloncheese over the top, melts it
(42:36):
down, makes it like a likea cheeseberger. It is a fantastic sandwich.
And what a burger, you know. And and we've we we pushed
that often, you know, I'msaying U and have our meat staff,
you know, let people know becauseit's such a popular item. Like you
said, it's in the top tenand uh, you gotta try it sometime.
(42:58):
Oh my god. Well yeah,yeah, that's definitely on my bucket
list now for sure. Thank youSam, Thank you, Carmen, Thank
you sal. I know the nexttime around, the next episode will probably
be hitting I'm guessing parmagedd in alittle bit. You want to hit the
wine. Yeah, absolutely, sothe wine that you're that we're pairing with
us again. Cassa Emma. CassaEmma is named after the owner of the
(43:20):
winery, Emma lepri and This isa Kianti classical one hundred percent sangio vasi.
Why are we choosing this for thissangio Vasi especially pairs really well with
number one meats, but then alsonumber two Marinera sauces pasta sauces red tomato
based sauces. The acidity that's inthe tomatoes plays really well with the acidity
(43:42):
that's in the san giovasi. Itreally brings out the fruit that is in
that san giovasi. So you getto taste the wine and a whole other
I guess more of a depth,right that you get in there, a
little bit more that complexity comes out. Yeah, the acidities play on each
other. And this wine here,Casa Emma, has been growing very very
(44:05):
popular in our wine shop for thoseof you guys who are looking. It's
got a very unique label. Thereis a goose on that label. Apparently
there is a flock of geese thatlive at the winery. And it's an
all organic wine and made old worldstyle in Kyanti classico and thirty five dollars
(44:27):
retail for that bottle, and againour wine shop, you can go in
there, you can get the bottle, you can bring it into the restaurant.
You can open it here. Youcan enjoy it while you're shopping,
or take it home and enjoy itwith some mozarella stuff meatballs. Very nice.
So reminder you can get recipes andmore at carfonyas dot com. You
can see the video version of thisif you're not already doing so. Of
(44:49):
course, you can always The podcastitself lives on the iHeartRadio app. Just
search for Uncorked, but search Uncorkedand Carfaanya's on the YouTube page. You
guys have your own YouTube chat panel, so that's right. Boxer, thank
you, Thank you guys, andsala I guess without further ado, you
can take it away. Thanks forthis deliciousness today, appreciate it until next
time, of course, Boxer,thank you and Manja Bene
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