Ex-Mob Boss Cooks Real Italian Meatballs (Grandmothers Secret Recipe Finally Revealed)

➡ The speaker shares his journey of becoming a YouTube sensation during the pandemic, despite initially resisting the idea. He talks about his love for fruit wines, cooking, and music, particularly Frank Sinatra and the Backstreet Boys. He also answers questions about his past life, including his involvement in the mafia, and shares a recipe for meatballs. The speaker expresses gratitude for his YouTube success and the opportunity to connect with his audience.
➡ The speaker shares his experiences in dealing with money, cooking, and his preference for Italian food. He talks about a lesson he learned about not revealing his earnings in advance and only giving a 25% cut to his boss. He also shares his method of making meatballs, emphasizing the importance of frying them for better taste. Lastly, he discusses his interactions with his team, choosing to make them wealthy rather than promoting them, and his business dealings with the Russians.
➡ A man named Michael created a scheme to defraud the government of gasoline taxes, making him and his partners, including a man named Mike Markowitz, very wealthy. They also ventured into the restaurant business together. However, when Michael went to jail, his partners were mistreated by others, leading to violence and the collapse of their operation. Michael also shares his love for cooking, particularly pasta and meatballs, and his preference for single-breasted suits and New York hot dogs.
➡ The speaker shares his love for cooking meatballs and his secret recipe, emphasizing the use of bread, not breadcrumbs, and plenty of cheese and garlic. He also promotes his Armenian wines, which he claims are gaining popularity over Italian and Napa Valley wines due to their unique story and great taste. He hints at his past involvement with the mafia, but focuses on his current passion for cooking and wine. He encourages everyone to try his recipe and wines, promising they won’t be disappointed.
➡ The speaker discusses his admiration for the realistic portrayal of mob life in the 1996 film “Gotti”, and his dislike for the newer version starring John Travolta. He also shares his love for New York, Italy, and Vancouver, and his belief in the goodness of people in America. He talks about his enjoyment of cooking, particularly making meatballs, and his newfound appreciation for fruit wines. Lastly, he mentions his childhood heroes, his father and Joe Colombo, a prominent figure in the Italian-American mafia.
➡ The speaker recounts his first arrest during a protest, where he was saved from serious charges by a lawyer. He also shares a traumatic experience of witnessing a shooting at a rally. He expresses admiration for Frank Costello, a mobster known for his business acumen and political connections. The speaker concludes by promoting his cherry wine and meatball recipe, emphasizing the importance of family and friends during the holidays.

Taking these bottles home, and they’re. They’re sending me photos of flowers that they’re putting in it, candles that they’re making out of it. So not only are they enjoying the wine, but they’re loving the bottles. So my favorite right now has been the BlackBerry. But today I had just tried the strawberry, and I think I’m going to indulge again. Look at that. Beautiful. So let me have a glass while we’re waiting, and we’re going to answer some questions. So if you have any right now, you want to bombard me with them, go right ahead. My friends, I gotta tell you, if you would have told me 20 years ago that I’d be in front of a camera making meatballs, drinking a glass of wine and answering questions, I would have said, you’re crazy.

It’s amazing how life goes at times. Anyway, these fruit wines are great. I’m going to try the strawberry. We have bartenders now making all sorts of different types of drinks out of this. Look at the color. Beautiful. That’s a big glass, but it’s okay. I’m going to enjoy this. Let it sit for a minute. So let me start with some of the questions that I. That I have. All right. How did you get. How did you actually get into YouTube? And why did you upload your. When did you upload? And why did you upload your first video? Honestly, people, I had no desire whatsoever to be on YouTube.

Didn’t want to do it. It was actually during the pandemic. I had, I think, about 45 speaking dates that were postponed because of the pandemic. And my team at the time came to me and said, well, what are you going to do? And I said, I’m going to do nothing. I said, I haven’t been home like this in 30 years because I’ve been speaking for quite some time. I said, I’m just going to relax and enjoy being at home with my wife and my family. And they said, no, you can’t do that, Michael. You gotta be out in front of people.

And I said, well, where are we going to go? We can’t go anywhere. It was nice anyway. It was the summer of 2020, and they kept pounding me on it, pounding me on it. And I kept saying no, but finally I relented. And I think it was in August of 2020 that we did our first video. And I have to say this, thanks to all of you. It just really blew up quick. I think within six weeks, we had over 100,000 subs. And so I Said, wow, we really have something here. Man, this meat is cold.

We really have something here. So I’m going to keep going. And we built the channel over the past five years. I know for those of you that are following me, we’re approaching probably in the next couple of months, we’ll be at 2 million subs. We’ve had close to a half a billion views and it’s been very successful. And, you know, I’m thankful to all of you that continue to watch me. And so we’re doing something different. You know, people are into food. I mean, all of these food networks that I see, you know, people are really enjoying it.

So again, my team came to me and said, michael, you have to share your meatball secret. And I said, I’m not going to do that. They’ve been asking me to do this for a year, but finally I gave up. Like I said, cheese. Got to have a lot of cheese. You can’t overdo the cheese, I can tell you that. And the same with the garlic. So if you’re paying attention now, we got, we got both ground beef, we got ground pork, we got two eggs, three eggs actually. We got cheese, garlic, and some great parsley. Fresh parsley, always.

All right. Pretty soon we’ll add the bread, we’ll be ready to go. So. All right, another question. What are my favorite songs? Well, this is going to sound kind of crazy. My favorite all time guy is obviously Sinatra. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Dean Martin. You know, I think I love those guys because they bring back such great memories, not only of my time in that life, you know, I gotta tell you people, we had a lot of rough times. We had a lot of good times, too. I had a lot of good friends in that life and we shared a lot of good times together.

And the music always brings me back, you know, I’ll never forget. I think it was 1998. I was at home. I’d gotten home from prison just, you know, a couple years earlier, and I was home. It was in the morning. And it was that morning that I heard that Frank Sinatra had passed away. And it was almost like that was the finality of the moment for me. Like my former life is really over because we identified so much with Frank Sinatra. I met him so many times at the Copacabana with my dad, later on with Joe Colombo at the Italian American Civil Rights League.

And I’ve seen him so many times. And when he died, it’s like the era is really gone. That’s it, it’s over. So I really identified with those guys. But I have to tell you this, one of my favorite times. I mean, I love the disco era. I think everybody that was around during that time, probably the greatest time, you know, at least in the last hundred years. But one of my favorite groups ever, and I’m very excited about this, is the Backstreet Boys. And they’re actually coming to the Sphere in Vegas. And I’m going to go there just before New Year’s this year.

Isn’t that crazy? Okay, a former mob guy liking the Backstreet Boys. But I do. Their music was great. And they’re at the Sphere, and I can’t wait to see him. A little more cheese. Like I said, can’t have enough for cheese. Not a big deal. Just keep putting it on. I think we need a little bit more parsley. All right, looking good so far. Okay, who is more powerful, Tony Accardo or Carlo Gambino? You know, that’s a close call, but understand this, that New York was really the hub for mafia cousin Ostra in this country. And in New York, we had five families.

We had the most guys there, and Carlo Gambino, without a doubt, was the most important guy and the most powerful guy in that era. Now, I’m not taking anything away from Tony Accardo, but that was one family there, and he ruled for quite some time. Well over 20, 25 years. Got to give him credit for that. But really, the power was in New York. So I would have to say I’d give Carlo the edge on that for sure. But again, taking nothing away from Tony Accardo. Okay, now let me wipe my hands a little bit, see how the bread is doing.

All right, Doing good. Got to get all the water out of it, because all we want is this nice, moist bread to mix in, strain it all out. All right, so now that we have the bread, you see it’s very moist, obviously. And this is what makes the difference. Trust me. People put it in, mix it all together. Doesn’t look very appetizing, but trust me, it is. Once you get it, A taste of it. All right, this is a good question. I know we got this from a soprano somewhere. Do you like gabagool? Well, I’ll tell you this.

I grew up on it. You know what that is? It’s kind of a cured meat, and it’s actually coppicola is what you call it. But the Sopranos made it famous by calling it gabagool. And we had guys that were actually nicknamed gabagool. It wasn’t a compliment. Let me tell you that. But anyway, I don’t eat it anymore. I’m a little bit more health conscious. I don’t really eat any processed foods, but if I were to choose one, it would be Gavagal. I like it very much at the time. Okay, so now we have all this mixed together.

What was the kick up percentage to the boss? Was it always 10%? I wish it was 10%. No, it’s more than that. It was kind of the rule of thumb. And I’ll tell you how I got to this point. You know, when I was a recruit, before I took my oath, before I was a made man, somebody had come to me with a load of meat. They had a load of meat, you know, that they hijacked from someone, and they brought it to me. And I went to my boss at the time, Andrew Russo, I can tell you his name, and I said, andrew, I got a load of meat.

I said, I’m going to sell it. And then what do you want me to do? At that point he said, well, bring me all the money. I said, okay. So we sold it. I think we sold it for about eight grand, if I remember. And I brought it to him and I gave him the 8,000. And he said, okay, I’ll get back to you. Right? So he gets back to me after a couple of days, and he gives me $600. And I don’t want to question him. He was my captain. I didn’t want to say anything at that taunt, but 600,000.

I gave $600. I gave him 8,000. So my father was away at that time. He was in Leavenworth. And I went to see him and I told him what happened. I said, dad, I bring them $8,000, they give me $600 back. I said, what is this? He said, no, you made a mistake. He said, you don’t ever tell them in advance. He said, you do the score and then you bring it in and you give them 25%. Anything that happens on the street. 25%, that’s it. If it’s a new legal thing, if it’s legit, you don’t have to give them anything.

So it taught me a lesson. So the formula is, anything that we did on the street, they got 25% that kicked up to the boss. That was it. But I learned the hard way. I could tell you that. All right, now, I never used to use breadcrumbs, but I’m going to use this now, and I’ll tell you why. Because most people only use breadcrumbs they don’t use the bread like I just showed you. They only use breadcrumbs, and that’s what makes the center of the meatball hard, and you don’t want that. But for a little bit of flavor.

These are Italian breadcrumbs for a little bit of flavor and to hold them together a little bit more, I don’t mind using just a little bit. Not a lot. And I started doing that recently, and it paid off. Good taste and it works. So almost done here. Mixing everything together. It’s looking good. Now, I can tell you this. You can taste this raw, and it tastes almost the same as the meatball after it’s cooked, believe it or not. I don’t suggest you eating it raw, but you can tell right away how it tastes. All right, Chinese food or Italian food? Come on.

Who would even ask me something like that? Italian. Let me tell you something prepared well. There’s no better food on the face of the planet than Italian food. I have to say that now some people are going to get mad. That’s not to say I don’t like other food. I love Chinese food. Growing up, it was our. It was really our second go to food. My dad, if we didn’t go for Italian, we went for Chinese. He loved Chinese, and he got us all into loving Chinese. So Chinese food is great, but Italian is number one.

Recently, I got to love a Mexican food. You know, I married a Mexican girl when I was back in New York. I never ate Mexican food because we didn’t have any Mexican restaurants. Now you got them every place, but back then, no, but Mexican food is great, but you can’t be good Italian food. Notice I’m putting more cheese. Can’t put enough of cheese. So. But yeah, Italian is number one. And let me tell you, you know, I’ve said this quite often lately, that with all of these celebrity chefs over the past 10 years or so, Italian restaurants, restaurants in general, have really raised their standard in preparing their foods.

I’ve been to so many restaurants across the country that you wouldn’t think were going to be good. Went in there, had a great meal. And I really do think it’s the celebrity chefs that have raised the standard of cooking all over the country. Probably all over the world. All right, I got a. A really deep, important question here. So what I’m going to do, I’m going to wash my hands, take a sip of that wine, and then answer this question. It’s a deep one, and it’s a good one. As a matter of Fact, I’m surprised that it came in somebody’s.

I don’t know who asked that, but it’s a very good question. All right, so I want a glass of my strawberry. Look at how beautiful that is. Honestly. Clear, beautiful. It’s becoming one of my favorites. I really love the BlackBerry wine, but the strawberry is great, too. Pomegranate, people are loving it. It was the first fruit wine that we introduced. I’m not high on pomegranates. It tastes good, but my preference, strawberry or the BlackBerry. Haven’t tried the cherry yet, but maybe. Maybe I’ll have a little bit of glass of that when. When we’re cooking the meatballs.

How’s that? All right. Now, here’s a heavy question. How many men have you made? When I was a carpenter, Jean, a captain, which I was appointed to that position in 1980. How many men have you made? Well, let me tell you this story. I had all my guys together. I had about 15 guys that were really under me. And I had them all together at one point. And I sat down, I said, guys, listen, if any one of you want to get made, this is not the place for you. I’m not going to make any one of you.

And they said, why? I said, very simple. Because once I make you, you become. I lose you. I’m going to train you. I’m going to work with you. I’m going to put all my effort into you to make you the best possible guy you can be. And then I get you made and I lose you. You don’t answer to me anymore. They could put you in another captain you can be anywhere else. So why would I put all that effort into you and. And lose you? So if you want to get made, no hard feelings. Not at all.

I said, I’ll give you a good reference, good recommendation, go wherever you want to go, but it’s not going to happen here. But hold on now. If you want to make money, then this is the place to be. I’m going to make you all wealthy, every single one of you. So you make a choice, whatever you want to be. And not one guy left. And they all became wealthy, every single one of them. You know the deal with the gas scam and all that that we did. And I learned something. People. You make. People make money.

You share the wealth. You have a lot of loyalty in that way. It may not be true loyalty in the end. And I can tell you that for a fact it wasn’t. Because some of my guys turned on me when it was Beneficial to them. And when they were escaping, you know, a lighter jail sentence. But during that time, they were very loyal because they made a lot of money with me. So it shows you money rules. Okay, back to the job. Let me get another taste of this wine. And I have to tell you this, you’re not going to get these fruit wines anywhere else.

And you’re certainly not going to get them in these beautiful bottles. The women are loving it. You know, aside from enjoying the wine, like I said, they’re making flower vases out of it and they’re putting candles in it and they’re showing me pictures. Really cool. So it’s really great for the holidays, too. Beyond the holidays, whatever. Gotta have it. Okay. We’re getting close. All right, now we do the rest of the work, and that is make meatballs out of them. Most people now today, they’ll tell you they want to bake the meatballs to me. They got to be fried.

If you’re baking them, you’re killing some of the taste. And I know there are people out there that disagree with me. But trust me on this, you gotta fry them. Meatballs need to be fried. And I’m a healthy guy. I’m very health conscious, as you can see. But you can’t always sacrifice taste. And while we’re speaking about health for all you health conscious people, and I hope many of you are, our fruit wines are made actually from the fruit. They’re actually more healthy than juices that you’ll drink because they put all that stuff in juice. They don’t do that in our fruit wines.

Very organic. All right, all right, let’s get that oil nice and hot and let’s make some meatballs. And answer another question. Did you do any business with Vor V Zaccon, Russian thief’s in law? Were they like Italians or different? I don’t recall that name in particular. Vorvi Jakon. No, I don’t recall that name in particular. But yes, I did do business with the Russians. They were my partners for almost eight years in the gas business. I’m going to tell you a quick story about that. There was three Russians that had a gas operation called Gas Stop in Brooklyn.

They had a number of gas stations and they came to me for some help. They couldn’t collect some money. It wasn’t a lot of money. It was about seven or eight grand. So they came to me and they said, Mr. Michael, you know, this guy owes us money and we can’t collect. And I said, Only 7,000. I thought these guys were a little more powerful than that. Anyway, I collected the money from them for them. And I said, what are you guys doing? And they told me, and they were actually trying to do what I was doing at that point.

And that was obviously, we created that scheme to defraud the government out of tax on every gallon of gasoline. As you see, these meatballs are made by hand. There’s no tool or anything else. You make them by hand. And they wanted to get involved. So I said to them, listen, I can make you guys very wealthy. No question about it. They had about 10 stations. I said, you’re going to buy the gas from me off of my license, and I’m going to save you a lot of money on the tax as we’re going to go partners.

They said, great. They said, what’s the split? I said, 75% me, 25% you. So I’ll never forget the one guy, his name was Mike Markowitz. He was kind of the leader. He looks at me and he says, Mr. Michael, that’s not fair. 75% you, 25% us. I said, no, that’s very fair. And they said, how? I said, very simple. We’re on the street. You’re going to rob me a little bit. I said, this way I won’t get that mad because I’m getting a lion’s share. I said, but don’t let me catch you. Don’t do that. And so I’ll never forget, he went to the back and he spoke to the other two guys.

And he comes back and he goes, you got a deal. And he shakes my hand. So he knew right away what was going on. But I will tell you this. They were, at that time, some of the best partners I ever had. We made a tremendous amount of money together. They were very aggressive on the street. They worked hard. We went into a restaurant business together. We did a lot of other things. And for seven or eight years, they were great partners. I’ll tell you what happened. Another sad part of that story was when. When I went away, when I was going to jail, I came to them and I told them, listen, this is how this is going to go.

You’re going to have to answer to some other guys right now. And I’ll never forget Mike says to me, no, Mr. Michael, we only deal with you. I said, no, it doesn’t work that way. You’re going to have to deal with somebody else. I said, but they’ll be okay with you. And I went to my guys at the time a little disappointed because my Father was one of them. And I said, listen, I worked closely with these guys for almost eight years. We made a tremendous amount of money. Every week, they’re going to bring you money without fail.

They don’t miss. I said, but they’re men. Don’t treat them like punks. They’re not punks. Treat them like men. What happened was I go to prison within three months. They blew the whole operation. They went after one of my. Because they wouldn’t be bullied, they went after them. They killed one guy, Mike Markowitz. The other guy, they shot him up. He was in a wheelchair, and they shot him up. Somehow he survived. And the best one, a guy that I had a lot of money with personally, David Bogatin, I can mention his name, he ran away.

So within three months, the family destroyed an operation I ran for eight years. And that’s the truth. And, yeah, I suffered for it because I was still getting money at the time. And then that ended. But that’s the life. People, you know, there’s a lot of. A lot of guys don’t handle things the right way, and, you know, they approach things the wrong way, and this is what happens in that life. And then you blow everything. Sad. True story. When I say it, I get mad. All right, so that’s it. The oil is nice and warm now.

And now we’re ready to cook. I can tell this is a good batch. They’re always a good batch. Like I said. My wife’s family, her dad was one of 23, and for years we hosted them, always the whole family, we host them on. And my wife’s one of seven, so we host the entire family on Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve. Now, for all of you that are Italians out there, you know that normally on Christmas Eve, it’s the Night of Fishes, we eat all seafood. But out here in California, it’s different. They don’t like the same kind of seafood that we like, so we didn’t do that.

So we made pasta, we made meatballs. I would make 100, 110 meatballs, and by the end of the night, I had to hide a few so that I could eat them. The next day, they were gone. They loved them. Never tasted anything like it. So that’s it. Let’s see what they look like afterwards. Get to another question. Pizza or pasta? Well, I love pasta. Pasta is number one, obviously. But, you know, I’m in the pizza business, so I love pizza. I think pizza is, like, the number one food in the world, if I’m not mistaken. So I Love pizza.

If it’s good, you know, if it’s good, it’s got to be good. If it’s not good, I don’t like it. Because there’s now so many variations of pizza. I don’t want to mention any of them that I don’t like. But. But pasta, Pasta has to be prepared properly. When I grew up, it was always a meat sauce. And we didn’t call it sauce, we called it gravy. Any Italian from my era, they’ll tell you it was never sauce, it was always gravy because it was thick and it was heavy and it was delicious. We had braciola in there, we had meatballs, we had pork, we had beef.

And we loved the beef and was. It was great. We loved the taste of the meats. But now I’ll never forget. It was probably. I was probably about 20 years old, and my father came home and he says to my mom, he says, tina, I discovered a new sauce. He said, it’s terrific. It’s called with brute bruta sauce. And it was a light sauce that my mother started to make, and it was just delicious. And that’s when we started to call it sauce. We brute was introduced into it. And now my wife, Camille, who happens to be a terrific cook, she makes a feta de pompadoura sauce and all these light sauces that we really like.

I don’t call it gravy anymore. But pasta, when it’s made right, it’s very hard to beat. I mean, there’s so many delicious pastas, delicious variations. But. So that’s my go to food. But of course, we love pizza. Everybody loves pizza. All right, when it comes to hot dogs, what are your favorite places? You can’t beat New York hot dogs. Nathan’s hot dogs. Terrific. So bread, all the corner stands that we used to have, terrific. There was a guy in Brooklyn, he had a hot dog stand right under the, the. The bridge. It was humble, at the Kosciusko Bridge.

It was right under there, near my house at the time. And he was there for 30 some odd years. And we used to go there and have hot dogs every day when we went from Brooklyn into Manhattan. And I’ll never Forget, I’d buy two hot dogs, I’d give them 100 bucks just because he was there for so long. You know what the secret taste of these hot dogs were? It may not sound good, but trust me, it’s good. They never change the water. Never change the water. They add it to the water, but they would never Dump it out and put fresh water in there.

So the water was like beef. It was almost like soup. But the taste of the hot dogs, you can’t beat it. I don’t care where you go, whatever. Between that, the hot dogs at the stand and Nathan’s hot dogs, Absolutely the best. You go to any one of these hot dog guys in the city, right? And you think all these poor vendors, you know what they’ll tell you? They take two months off or three months off in the summer and they go to Greece or they go to Italy. That’s how much money they make. So don’t feel sorry for these guys.

They’re making plenty of money. Because who doesn’t like hot dogs, right? Terrific. Okay. All right. This is a good one. Do you prefer double breasted or single breasted suits? I’m a single breasted guy. Never really like double breasted suits. I don’t know why single breasted for me, but there’s some that look sharp. I used to wear a vest with my single breasted suit. Now, not too much, but single breasts, more classy. Wine is good. Okay, how realistic is the Sopranos? My classic answer is this. If a mob boss was ever visiting a psychiatrist, he’d be in the trunk of his car by the end of the week along with the psychiatrist.

You could never do that. Who knows what he’d be telling a psychiatrist? Immediately, that guy would go, okay, I want to get in trouble with any of this. All right, where’s my. Where’s my utensils? Here they are. Okay, looking good. Now you got to brown the meatballs. Obviously, you got to turn them over so they cook in the middle. There we go. They don’t get brown like this when you cook them in the oven. Some people say, michael, you’re wrong. I’m not wrong. I’m right. They don’t get like this. Trust me. And olive oil has got such a great taste.

I cook them only in olive oil. I don’t use any kind of oil. Any other kind of oil. All right, looking good. I tell you, people, there’s nothing like a good meatball. My wife actually gets missed. She says, why do you always order meatballs? And I said, I can’t help it. It’s part of who I am. Meatballs. I grew up on them. And I always like to see if the restaurant is doing it right. But like I said, maybe in the last three or four years, that’s when meatballs really started to be prepared properly. In all these restaurants before that, I would never eat A meatball in a restaurant.

I was spoiled. All right, I’ll tell you another thing. When I see a meatball perfectly round, I get a little suspicious. I mean, there are balls, but they gotta. You know, if they’re perfectly round, sometimes that means that they’re using breadcrumbs. They’re not really soft in the middle. These look great. All right, people, I know the holidays are coming up, and we have a special deal working on all four of our fruit wines. And like I said, people, they’re in short supply, big demand. They’re flying off the shelves. But you got to try it. You got to bring them home.

You know, you got. You know what’s happening with the wine business. Everybody is running to Italian wines and, you know, wines from Napa Valley. I want to tell you this, Napa Valley is not doing too well. You know why? Because wines like ours, Armenian wines with a story behind it, a great taste at the great. At a great price. You know, people want to branch out and try something differently, and we’re finding that out. Last year, we were in about 400 locations. This year, over 3,000, probably 5,000 by the end of the year. What does that tell you? Tells you that I’m a great salesman, of course.

But not only that, but that the wine is really terrific. And I really mean that. No matter how good you sell something, if the product is not good, it’s not going to last. But these are great, and I’m really, really proud of them. So many people have said, michael, how come you’re not selling Italian wines? Who isn’t selling Italian wines, Right? What’s different there, you know? And I love Italian wine, don’t get me wrong. But this is special and for the price. Can’t beat it. Trust me. Not going to break the bank. You’re going to love it.

You’re going to come back for more. Absolutely. I don’t even have to threaten you on that. And let me tell you something. There is a little bit of a fallacy out there with people thinking that Georgia was the birthplace of wine. Not true. There’s a lot of evidence out there. It’s factual. When I talk about evidence, I know what I’m talking about. Five trials, seven indictments, more parole hearings that you could imagine. I know evidence, and I’ve really researched this because I like to back up what I say. There’s more evidence to show the birthplace of wine.

Armenia. Great story. Noah’s ark. It lands. The flood subsides. Where does it land? The foot of Mount Ararat. For all of you that know this, we know the new civilization started when Noah’s ark landed at the foot of Mount Ararat. What did they do? They immediately went out and they planted grapes. This is the first vineyards. Factual, true, supported by evidence. It wasn’t Georgia, it was Armenia. So you have wines from the. The world’s first civilization, the first birthplace of wine. And of course, the story. What’s the story behind it? Wine is transforming process. Without a doubt, my story, transforming people.

If it wasn’t that God had a different plan and a purpose for my life, I wouldn’t be making meatballs here today. Trust me. I’d be sitting in a prison or, God forbid, something worse. So that’s the story. Try it. What do you got to lose? Going to love it. Trust me. All right, let’s check a little bit more. Getting there. Wait till you see how these look. Now, I have to tell you this, too. My grandmother used to make them. She used to chase us out of the kitchen while she was cooking them because she knew if she turned her back, we’re going to eat them before they even get into the pot of sauce.

Pot of gravy, I should say at that time. She chased us out. She’d have this wooden spoon. She’d bang us with the spoon. Get out of here. Because if she turned her back, she was done. They’re so good outside of the gravy. We call it gravy at that time. Or outside of the sauce. Now, they’re so good. But then you put them in the sauce. Just terrific. Can’t beat it. All right, now I’m going to quiz you. Do you remember the ingredients? What do we have? What’s the secret? Obviously, it’s the bread. Not bread crumbs, the bread.

That’s what makes it moist in the center, plenty of cheese. You can’t over put the cheese in there. Trust me on that. Garlic. The cheese, the garlic and the bread. Those are really the three secrets of making a great meatball. All right? And then, of course, you got parsley, you got good ground beef. Don’t use the 90% ground beef. Use the 80%. You want a little fat in there because the fat is what, you know, gives you the taste. You know, you gotta. You gotta relax a little bit on this, you know, health stuff. You know, you want to.

You don’t want to sacrifice too much taste. Another 10% is not going to kill you with the fat. Trust me on that. Mix it all together and you got a terrific meatball. And I guarantee you you could eat the meat before you cook it. You could eat it. You can get the taste, you know? Taste just as good. All right, I think we’re ready. Let’s try one. All right. Great. You see what I mean? It’s round. Flattens out a little bit in there. Of course. All right, let me. Let me taste it. Oh, yeah, I could tell.

See, you see how it’s nice and moist in the center? Not hard. Nice and moist. Oh, boy. Every time. Never miss people. I can tell you this. I have about seven of them in there. I could eat all seven. I guarantee you. You follow that recipe, you bring people to the house, be coming back for more. Just make extra. They’re going to want to eat them. Wash it down with a little bit of Franzes wine. This is an offer you shouldn’t refuse. People. I’m not charging anything for this. Trust me. You got a deal. So that’s the secret.

I’ve been asked for this for the last 20 years, and this is the first time I’ve revealed it. So the other questions, you may not get an answer. How many guys did I kill? You’re gonna have to wait on that one. That’s number one. Where’s all my money? Someday, people are going to know where all my money is. I can tell you that as I get a little bit older and I get a little less concerned about the government and what they can do to me, we may see some surprises here. And then, where’s Jimmy Hoffa buried? I can tell you this.

They’ll never find his body. That I know for sure, and I had nothing to do with it. But I’ve got some inside information. They will never find Jimmy Hoffa’s body. Don’t let anybody tell you different. With all these scam people that come up and he’s in somebody’s backyard and he’s here, he’s in, you know, the Meadowlands. Not happening. They will never find his body. And don’t ask me why. Let’s go get the other meatballs. All right, now, for some of you, or most of you that may not remember what the recipe is, I want you right now.

Go to franziswine.com and the recipe is going to be posted there for you. Not only am I showing you live, I’m giving you the recipe. And the only thing I want you to do is tell everybody when you make it. This was Michael Franzese’s grandmother’s recipe, and he was nice enough to share it with all of us. And at the same time, bottle a Bottle of wine won’t be cheap. All right, there we go. We got four more. Make some room. All right. All right, Here’s a good question. For those who are new to MAFIA or mob movies, what movie would you recommend to them? You know, I’ve said this consistently over the years and actually made a good friend of the star of that movie because of it.

That the most realistic. Most realistic mob movie ever made, in my opinion, was in 1996 movie entitled Gotti with Armand Assante and Anthony Quinn. Armandesante was absolutely brilliant. Anthony Quinn. There was a scene in that movie where Anthony Quinn comes into John Gotti’s social club or his bar and he talks to him about how he had to save his life because Gotti had killed a maid guy from another crew. And it was true. And it was so realistic the way Anthony Quinn, who played Neil Delacroix at that time, somebody I knew. It was so realistic the way he delivered his lines.

It was so brilliantly done. It gave me the chills, actually. Gave me the chills. Armandesante was brilliant. Everybody was brilliant, but he was. Those two were just brilliant in that movie. And it was very realistic. They. They actually wrote a lot of this script from the surveillance tapes on Gotti at the time. Very realistic. Terrific movie. Now, of course, Goodfellas, great movie. Donnie Brasco, great movie. If you look for the number one movie of all time, it would be Godfather 1 and 2 3, they kind of lost it a bit. But 1 and 2, brilliant, but fictional.

But the closest to reality, 1996. Gotti. Not the new Gotti with the John Travolta. Don’t even bother with that. Was the only film I know that got zero. Rotten Tomatoes got a zero and it deserved it. But Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Casino, another great one. They’re all good. I mean, if you haven’t seen them ladies, they’re a little bit rough. So if you’re not into that. My wife don’t want to watch those movies, neither do my daughters. But. But they were brilliantly done, all of them. When Scorsese does something or some of these great directors and these brilliant actors.

Joe Pesci, I mean, come on. Guy is unbelievably lights up the screen anytime. De Niro is terrific. Pacino, come on. How do you beat these guys? Assante, terrific. So any one of those movies. All right, what’s your favorite city in America? Canada and Europe. You know, in America, my favorite city. Gosh. I mean, I love New York. You got to love Manhattan. It’s got a special. Just a special feeling to it, you know, and it’s my hometown, so I love New York. It’s kind of lost some of it lately with all the crazy leadership that we have going on there.

But it’s an amazing city in Europe. I love London, but Italy, by far, is my favorite place. I love Florence. I love just so many cities in Italy. But all of Europe is so beautiful. You know, coming from the United States, when you go back and you see cities that are 2,000 years old, you. You see some of the architecture, and everything is so beautiful about it, you know, Canada, I love Vancouver. You know, I’ve been there many times. It’s a beautiful city, and. And I love it. So. But, you know, I. I got to tell you this, people.

I have visited every city in America, and many of them multiple times over the past 30 years. I’ve spoken at over 2,000 events, most of them here in the States. I’ve met wonderful people everywhere I go. We have good people in this country. We really do. Good people that work hard, want to raise their families, don’t like a lot of controversy. Good people. And I’ve been welcomed in every city, every single time that I’ve went, and that’s all over the world. But, you know, sometimes we see things, you know, in the news and the media and things get distorted.

There are good people in this country, and that’s why I hope the best for America, because people deserve it. You know, they were carrying. They earn a living. They. They just try to do the right thing. They’re just good people. And America’s a beautiful, beautiful country. Don’t forget that. All right, let me put this here. All right, we’re almost done. A few more and we killed it. There’s more meatballs here than I thought we’d have again. You could try to bake them, but the little olive oil is not going to kill you. I’m telling you, if you want the right taste, that olive oil just finishes it off.

Don’t be afraid. And I’m a healthy guy. You know, I’m surrounded by health people. My wife, my daughters are personal trainers. They taught everything is healthy. They eat vitamins every day. They watch everything that we eat. Sometimes it gets annoying. But even the wine, you know, can’t drink too much wine. I like wine. I grew up on wine, okay? I love it. When I was 10 years old, my grandfather would make it in the basement in Brooklyn. He’d bring it up, put it on the table. We couldn’t say no. We had to drink it. It’s healthy.

It’s good for your blood. It’s good for your brain. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but didn’t kill me. I’m 74 years old. My father died at 103, and all he ever drank was wine. My father didn’t drink anything but wine, nothing else. 103. How do you explain that? And so far, at 74, I’m doing okay. So I’ll keep drinking the win. All right, now that I’m enjoying my meatball, where’s the Open? I’m going to taste the cherry wine. I haven’t had it yet. I’m hearing that it’s good. You know what, people? I won’t lie to you.

If I don’t like it, I would tell you know what? This one’s not for me. Some of you saying, yeah, right, Mike, you wouldn’t do that. No, I would. If I didn’t like it, I would tell you, this one’s really not for me. But. But based upon the other wines that I’ve tasted, I’m going to think that it’s. It’s going to be good. You know, this is something I never thought I’d. I never. I never heard of the fruit wines, honestly, until we introduced them. And obviously there’s some other people doing it. They don’t have the bottles that we have.

Ours are great. But I never thought of fruit wines before because I only drank, you know, the wines that I was used to drinking. Okay, so that’s it. That’s our cherry wine. I can see the color. Look at the difference between the cherry and the strawberry. And, you know, and that’s how it is, really. Strawberries are lighter in texture, and cherries are deep and dark and red. Smells good. Actually, very good. I’m surprised. I’m pleasantly surprised. I like cherries. I’m not, you know, strawberries I love. But pleasantly surprised. It’s very good. People, I gotta tell you, these.

These. These fruit wines are a hit. I really mean it. They really are. I think it’s going to revolutionize the wine business, because what can you. What can you bring in wine that’s new? Think about it. Really. Not much. This is new, and they’re good. I mean, if somebody comes to me with a wine from Italy, okay, great. I’ve had that all my life. Napa Valley. Great. Same thing. France. I’m not big on French wines. I’ll probably be in trouble next time. I try to go to France, but they don’t like us for that. But Italian wines I like.

But what’s new? The same wines, no doubt. And they’re good. Same wines. These are great. I have to say, pleasantly surprised. I like it. All right, we’re finishing it up now. So, people, this is another thing I never thought I’d be doing in my life. Number one, cooking online and number two, sharing my meatball secret. But I guarantee you, you make this for your guests, make it for yourself. Excuse me, your family, they will tell you that there’s nothing better in any restaurant that they’ve ever tried, and that’s for sure. And what more can you make with meatballs? The only thing, like I said, that was missing out of this, you don’t really taste it too much, is the veal.

Veal is hard to get. Chopped veal is hard to get. You’re not going to get it everywhere. But if you can get it, pork, veal, and beef, mix them all together, they’re great. You don’t need the veal, but if you can get it, it better, it enhances the flavor just a little bit. But people won’t miss it if they don’t know about it. Trust me on that. So that’s it. I mean, look, we got a. I’m going to share this with the family. We got some nice few left over here. I’m going to try not to eat them all, but I will have a few more.

Very good. And that’s it. Got a question here. This is a good one. When you were growing up, who was your hero outside of the family? Wow. You know, people, my dad was really my hero growing up. I think after that, Joe Colombo became my hero when my dad went into prison, because he kind of took me under his wing, and it really helped me out a lot. You know, my dad was his underboss. And when Joe Colombo had started the Italian American Civil Rights League, I looked at it as a way to help my father get out of business prison.

And Joey was very good to me back then. As a matter of fact, when we were picketing the FBI on 69th street and 3rd Avenue, we were actually picketing the FBI. I was one of the first ones they called. And that line grew from, you know, 50, 100 people to several thousand people. Well, I was the first one that got arrested off that line. I’ll tell you the story quick. I was carrying a sign, and the sign said, my father was a victim of FBI Gestapo tactics, and he was framed and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

It was a lot to Put on a sign. But I had it right. The cops didn’t like me for that. One day, I’m walking across 3rd Avenue with my mother and my girlfriend at the time. And as I’m walking across, going back to the line, we went and got a cup of coffee. Some guy drove by in a car, a couple of guys in the car. And he yelled out, all you guineas. And, you know, just saying some things that were not. Not, you know, nice for Italians. And I yelled back at the guy, and the cop came over to me and said, stop yelling.

And I said, hey, why don’t you get a hold of him? What are you talking to me like that for? And he said something to me. One word led to another, and he pushed me. And I hold off, and I punched him, and I hit him in the mouth. Well, when I did that, he took out the billy club. A bunch of cops came on me. They started banging me. My mother was screaming, my girlfriend was screaming. And they grabbed a hold of me and they threw me in the paddy wagon, right? Joe Colombo was there, and he got.

He broke the line and told everybody on the line to surround the paddy wagon so they couldn’t take me away. And for about 15 or 20 minutes, maybe even longer, they had me handcuffed in the wagon. Joe Colombo was talking to the cops, talking to the cops. Finally, he came in and he said, hey, Mike, don’t worry about it. They’re going to take you down to the police station. They’re going to book you. He said, but I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about it. So I go down there. They book me and all that. My first arrest.

And then Barry Slotnick, who was the big shot lawyer for the league, Joe Colombo’s lawyer, he came to me and said, mike, don’t worry about it. We’re going to break this down to harassment. Won’t even be a misdemeanor. We’ll get it over. It’ll be a violation. And that’s what happened. So he got me out of it. I mean, hitting a cop, you’re in trouble. That’s an assault charge. But he got me out of it, and he got mad at me after that. He said, you don’t ever raise your hands to the police officer, Michael. He said, you got to be smarter than that.

I said, you know, Joey, tempers were high. Emotions were high back then, but he was like a second dad to me. And I really appreciated that. You know, the. The horrible part of it was we had an Italian American civil rights Day league rally, the second annual rally. We had over 50,000 people there at Columbus Circle, and we had a big stage set up. Sinatra, everybody was going to be there entertaining the picture people. The league had grown immensely. And Joey called me up on the stage. So I went up on the stage and he handed me some brochures and he said to me, michael, go hand these out by Central Park.

And he said, and I want to tell you this, I said, why, Joey? He said, this league is going to get your father out of prison. I said, wow, I got the chills. I was so happy. I turned around, I walked 12 steps away and I hear boom, boom, boom, shots fired. And all of a sudden I turn around, I see Joey go down, and I hear Joey Jr. Yell out, Joey’s been shot. Joey’s been shot. And then a second round of shots because they killed the guy that killed that shot Joey. At that time, it was a devastating moment in my life.

It was kind of very eye opening to me to see somebody I love go down like that. It was actually. It was actually the second time that I lost somebody that I really, really cared for in a. In a tragic way like that. Another guy had gotten shot and brutally, brutally beaten up too. So it was kind of tough, but made an impression on me. But anyway, he was a guy that I. I really loved. He was my hero. Outside of my father, who would you want to interview more than anyone else? Oh, man. I mean, for me, it would start with Jesus, obviously, but he’ll be interviewing me one day, I know that, and I hope I pass.

I think I will. But I think it would be Lucky Luciano or Frank Costello, either of those two. As far as the mob world is concerned, if I. If there was one person that I’d really want to follow, who I said was maybe the perfect mobster wouldn’t be Luciano. Although I had a lot of respect for what he accomplished, it would be Frank Costello. They called him the Prime Minister. He knew how to navigate that life properly. He wasn’t into all the violence. He would. Very capable, don’t get me wrong on. But he knew it was a last resort.

He had great political connections, he was a great business guy. He was really the model that I would like to follow if I was the boss of a family. Of course I love my father, no question about that. My dad was a very charismatic guy, would have been a great boss, no question about it. But the boss that I would emulate, like to emulate, would be Frank Costello. So I love to sit down with him. Pick his brain because, you know, he was through a very exciting era in our life. Because I always tell you, you know, the golden years of Mafia in this country, really, from the mid-40s right up until the mid-80s when they started with the racketeering act and all of that, those were the golden years of Cosa Nostra in America.

And Costello is really at the. At the apex of that at one point in time. All right, my friends, we’re going to wrap it up. I’m going to take one more taste of this cherry wine. Really good. Look at the color of that. That’s a cherry for sure. So two things. If you want the recipe for the meatballs, go to franzesewine.com at the same time, get your fruit wines. We’re gonna have a holiday special. They’re gonna go fast. They’re a limited quantity, limited supply. And I guarantee not only are you gonna like them, but your guests are gonna like them.

You know, with the holidays are all about family and friends and bringing new people into the house. That’s what it’s all about. They’re going to Love these wines. Franziswine.com get them while you can. I’m telling you, they’re going to go fast. That’s it. Offer you shouldn’t refuse. God bless each and every one of you. Enjoy the meatballs while you’re enjoying our wine. Salud.
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