Photos by Jeremy Garretson
In 1979, The New York Times food writer Florence Fabricant wrote an article with a headline that surely raised some eyebrows.
In “When 3,000 People Come for Dinner,” which ran in the Aug. 19, 1979, edition of the Gray Lady, Fabricant told the story of the then-23-year-old August tradition of the Cutchogue Fire Department Chicken Barbecue. At the annual fundraising event, the volunteer fire department sold around — usually over — 3,000 chicken dinners, all prepared and cooked by the village’s firemen and the department’s Ladies Auxiliary group.
Fabricant interviewed the event’s 1958 chairman, Bill Midgley, who detailed the 1957 origins of the barbecue. The department, it seemed, was low on funds, with less than $100 in its coffers. That first chicken barbecue filled them back up, with around 800 attendees in its first year.
The Cutchogue Fire Department is gearing up to host its 67th annual Chicken Barbecue, and while the numbers have gone up, as well as the price — in 1957 it was only $2.50 for half a chicken, potato salad, corn, veggies and ice cream with fresh peaches on top, as opposed to $35 now — the tradition is largely the same. The event is still run by members of the fire department and its Ladies Auxiliary. There’s still good chicken, ice cream with fresh peaches and all the corn you could ever want, served under a big tent. But today, tickets to the Chicken Barbecue sell out so fast that there’s a waiting list.
What made this barbecue such a success? Is it the feeling of camaraderie as the entire department works together to host the biggest barbecue of summer? Is it the secret sauce with a recipe so closely guarded that even Martha Stewart couldn’t get it? Or could it be the fact that there are still folks involved who were there from the very beginning in 1957?
The answer is a little bit of everything.
From Humble Beginnings
The Cutchogue Fire Department Chicken Barbecue — which touts itself as Long Island’s largest chicken barbecue, cooking more than 3,000 chickens each year — is one of several on the East End. And while the Cutchogue event is certainly the biggest, the North Fork and East End are no strangers to a chicken barbecue fundraiser, with Greenport hosting a smaller annual barbecue and Shelter Island denizens fondly recalling a beloved, now-defunct tradition.
“We had never done anything like this before,” says Elizabeth MacNish, a former member of the Ladies Auxiliary who was at the first barbecue in 1957 when her late husband, Richard, was a member of the department. “The women from the auxiliary would cook 50 pounds of potatoes, take it up [to the firehouse] and make the potato salad.”
MacNish, who has lived on the North Fork for 87 years, has seen the event grow and grow.
“I was in it for about 15 years,” she recalls. “Every year more people would come. We figured it had to be pretty good if more people were coming and every year it just continued [to grow]. The main thing was getting together and laughing and working and not realizing you were working because you were having so much fun.”
Like many families, MacNish’s children, including Mark MacNish, the current executive director of Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council, participated in the event as kids, shucking corn and helping out until they got older.
Bill Brewer grew up around the department and by proxy, the barbecue — his father was a member, and his mother was part of the ladies auxiliary. Brewer came up in the department, starting as a junior firefighter and now, after 32 years, is the chief. He recalls attending his first chicken barbecue at just 8 years old.
Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner
One of the long-standing traditions of the barbecue is the chairman role. The chairman oversees the planning, from broad strokes — making sure the chicken and corn are ordered — to minutiae, like seating. For a giant event like this, the idea of chairing sounds daunting. But this year’s chairman, Christian Figurniak, is surprisingly calm about it.
Figurniak is one of three members of the department named as one of the Suffolk Times’ People of the Year because of a daring water rescue that saved the lives of two teenagers from drowning in 2023. As long as the stakes aren’t life or death, Figurniak, who started as a junior firefighter and is now a lieutenant, is taking the role in stride. “The planning of the event doesn’t change much year to year, thanks to traditions and a lot of members who have been part of it for many years.” Figurniak says.
But despite his confidence, he admits being the chairman of the Cutchogue Fire Department Chicken Barbecue is a badge of honor. There’s a three-year committee consisting of two co-chairmen and a chairman, and the two co-chairs are trained up to be chairman during a three-year cycle.
“It’s a prideful thing to be part of,” says Figurniak. “Hopefully when it’s your turn, you’ll have enough understanding of what goes on or how to run the event. But fortunately, we have a lot of experienced members who will be able to get us through the day. The best part is the day-of. Everyone has the job they’ve been doing for years.”
Pit Masters
Everett “Evie” Glover, who was the chairman in 1974, echoes the sentiment.
“Like [Figurniak] said, everything’s great. You don’t see arguments, nothing. Everyone’s having a good time, and that’s what you want to see. We have a job, and we have a good time doing it.”
Today, a ticket comes with a half-chicken, all-you-can-eat corn, potato salad, tomato and cucumber salad and ice cream with fresh local peaches for dessert, as well as refreshments. It’s essentially the same menu from 1957, but on a much larger scale.
Still, Glover, who has been involved for 60 of the barbecue’s 67 years, has seen the tradition evolve. During the early years, an outside group would come in and cook the chicken, but as the event grew, the department started cooking the chicken by itself due to the large volume needed.
The department now gets the chicken from a food distributor, while the corn and other ingredients come directly from Fox Hollow Farms in Calverton. Around 6,000 to 7,000 ears of corn are picked up the day of the barbecue.
Like the fire department’s structure, which includes junior firefighters and a hierarchy that prioritizes hard work and learning, younger members of the department start out doing the nitty-gritty work for the event.
“What you do during your first one is, you do dishes,” Glover says with a laugh.
“Like many other places, you know, the dirty jobs get done by the newer people,” adds Brewer. “But it doesn’t happen without the help of all 100 of our members.”
Glover’s favorite part of the day: cooking the chicken. The chickens are put on a rack over a charcoal fire for an hour and 20 minutes, where they’re turned over and sauced. They are then put in (clean!) garbage cans lined with tin foil, where more sauce is added.
SECRET SAUCE…AND MARTHA STEWART?
The sauce is, famously, a secret.
The recipe has allegedly never changed, and only a few members of the fire department know its magic ingredients. In an episode of “Martha Stewart Living” from 1998, the culinary legend attended the barbecue in an attempt to get the recipe.
But Stewart clearly didn’t mind not getting it — she enjoyed the barbecue so much that she invited them to cater her company’s clambake. Her sister, the late Laura Plimpton, even had the department cater her wedding.
The segment was such a success that the year following the episode, a family from out of state showed up without tickets to the sold-out barbecue only to be turned away.
“I did her sister’s wedding,” says Glover, who didn’t even know who Stewart was when he made chicken at Plimpton’s wedding. “I’m doing chicken, I’m doing kielbasa, and this lady was standing there watching us. It was Martha Stewart. We had a good time!”
The next year, Stewart’s secretary called Glover and asked if they could host a barbecue for her — coincidentally on the same day as the annual event.
“I says, ‘I’ll tell you right now, I cannot do it!’ ” he recalls with a laugh. “[Her secretary] says, ‘Nobody tells Martha no!’ ”
Flames Keep Burning
The Cutchogue Fire Department Chicken Barbecue is certainly the most high-profile of its kind on the East End, but the Greenport Fire Department hosts a smaller one in August as well. David Nyce, the former mayor of Greenport and now a member of the Greenport Fire Department, is part of the department’s Standard Hose Company 4, which plans the annual barbecue.
“Ours is better. I’ll put that on the record,” Nyce says with a laugh before acknowledging that “we don’t do nearly the volume as [Cutchogue]. We do 1,200 tickets, 600 chickens split in half. It started, initially, as a few companies in the Greenport Fire Department but they gave it up. With Cutchogue it’s the entire department. This is our 48th consecutive year.”
Like Cutchogue, the company sources ingredients locally, including the chicken, which comes from IGA. The dinner comes with a half-chicken, corn on the cob, baked potato, watermelon and a drink, and can also be ordered to go. There’s also, of course, a secret sauce that only four members of the company know how to make.
While the tradition continues to smolder on the North Fork, folks who live a ferry ride away mourn the loss of the Shelter Island Fire Department’s annual chicken barbecue, which hasn’t been held since 2019. In a 2019 Shelter Island Reporter article, “Countdown to annual Chicken Barbecue,” reporter Julie Lane wrote that “it takes 2,000 chicken halves, 70 bushels of corn and 450 pounds of potatoes to feed the hungry Island masses. And for those unable to stay to eat, meals can be prepared to go. The aim is to have enough food for 2,000 people to accommodate some who haven’t pre-purchased tickets.”
Shelter Island’s barbecue hasn’t returned since the pandemic, and it’s a real shame — prior to 2020, it had run for 56 years and was considered a massive tradition on the island.
Cutchogue, though, and others across the East End carry on the flame. Glover, whose grandchildren now help out, looks forward to the tradition every year.
“You see people you haven’t seen in a while,” he says smiling. “It’s just a fun time.”
