If cooking up a barbecue for a gathering of 20 or so friends and family seems daunting — it’s a drop in the bucket for the volunteers who’ve been working for months to prepare for Saturday’s 58th Annual Cutchogue Fire Department Chicken Barbecue.
Members of the United Fire Company #1 have been working all week, with preparations beginning months in advance, said John Lademann, who has served on the pit committee for 52 years and headed the committee up for the past eight; this year will mark his 55th year working at the barbecue.
The logisitics of orchestrating the event are daunting: Over 3500 chicken halves will be cooked, on 5000 lbs. of charcoal, along with 8000 ears of corn and close to 1800 lbs. of potato salad served, he said.
On Friday, a table of volunteers was slicing cucumbers, while others helped to whip up six huge batches of barbecue sauce.
Lademannn, along with event chairman Matthew Rolle and a sea of volunters ,will mann three rows of barbecue pits for the event.
Volunteer firefighter Kathie Cibulski is the only woman in the firepit, and has been the only female to man the grills since the event began in 1956. All the hard work, she said, is well worth it.
“I really enjoy seeing all of the people having a great time and enjoying a great meal year after year. I feel very priviledged to be the only female that has ever worked in the pits with these amazing guys. They do a great job making sure the chickens are cooked to perfection every year,” she said.
The event begins on Saturday at 4 p.m and runs through 10 p.m. at the Cutchogue Firehouse, located at 260 New Suffolk Road in Cutchogue. At 8 p.m., the fire department band is scheduled to march and play. Tickets are still available and cost $25 at the Firehouse. For additional information, click here.
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