In this video, Greg from DEVOUR POWER meets up with Chef "Cheeto", Owner of Galleria of Merrick in Merrick, New York on Long Island! As Cheeto passionately cooks up his viral GARLIC KNOT SANDWICHES, PHILLY CHEESESTEAK, BURRATA PASTA, BUFFALO CHICKEN PINWHEELS, and more, he tells his story of how Galleria came to be, all while being a family man. We LOVE this hidden gem Italian spot! Who's hungry?
02:53Let's go, baby. All right, so here we're going to make the Philly cheese. Here we got the nice simolina bread. This thing is awesome, bro. I can't tell you how many simolinas we tried before we got to this one, man.
03:06So we got, you know, the Don Cheeto. Because they call me the Don Cheeto here.
03:09I say every single kid when they come to work here, you know, before they do anything, they come and say hello to the Don first. Say, you come pay respect to the Don, okay?
03:18This is provolone. This is a nice grande provolone cheese. No cheap metro deli or some kind of no brand. This is grande. We only use grande products here for our cheeses.
03:30How we run this thing, we're going to put it in the oven. Somebody commented on one of the posts. They're like, hey, man, that oven's dirty. I won't put no sandwiches in there.
03:50And then some other guy right after him was like, dude, that's where all the flavor comes from, you idiot.
03:56All right, so we're going to hit it with a little bit of butter. We have the cheesesteak. It's all made this morning.
04:01Got some of these onions in here. We're going to throw some onions in there. Caramelize it down real well.
04:08The provolone cheese whiz that I make is very creamy. My dad started the place back in 83, one storefront.
04:18We made, like, barely anything, you know, the basic stuff from back in the day. And then bought the location next door, which was a beauty parlor, turned it into a sit-down restaurant.
04:25And then you had the pizza size, which was more casual. And then in the 2000s, we opened it up and made it one big place.
04:32Unfortunately, my father passed away a few years ago. I took it over five years ago, and I started changing things up.
04:38So it was always a family business. So we got the filling nice and toasted. I like it a little toasty. Some people say this is too toasted.
04:44You know what? I don't give a . I like it nice and crunchy.
04:52So we got the cheesesteak on there. We got the cheese sauce, right? Drizzle, drizzle. Sweet, sweet!
04:58Some coarse black pep. A little bit of parsley. This is how we serve it, you know?
05:02And then we throw a couple more little onions on it to make it look pretty, pretty.
05:06If you just stay, like, happy and positive, man.
05:09You know, the restaurant business is tough, but, like, dude, staying happy, being nice to everybody.
05:13Being negative is never going to get you anywhere in life, bro.
05:15So we're going to cut it.
05:19And then we're going to put a little cheese sauce on the side.
05:21Bingo, bango, slango, mango.
05:24Craig, eat the out of it, bro.
05:27Don't mind if I do.
05:35This will be my second time eating this cheesesteak.
05:38I remember it being one of the best I've ever had.
05:47Definitely top three.
05:49This is as good as anything they make in Philly.
05:51I'm telling you.
05:54Say hi to Craig.
05:55Hi.
05:56Mommy's going to get you pepperoni pizza.
05:57Daddy will be right back, okay?
05:58Stay right here.
05:59You want to do a spicy rig?
06:00Spicy rigatoni.
06:01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:02100%.
06:03We got the vodka sauce here, right?
06:04Yeah.
06:05Right?
06:06Okay.
06:07So we got Calabrian chiles here.
06:08We're going to have a chicken colored because it gets a chicken colored, too.
06:13Going down, baby.
06:14It's going down, down, baby.
06:16Sneak a peek over there.
06:18Nah, she's shy.
06:19Hey, Lou.
06:21What are you doing?
06:25I love my babies, man.
06:26We're going to cook it.
06:27We're going to heat up the pasta.
06:30I know Greg's got vodka sauce running through his veins.
06:33Right?
06:34We're going to heat it with a healthy amount of Pecorino Romano.
06:41We're going to flip this guy around.
06:46Chicken cutlet.
06:47Throw it on top.
06:49This is grande burrata.
06:50It's only the best.
06:51I love it.
06:52I'm going to heat it with the hot honey here now.
06:55And then we just hit it with a couple of basil leaves.
06:57Stir up some basil.
07:02You got the rich creaminess from that vodka sauce and the burrata.
07:06You got the crunch from that crispy chicken cutlet.
07:08You know, look at that.
07:12You cannot go wrong.
07:13Yeah.
07:14So we have these crusts that we prep in the morning.
07:17We have them all ready to go.
07:18So I got this burger seasoning that we put together here for the ground beef.
07:23How many languages do you speak, Cheeto?
07:28I speak three.
07:29Three languages.
07:30Well, both my parents are straight off the boat Italian people.
07:32So like my dad didn't speak English.
07:34Growing up in kitchens, except here in the Northeast.
07:36It has a huge population of Hispanics.
07:39And a lot of them work in kitchens.
07:40So I kind of learned that in the, you know, along the way.
07:43We're going to throw some ranch on the bottom here.
07:46All right. This is about done.
07:48Let's go to the front boys.
07:51Grab one of those ladles, bro.
07:53Right here, we're going to hit it with the part skim.
07:55Grande.
07:56Mozzarella.
07:57This is Robin right here.
07:58He's our main pizza guy.
08:00Smile for the camera.
08:02Where's the pot?
08:03The pasta's coming.
08:04My daughter came in here and she's like,
08:06Daddy, I want pepperoni pizza, pasta with broccoli and carrots.
08:09I'm like, all right.
08:10Hi.
08:11How are you?
08:12Got some bacon here.
08:14Nice crispy bake.
08:16So believe it or not, I mean, I'm the pizza guy, right?
08:18But like, when it comes to stretching the dough,
08:20these guys are better at it.
08:21They do this all day long.
08:23The burger pizza's coming out right now?
08:24Yep.
08:25This is Lulu.
08:26Lou, what do you think?
08:27Do you like cheeseburger pizza?
08:28No.
08:29No.
08:30No?
08:31Oh, great.
08:32There we go.
08:33Bread and butter pickles.
08:34We got the chives right here.
08:35Chive it out.
08:36And here we go.
08:37Here we go.
08:38We got the burger pizza.
08:39Can I see?
08:40Whoa!
08:41Whoa!
08:42Whoa!
08:43Whoa!
08:44Whoa!
08:45Whoa!
08:46Perfect.
08:47Perfect.
08:49Perfect.
08:50Perfect.
08:51Perfect.
09:17perfection making a margarita so we got some fresh pecorino and we got the extra virgin olive oil
09:28here fresh moz all right this is the sauce that we use for the margarita house made sauce it's
09:37very delicious a little bit of rake white pepper then we hit with the extra virgin olive oil wait
09:48hold on here put it on there we go you got it
09:57greg you're a professional at this put it in the oven listen greg if you ever get out of the uh
10:01social media business you listen well no fired fired fired fired we don't put it on with the
10:06tray let's see if tic tac goes away
10:13so we got the margarita nice and toasty toasty look at that on the carriage crispy pizza
10:22cutting six here
10:27let me hit it with basil some whole leaves
10:32a bit of pecorino more here a little more pecorino
10:35our version of the margarita pizza
10:40i mean look at the size of this margarita slice too
10:43it's so good all right so here we got some chicken collets that we fried up we're going to chop these up in little little pieces
11:02right next to you're going to see a bowl of buffalo sauce thank you we're going to scoop these guys in
11:09here
11:11little homemade chicken stock in here loosen it up
11:21Molina, some Molina roll, take some extra virgin olive oil, throw it in the oven, toast
11:36it up.
11:37Chunky vodka sauce here, little pecorino, the essence of life, some fire.
11:46What are we making right now?
11:48We are making the chicken vodka burrata hero with pesto.
11:52Here we got a homemade pesto, so we got chicken collets here, we're gonna throw them in the
11:57sauce.
11:58Saucy!
11:59A nice toasty toasty, some people call it a hoagie, a sub, on Long Island we call it hero.
12:10We got the grande burrata, there we go, perfect.
12:13We got the homemade pesto right here.
12:19Good boy!
12:20Take me out to dinner.
12:22The extra virgin.
12:23I'm gonna cut this bad boy in half.
12:26Hey!
12:27What's up, Dave?
12:28How you doing?
12:29What I've learned in the past few years, five years, whatever, my whole life, is that look
12:40for the good, be kind to people, you never know what people are going through.
12:48It's about love, right?
12:49So I love my family, I love what I do, I love the people that work around me, I love cooking,
12:55I love making people happy.
12:57That's the most important thing, right, is people come in and they're happy, that makes
12:59me happy.
13:00You know, I have it posted in the front wall over there, the secret ingredient is love.
13:04Because it is.
13:05And it works.
13:06We're just always spreading the love here in America.
13:09Let's freaking go baby, let's freaking go!
13:21beautifulé!
13:22What'd I fuck you!
13:26I, what's here?
13:32Like I found a tough one, the ass ah, پ ça route!
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