OUTTAKE #9, Make a Little Something Out of Nothing

The Buffalo/Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau informs us that Buffalo Chicken Wings were invented on Saturday, March 4, 1964, by Teressa Bellisimo, at The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention: a horde of hungry teenagers had accompanied her son to the family establishment, and there were a lot of chicken wings hanging around waiting to be discarded. Before this momentous date at The Anchor Bar, chicken wings had been considered a waste product. Ms. Bellisimo deep-fried the chicken wings, smothered them in a spicy sauce, and served them with celery and blue cheese. And a culinary star was born. The Anchor Bar has become world famous and still sells more than a thousand pounds of chicken wings each day. The National Buffalo Wing Festival was started in 2002 in order to celebrate the contributions of the Buffalo Chicken Wing to culinary history. More than 329,000 people flocked to Buffalo during the first seven festivals, where they consumed more than 110 tons of chicken wings (approximately 2 million wings) more than $105,000 was raised for charity.