Willow Glen Resident

Community

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Willow Glen native Joe Riolo is one of the founding members of the Italian Men's Club. At age 83, he still loves feeding a large crowd with his homemade pasta sauce and meatball recipes.

Joe Riolo loves his family and cooking for a crowd

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Growing up in Willow Glen during the Great Depression, Joe Riolo picked fruit, served his country overseas, and worked as a mechanic and as a repairman. Through it all, there was always one constant in his life--his cooking.

"Cooking is instinctive for him," says his wife of 59 years, Terry. "He loves feeding large crowds."

The last 30 years of his retirement have been spent in various kitchens throughout San Jose, including the Italian Men's Club.

Riolo is a founding member of the 27-year-old organization located at the San Jose Elks Lodge in Willow Glen on Alma Avenue. The club hosts bingo and dishes out a homecooked dinner to seniors in the surrounding communities every Monday night.

"When I cook and see the people appreciate the food I serve them, it's all worth it," Riolo says. "It's one of the better sauces you'll ever have. Just like my mother and father use to make it--a lot of home recipes and a lot of garlic."

Born into a hardworking family in 1922, Riolo always helped with what he knew best: food.

His father, John Riolo, an immigrant from Sicily, worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad while his mother, Anna, a New Orleans transplant, worked at the Barron Gray Canneries during the summer.

"I cooked for them so that when they would get off of work they had a meal waiting," he says. "I would have stews and anything else I could make ready."

His first attempts at making food for his family to enjoy were on the family's wood-burning stove.

"I tried to cook cookies but they turned out the size of pizzas," he says with a laugh.

By the time the Great Depression hit the country, Riolo's father had retired from the railroad.

"He became a peddler, and I'd go out with him in our Model-T truck to sell vegetables from the side of the road," Riolo says.

The men had a huge responsibility, with seven mouths to feed.

"We did what we could," he says. "If my father made $5 in a single day, that was big money."

To make ends meet, the family would sit together every night and shell a 100-pound sack of walnuts. During the summer, the children would pick fruit in order to pay for their school supplies and clothes.

"We all helped with what we could," Riolo says.

During the wintertime, other things had to be done in order to ensure the family would be fed.

"There were no stores back then so we had to help can the tomatoes," he says. "My dad would make his own wine, and we hung our sardines to dry."

The family also raised their own livestock, including ducks, hares and chickens.

Now, Riolo goes to the kitchen at the men's club every Monday morning to prepare the food he will serve to seniors from the community.

He starts all the sauces and helps the four other men on the cooking line prepare the other dishes. When the two hands meet on the clock above the door at noon, the food is taken out and served in an efficient 20 minutes.

Riolo takes 10 minutes to himself and eats, and then back in the kitchen he goes to prepare for the dinner crowd.

"I like to do it for the people," he says. "I like cooking their style of food."

Peppers, potatoes and onions, polenta, pasta and sausage are all dishes served, but at the club, the reigning dish is the pasta and meatballs.

This tasty meal, served steaming hot, takes Riolo back to his childhood.

"When we were kids, we had pasta for lunch and meatballs for dinner," he says.

At the end of the day, there is only one kind of food Riolo wants.

"Pasta is my favorite food," he says. "Any type--linguini, with sausage, with vegetables, they're all good."