Two Hollywood firefighters —usually known for fighting fires and saving lives —are also cooking up some delicious meals to serve their community. The duo from Fire Station Number Five is getting quite the reputation at the firehouse, as they are feeling the heat in the kitchen when it comes t o cooking for their colleagues. “This is the best job in the department. I get to come in and cook for these guys. I’ve been in the kitchen my whole life,” said Michael Donadio. Donadio, one of the fire truck drivers, goes all out, whipping up meals and feeding his crewmates lunch and dinner every day. But he’s not alone. He gets some help from his sous chef, Perry Colato. “So at our station, Station Five, we’re downtown, we have 13 guys every day, sometimes we have a lot of big eaters, so we gotta make sure we have enough food for everybody,” said Colato. 7News cameras captured Donadio explaining the process of cooking one of his meals. Those at the fire station say he comes up with amazing meals every day, but he said that he uses recipes passed down by his fellow firefighters. “We call them Hollywood staples. They’re meals that had just been made forever and tweaked by the drivers over the years,” said Donadio Their meal-making process is something they review every day. It all begins with money collection. Firefighters line up at the start of the day to pay the duo for the day’s meals. Then they travel to the store, going aisle by aisle to find ingredients, making sure they get everything on the list. As soon as they’ve checked out, they head back to the station and hit the kitchen. The duo stops at nothing to make a hearty meal, unless they’re called to respond and serve the people. “One of the challenges is that you never know when you’ll get a call, so we always try to cook with purpose and have lunch at a reasonable time every day,” said Donadio. The lunch for the day was a smoked picanha steak sandwich with arugula, roasted red peppers, homemade chimichurri, and garlic parmesan fries. “I think we’re ready for a Bite with Belkys, what do you think, Belkys?” said Donadio. “Bon Appétit,” said Colato. While the food tastes great, the camaraderie between the fire crew after a hard day’s work is even better. “Good food, it’s quality time, we’re all in the kitchen helping each other out, and we get to joke around, laugh, and kinda forget that we’re here, and that we’re together, just remember that we’re together,” said Donadio. The duo said this meal prep is just a glimpse of what happens at every fire rescue station across Hollywood when it comes to feeding the crews. ...read more read less