“These Guys Can Eat”: Jay Leno Cooks and Serves LA Firefighters $21k Worth of Ribs, Chicken, and Sides [WATCH]

Thanking the firefighters in the Los Angeles area for all they have done to try and contain the disastrous wildfires raging in the area, television star Jay Leno served them tens of thousands of dollars worth of food, namely ribs, chicken, and sides. Making the incident all the cooler was that he cooked the food himself.

Such is what Leno shared when he joined Andrew Cuomo on his NewsNation show on Tuesday, January 14. During that appearance on the hit show, the late-night talk show host described to Mr. Cuomo how he started doing it as a small thing, just “cooking up for the guys and giving them a hot meal” as they fought fires.

Continuing, he joked that though it started as a small thing, it rapidly grew in size as a project because of how much the firefighters, hungry as they were from days spent battling fires in the burning outdoors, could eat. He said, “My God, these guys can eat. They went through the whole thing. We need more food.”

Joking about their massive appetites and needing to restock on supplies just to have enough to feed those who came over for a meal, he said there were numerous trips to the grocery store just for cooking for the firefighters, saying, “So we got more food today. Got more food tomorrow, more food Thursday.” The total bill ended up being around $21,000.

Leno went on to describe the massive operation involved in fighting the fires as a “military base,” given the massive number of personnel and the huge amount of equipment, from planes dropping fire retardant chemicals to firetrucks, involved in the attempt to combat the wildfires. Additionally, he praised the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is the “best fire department in the world.”

Then, turning from praising the firefighters to describing the scene on the ground, he noted that Malibu went from being heaven to being a charred, hellish wreck. He told Cuomo, “Everybody thinks Malibu is heaven, but you have heaven and hell, literally, on the same street. Over here, there’s nothing, and over here, it’s just the chimneys that are standing.” He added, “Even in a warzone, you see buildings and walls. Everything is gone.”

Further, Leno commented on how neighbors came together to rebuild and care for each other in the wake of the highly destructive fires ripping through their neighborhoods, saying, “It doesn’t matter what sign you have on your lawn. You know, it’s come down to neighbors caring for one another.” He added, “I haven’t heard one political opinion. I just heard people [ask], ‘How can we save this?’”

On the same note, he praised James Woods, the conservative actor who, commenting on the Pacific Palisades disaster, slammed the LA Fire Department for “promoting diversity” over firefighting, saying that Woods is a “good friend of mine.” He added, “We’re probably on opposite sides politically, but I love the guy ’cause he’s smart.” Watch Leno here:

Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video