Sachem Grad Hosts "Tasty Tuesday" Cooking Segment on Fox News Affiliate in Beaumont, TX

When stereotypical New Yorkers head south and open their mouths things can quickly go sour. Luckily for AJ Micucci his "brash bravado" as he calls it, has landed him a sweet gig as the host of "Tasty Tuesday" on the Fox affiliate in Beaumont, TX. 

A photojournalist at the station, Micucci, who grew up in Holbrook and graduated from Sachem in 2001, steps on camera every other week with chief meteorologist Dana Melancon and cooks meals mainly associated with New York culture like his Christmas meatballs in June, sausage and peppers or Chicken Cacciatore a la Linda, which he named after his mother, who he calls, "a saint."

There's one meal that caught many off guard. Micucci's BBQ ribs, something southern America needs no lesson in preparing, came out fantastic – at least that's what Melancon said after he tasted them on camera. The catch is that the ribs were cooked in a crock-pot.

"Here's your mind," Micucci told Melancon, "now your mind is all the way to the back of the screen," insinuating that he blew his mind with that recipe.

"You don't come from New York and tell people here how to make ribs," he said," but I did it."

Micucci often comes to the studio with food he cooks from home. His boss coupled the good food with a catchy personality and suggested he take his act to the screen. It worked.

"I go out there without a remote clue of what to say," said Micucci. "If you watch them, I say some strange stuff. People get a kick out of it. I'm not trying to be Emeril Lagasse. I'm just hoping someone sees it."

A graduate of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, Micucci, now 27, hopes for a job in radio, but television is paying the bills now. He took the first job that came along after graduation and started as low man on the totem pole.

He interned at the Howard Stern Show and watched in amazement as naked women poured in and out of the studio or crazy stunts that caused even the insane Sal Governale – a Sachem grad – and Richard Christy to vomit.

RELATED: Sachem's Sal Governale is hysterical on Howard Stern

"Listening to that all day long and being able to see it everyday for six months, I couldn't describe to you what that was like," he said. "That internship was so important to me."

Micucci started as a production assistant at Fox, was promoted to graphics three months later and eventually to his current position as a cameraman, where he is out on the hot streets of Beaumont all day. The city is about an hour from Houston and 35 minutes from Louisiana.

For a kid that was mainly known for playing soccer on the fields of Sachem – the team lost in the state finals his senior year – his world has certainly taken a 360 degree turn. Guys like Micucci, though, are perfect for that out-of-this-world scenario and it doesn't get wilder than cooking ribs as a Long Island native on Texas television.