Homegrown Chef Keith Luce Launches The Square Memorial Weekend on the East End's North Fork

It’s a trifecta of races. 

No, it’s not the ponies. Or the Roses.

Rather a confluence of a few East End "culinary races."

First is the official launch of the summer season starting with the bugle call of Memorial Day Weekend.

(Isn’t that a contradiction of terms - where “Day” has morphed/slashed into “Weekend” – even as part of the moniker?)

Then there is the race to get the beaches and resorts of Long Island hit by Superstorm Sandy ready – or the “new” ready – for summer.

This season finds Chef Keith Luce is once again racing against time.

His latest sprint is to officially launch The Square, his culinary destination on the North Fork. 

When I researched additional locavore chefs for an expanded manuscript for my book, the now recently-released book, “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook,” I was already impressed with Chef Keith Luce’s farm to table knowledge and practices.

When it came time to interview Chef Keith, frankly speaking, he was reeling; coming off a grueling, boot-camp of sorts – in order to get his Jedediah Hawkins Inn successfully opened with the help of his father, family -- and his agricultural heritage.

After all his family has been farming the North Fork since the 1600’s. 

And that number also figured into Chef Keith’s pedigree -- as he was a White House chef in the Clinton Administration: with food deliveries going to – 1600  -- on Pennsylvania Avenue, that is.

There seems to be no coincidences in this chef’s repertoire.

Now, this homegrown native son is doing the same deadline-dance to successfully open all but one of his four distinctive venues this weekend in Greenport’s Stirling Square.  

And the final race was his innovative dash to raise funds for the addition to his family’s farm via Kickstarter.

Crowd Funding sure to be a crowd pleaser

Within just two months, Chef Keith raised approximately 52K to jump-start his North Fork Market Artisan Curing initiative.

His Kickstarter request was described as “True farm to tale artisan products with a focus on cured meats from humanely raised animals being raised on my family farm.”

Chef Keith’s successful Kickstarter appeal http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chefkeithluce/love-lane-market-artisan-curing?ref=live details the story behind his funding to build a stronger food network for the free-ranging, fairly rare, heritage Mangalitsa pigs that Chef Keith had been raising on the family’s six-acre farm.

The Kickstarter campaign raised funds to build a smokehouse, a meat curing and aging room, buying grinders and salumi supplies.

The pigs are too cute.  

Appropriately native to Hungary (ha!) these Mangelitsa pigs are too glamorous! Photo courtesy of The Food Network

Farmer Luce knows a thing or two about farming and sustainability and feeds the glamorous, curly-haired porcines (resist the Miss Piggy references!) an equal dose of kitchen extras from the restaurants and food remnants from local artisanal growers.  

Chef, Farmer, Grower, Keith Luce

Chef Keith even used glamorous hazelnuts as mulch in his Hawkins and Luce kitchen garden!  I couldn't take my eyes off the tawny look. 

Jedediah Hawkins Inn

The homegrown salumi is a remarkable, dream-come-true for many area foodies and restaurateurs. 

Perhaps Chef Keith will be able to provide finished meats to other local food aficionados…

The East End surely needed a homegrown salumi and charcuterie like this – capturing the clean, rich, marbled pork of the Mangelitsa plus the added delicious, delight of locally-raised animals, to produce a premium taste.

Place matters.

It’s why I advocate for “Taste Tourism.” 

Food should taste different depending on the culinary bounty of a certain area. The waters and soil create flavors unique to a region.  

The terroir and meroir of Long Island provide rapturous, special flavors simply not found anywhere else.

There is no disagreeing that the goddess of gourmet waved her culinary magic wand over the food treasures to be discovered on the Two Forks.  

Just to be certain, take a look at Chef Keith’s farm and taste his treats at The Square. 

Go ahead.  

Experience a culinary adventure.

X Marks The Square

When asked why he moved from Jedediah Hawkins Inn, Chef Keith noted his business decision to move to Greenport and provide a year-round culinary destination with partners who shared his vision.

Along with his wife, Marta and new partners, Scott and Veronica Hunzinger and Jason and Kara Graves, whose collective experience includes expertise in finance, marketing and business development, the team and their newly incorporated NoFo Hospitality Holding LLC will work to realize this James Beard award-winning chef’s big dreams.

The Greenport historic Stirling Square property includes four distinctive venues at the site of the former North Fork Oyster Company on the corner of Bay and Main Streets:

Main on the Square

•    MAIN, a full service restaurant in the space formerly occupied by the North Fork Oyster Company. The year-round restaurant features farm-to-table ingredients and signature menu items including General Luce’s Duck Wraps, the NoFo Cobb Salad along with house-made pastas, fresh oysters, as well as seafood boils and bakes  

•    NOSH, a “caffeinery” and small treat shop offering a range of beverages along with savory and sweet goods, snacks and ice cream

•    PREP, The Square’s take on “street food” offers flatbreads fresh from a wood-burning oven, cured meats, and more. Visitors can also watch the chefs prepare pastas, baked goods, ice cream and other culinary offerings while they wait  

Widowmaker Flatbread: Duck confit, farm egg

•    MEET, a unique tasting room for sampling interesting NY-produced beer, wine and spirits, shopping for packaged and canned goods from neighboring farms, participating in cooking or food and beverage pairing classes, or even enjoying low-key acoustic musical performances * to open soon

Chef Keith notes that he will source ingredients locally – from his family farm to the on-site garden that he is working on.

Oysters – which play a big part of the menu – Main claims to “strive to serve all five species of oysters from Crassostrea Virginica to Ostrea Edulis to Crassostrea Gigas – begs for Karen Rivera’s Peconic Pearls www.peconicpearl.org/ locally grown oysters – (Karen – please call chef!).  

Karen and her Peconic Pearls are also featured in The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook because she is cited as a grower who inspires the local chefs.

“This is a restaurant that is decidedly more casual than the Inn,” said Chef Keith.  ‘It’s a take on American comfort food – with a twist.” 

House Made Flatbread & Sandwiches

Chef notes there will be mac n’ cheese, for example but made with his own extruded pasta.  

He’ll do his lobster with corn and oyster chowder.  And then there is the new take or remake on his shrimp and lobster meatballs turning the dish into a shrimp and lobster corn dogs!

Sort of a “food folly” for the fun and easy days of summer.

The Main menu offers Daily specials from meatless Monday’s to Baymen’s Stew to homemade ravioli.  

The Square is a food destination.  

Think of it is a European kind of food market village of sorts. The Square is comprised of stand-alone bungalows that house unique food offerings. La Dolce Vita!

And of course The Square offers local drink from the area’s best Long Island wineries and beer and spirit makers. 

Let’s hear it for LiV Spirits, http://www.lispirits.com/home.html  Long Island’s First Craft Distillery and the finest homegrown potato vodka.  Plus Sorbetta made with locally grown berries from SEPS farm, and the Island’s first, single-malt, scotch-style whiskey, “Pine Barrens.” (This is another, entire, locally Homegrown story!)  Don’t wait – buy and enjoy the Pine Barrens and the story will follow.

And the family-owned Paumanok Vineyards, also featured in the Homegrown Cookbook, produces the best Chenin Blanc (if you can even get a bottle of this award-winning wine) to go with the local oysters: it’s all in the unparalleled Long Island terroir and meroir that give the meals here a true “taste of place.” 

www.paumanok.com in Auquebogue. 631-722-8800.

For a full story of Chef Keith Luce and his Homegrown Long Island agriculture roots, get your copy of: The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/Hamptons-Long-Island-Homegrown-Cookbook/dp/0760337578 or http://tiny.cc/g9ihbw

http://tiny.cc/pijhbw

http://www.indiebound.org/indie-bookstore-finder

Send me your address and I’ll send you an autograph plate from me, the author – and I bet we can get chef Keith to sign too!

The Square is open seven days a week. For hours, directions, menus, live music schedule, special events planning, and reservations (for MAIN), go to www.nofosquare.com.

Ken Druse "Real Dirt" Interview episode with me for Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook

It was a double header for me on December 17^th. 

Perhaps a better turn of phrase and a more seasonal reference is to say I got two gifts in one on that Monday before Christmas.

First up was the taped interview with Ken Druse at 9 am.

Ken is a world-class, passionate, garden star.

His bio says it best: He is nationally known as a garden expert, and with the huge success of his six titles -- The Natural Garden, The Natural Shade Garden, The Natural Habitat Garden, The Collector's Garden, and Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation, and Natural Companions  -- is America's best-loved gardener.

I am proud to say I own and reference – and revere – all of Ken’s books. They are signed by him too as I have been privileged to learn from his lectures and talks – and those happy educational forays are most often accompanied by a book signing. 

So it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to being a guest on his radio podcast show. 

Well, truth be told, I picked up the phone at our scheduled time but due to multi-tasking, getting ready for that afternoon’s Homegrown book talk and book signing at the United Way of Greater Mercer County at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, I ask “Who is this?” after Ken’s good morning greeting.  Lucky for me, Ken is a bulletproof Jersey & Brooklyn force of nature and didn’t hold it against me. 

We got right to work.

However, it’s not really “work” when we both get to talk about our favorite things: plants and edibles and food and wine. 

So, Ken directed the interview and well, just like that, he said the 20 -- or was it 30? –minutes were up. 

There was the hearty thank you and sign off.  Ken said he’d be editing the interview and let me know when he posted it. 

Ken emailed that he thought I’d like it. I wrote back that I like most everything he does...

But it was with great anticipation amidst all the holiday hullabaloo that I looked forward to hearing the Homegrown interview. 

I posted it straight away to the book’s Facebook page.

This is the first chance I’ve had to post to the Master Chef & Their Gardens blog.

Below is the text from Ken’s Real Dirt page.  

I’ve posted the link to his “Ken Druse Real Dirt” garden podcast http://kendruse.typepad.com/ken_drusereal_dirt/

And to his MP3 File.  You can also subscribe and listen on your iPod via iTunes.


MP3 File

From Real Dirt:     

Long Island has rich sandy soil and gorgeous weather with long languid autumns that often do not end until December. For decades, this was farm country, and the number one crop was potato.

(Biodynamic farmer Kathy Keller with chef Robby Beaver of The Frisky Oyster,

Towns on the south fork of the east end of Long Island, NY, are often collectively referred to as “The Hamptons,” today, and are among the top vacation spots in the Country. And as for farms, many are still there, but the crops have diversified to serve weekenders and the restaurants they frequent -- many of which have become world famous.

Nick and Toni’s, Loaves & Fishes, The Frisky Oyster are but three of 27 establishments profiled in Leeann Lavin’s new book: The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook about locavore chefs and their connection to the land, the sea and the artisanal growers who inspire them. Leeann said, 
     “[It’s about] the respect and reverence the chef & farmer have for each other, their work and passion, and the respect and reverence they have for the land.”

     “Long Island is still recognized as the most productive farming area in New York State,” said Leeann. She profiles the growers on the north and south fork of Long Island and the chefs who are inspired by their produce. The book is filled with signature recipes from the featured restaurants.  The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook is a tribute to the farms, gardens, vineyards and waterways on Long Island. Leeann honors the chefs who are bringing the local homegrown harvest to food-obsessed patrons and in doing so support local farmers and a precious way of life. 
     To learn more, visit Leeann Lavin’s Chefs and Gardens blog.
 


The Frisky Oyster’s Roasted Baby Beet Salad with Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese


makes 4 salads


for the beets…


10 baby red beets


10 baby golden beets


10 baby candy stripe beets


1 bunch fresh thyme


2 cups balsamic vinegar


1 cup extra virgin olive oil


for the plating…
roasted baby beets, baby arugula - best fresh from a local organic farm
½ cup sherry vinaigrette
4 slices of Humboldt Fog goat’s milk cheese or your favorite goat’s milk cheese
1 cup salted pistachios

Place the beets, thyme, oil and vinegar in a baking dish and cover with aluminum foil.


Bake at 375 until a toothpick or knife slides into and out of the beets with little resistance.


Uncover and allow to cool in the cooking liquid, then refrigerate for several hours or until cold.


Remove the beets from the liquid and peel each one, removing any peel around the stem end.

Cut them in half and set them aside.
 


for the pistachios…
1 cup pistachios, raw
1Tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
 


Place the pistachios on a baking sheet and put in the 375 oven to toast for 8-10 minutes.


While they are cooking, place a small sauté pan on a high flame to allow to get hot.


Add the tbsp of butter and swirl, remove from the heat and reserve for the nuts.


When the pistachios are done, place them in a mixing bowl, add the brown butter, salt and sugar and toss to evenly coat.


Set the nuts aside and allow to cool to room temperature.
 


for the sherry vinaigrette…


2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 fl oz dry sherry
5 fl oz sherry vinegar
1 cup canola or neutral salad oil
½ cup pure olive oil
3 Tbsp walnut oil
salt and fresh black pepper to taste
 
Place all ingredients except the oils in a blender and process on high.
slowly stream in the oils, one at a time until the vinaigrette is smooth.
season to taste with salt and pepper to your liking.

Thank you, Ken. 

And of course, thank you to all the Homegrown chefs and their inspired growers and artisanal food makers. 

Please Like the Homegrown book on Facebook.

"Like"but really Love :) the Homegrown book at:The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hamptons-Long-Island-Homegrown-Cookbook/243786535729628?ref=hl