East End Sag Harbor News Hails The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook

Homegrown Hamptons: Where Farmers and Chefs Rule

By Annette Hinkle

In post W.W.II America, cuisine became largely about convenience in the form of packaged ingredients frozen in time and shipped from miles away. This was often as true for restaurants as it was in home kitchens.

But the last decade or two has breathed new life into old ways of cooking — reviving the European tradition of eating local. The East End is a center of the burgeoning Slow Food movement. Young farmers have reclaimed the fields, offering more diverse crops than ever and chefs have formed a tight alliance with those growers — ensuring menus are fresh, seasonal and above all … local.

In her new book, “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook” Leeann Lavin focuses on the stories of South Fork, North Fork and Shelter Island chefs, highlighting their close relationship with specific farmers. The book also features recipes from using the bounty of the East End from places like The American Hotel, Southfork Kitchen, 1770 House and Vine Street Café and their partners at Pike Farms, Mecox Bay Dairy, Balsam Farms and others.

While the linking of chefs and farmers is a unique format for a book, for Lavin, a garden designer who loves to cook, it came naturally.

“I feel gardens are so inspiring to everyone, especially artists —including culinary artists who use the bounty of the garden in their artwork — so I started with that as the underlying foundation,” explains Lavin. “It seems today locavore is everywhere, but in 2002 when I started putting this together, that wasn’t popular. I wanted to find the chefs that don’t just call the purveyor and get it.”

Leeann Lavin

And Lavin soon realized local growers weren’t just raising fruits and vegetables — they were also making honey, harvesting oysters or producing cheese — all of which was finding its way onto the menus of chefs who were tuned into what was happening on the East End.

“Throughout the book I wanted to communicate how a chef has a special relationship with their growers and how both have a relationship with the land and the water. The picture tells the story — how much they embrace the land and love it.”

That’s certainly true for Jason Weiner of Almond in Bridgehampton. Before coming to the East End, Weiner worked on the West Coast, which is known for embracing the locavore movement. But when he opened Almond out here 12 years ago, the term took on a whole new meaning.

“My mind was blown. I’m in a situation where I’m watching leeks come out of the ground and using tomatoes out of the field that day,” says Weiner. “It was a new experience. I had worked in San Francisco where products came from Napa to our door, but there was a middle man. This was a direct relationship with growers.”

It was a relationship Weiner first saw in the late ‘90s at Nick & Toni’s where he worked alongside the late Jeff Salaway — a vanguard in using local ingredients, many sourced from the restaurant’s own kitchen.

“We had our own plot behind the parking lot, which is amazing,” adds Weiner. “The thing about the Hamptons, as much as it’s a playground for the rich and famous, the farming and fishing community remains today. It’s really important to support that.”

Weiner and his partners Eric Lemonides and Antonio Rappazzo, who also have a New York City branch of Almond, are scheduled to open a second restaurant there this week — L&W Oyster Company on Fifth Avenue. There’s a good chance diners will soon be eating potatoes from the Falkowskis, corn from the Pikes and heirloom tomatoes from Marilee Foster. That’s because Weiner loads up his Prius with produce once a week and drives it into the city himself.

Like Weiner, Bryan Futerman, chef and owner of Foody’s in Water Mill, personally picks up the ingredients he needs each day from local farmers as he drives between his home in Springs and the restaurant.

“I stop off at each one — the fish purveyor for locally caught clams and bass, the Reeves’ farmstands on the highway in Bridgehampton, the Halseys in Water Mill for potatoes, salad corn, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini.”

“It’s become a big trend now, but traditionally chefs have a close relationship with growers and always did. That’s always been the tradition in France,” says Futerman who worked alongside Guy Reuge at the Long Island eatery Mirabelle for six years. “We had a garden with the restaurant — and that was 20 years ago. He had great diversity and amazing ingredients, and a great relationship with the farmers.”

Since that time, not only have restaurant gardens bloomed, so to speak, so has the relationship between chefs and farmers. He notes it’s young farmers committed to staying on the East End that has made the relationship between chef and grower work — just like it did in the old days.

“You have places like Amber Waves growing wheat — we traditionally had that on the East End — they’re so unique in farming that crop and are bringing it to schools,” says Futerman who is active in the Edible Schoolyard programs which have sprouted up all over the East End. “We’ll be planting some wheat at Springs School as part of the curriculum.”

And there’s other new products coming to market, notes Futerman pointing to the seafood, craft brews, cheese and chicken now available locally. It’s a trend he hopes the Slow Food movement will continue to encourage.

“It’s really a privilege to be able to cook for people if they care about it,” adds Futerman. “Some people pay attention and some people don’t. Fortunately out here there is a community of people who pay attention.”

On Saturday, November 10, 2012 Leeann Lavin will speak about her book during a five course Homegrown Dinner at Foody’s (760 Montauk Highway, Water Mill). The dinner is a fundraiser for Slow Food East End. Additional donations will be accepted for Futerman’s Kickstarter campaign to develop a book for Edible Schoolyard programs around the East End. Seatings are at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The cost is $75 ($65 for Slow Food members). Call Foody’s to reserve at 726-3663.

Full, original story here:
http://sagharboronline.com/sagharborexpress/arts/homegrown-hamptons-where-farmers-and-chefs-are-friends-20383

Thank you Annette.

Exploring the bond between Chefs and their Growers

When this time last year, my book, The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook doubled in size, I felt more than determined to single out those chefs -- and the growers who inspire them – who are the thought leaders and “hustlers” for sustainability and local ingredients, to add to the outstanding roster I worked so painstakingly to realize  -- for what was soon to be the “first phase” of the book.

The challenge was finding those chefs and growers now in the less, how shall we say, less celebrated areas of Long Island. Unlike Manhattan – or other big, bright lights/big city locales, along with the Hamptons where, where there was more of the whisperings of the burgeoning food movement’s pursuit of locally-grown and made foodstuffs.

When I started the book concept in 2003, there were far too few of the master chefs who set their teeth on this farm and fine to table approach to the culinary arts. 

For that matter, there are still far too few…

Even in 2007 and ‘08 when I began the interviews, I needed to really hunt and dig and search for potential chef candidates.  Bear in mind there were no online foodie blogs to speak of, nor newsletters lauding the locavores.

Even in Food Heaven, aka New York City.

My list for Gotham began to grow with the chefs who worked quietly and passionately to build and expand the Greenmarkets and fish markets and coordinate resources and deliveries from upstate food sheds.

Michael Anthony: Gramercy Tavern, Peter Hoffman: Savoy and Back Forty, Marc Meyer:  Cookshop and Five Points; Mario Batali: Babbo and Del Posto and...); and Dan Barber, Blue Hill, were on the premiere list of New York City-based master chefs – and who will be featured in the-next in-the-queue Homegrown book.

At that time, very few, if any, chefs had public relations staff.  After researching and searching the internet and news stories and farmers markets, I called the chefs and restaurants straight away.  Sometimes I needed persistence, and other times I needed to cajole in order to convince the chefs of the importance of their leadership and culinary work.  In my experience, most of the Homegrown chefs are quite humble – usually not aware of their impact, as they are so busy crediting and nurturing the growers who inspire them, not to mention their kitchen and restaurant staffs.

I did the interviews live, in the restaurants, with the chefs, recording and writing madly in my notebook, altogether awed to in the presence of such talent and determined drive.

I was extremely honored to have been the first one to interview master chef Dan Barber the day after he was named the James Beard award winner for Best Chef in America.  I was scooting over from the apartment on Fifth Avenue and chef Dan was texting he’d be a bit late

No worries for me, I assured him. 

New York is like that.  Flex time on steroids.

We do so much, and schedules collide.

I got to Blue Hill restaurant and stepping down into the cool dimmed, dining room, noticed the abundant floral arrangements adorning the bar top like a special events tablescape.  It was like the Frank Sinatra ballad, “One for my baby and One for the Road in that the only folks in the place were me, the man cleaning the floor and the woman quietly making order of the phone and operations.   Not long after, she let me know that chef Dan would be arriving soon; he was on the way.  She somewhat conspiratorially shared that he was a tad late because of last night.  Hmmm.  “He won the James Beard award.”  What?? I picked up the NY Times Dining section that I had saved to savor later. (I learned my lesson – I read this Wednesday feature section first, and now I read on Twitter the night before!”)

Soon enough, Dan arrived for the interview.  And you know what, he was so humble; he never even brought up a word about the James Beard award! Why didn’t I?

This remarkable attitude and view toward what it is to be an executive chef and restaurant owner was an inspiring love-at-first-talk/old school manners and humility. 

The fact that these early leaders’ vision was new and filled a need for good locally grown and raised food, in fact, launched an era of inspired attention and passion surrounding food security, and quality and farmer and school children welfare and taste for real honest-to-goodness, homegrown food.

It felt like a tsunami of forces coalescing.

It was exhilarating. To be on the cusp of culinary discovery.

Suddenly it seemed, there were glamorous culinary benefits to raise monies for the greenmarkets, the farmers and the school gardens.

Camera crews were peeking out at the Greenmarket almost as much as the new green shoots were.

TV shows took Julia Child’s on-camera cooking t o new heights of more than cooking. 

Now, cooking shows sprouted up like, well, mushrooms.  Watching chefs cook and compete was a national pastime – not unlike sports.  Top Chef, Master Chefs, Celebrity Chefs – chefs were now rock stars.

There was a palpable thrill.  And I could not wait to showcase and help tell their stories.

It was after completing the nearly 20 NYC-based chef interviews, when I was asked by editor to add in the master chefs of the Hamptons, I thought,

“Why not?"

I soon found myself researching the best of the best on the East End of Long Island and was delighted to discover the half a dozen or so chefs I needed to complete the NYC book.

I learned the Hampton Jitney schedule and the hocus pocus of seeming to wait on otherwise unheralded Manhattan street corners, armed with only what appeared to me as a secret mob-inspired direction like: “Meet up at the corner of Lexington and 38^th “ or Third and 47^th” 

It was a perfectly wonderful way to journey to the land of sea and farms and celebrities though.  And once in Sag Harbor, I landed right across the street from the most charming lodging, recommend to me by Peter Garnham, writer and farmer extraordinaire and my soon-to-be British-born sherpa of all things Hamptons – and a fellow oyster-lover to boot.

The American Hotel was someplace out of Central Casting and it was perfect for me.  The staff there made me feel like I was home from day one.

I’ve written before about how well appointed the place is – like something out of a Ralph Lauren ad.

After greetings and getting the lay of the land there, I quickly unpacked my things, loving the armoire and the big bed and desk – all too perfect for a writer I thought. 

I made my way back downstairs for a dining room lunch – with my Mac – in order to continue writing – and whom do I spot right off the bat?  Billy Joel.

Yes, this is going to my kind of place, I smiled.

I decided that to really appreciate the experience of being there, “in the Hamptons” I would rent a bike to get to my interview appointments, rather than drive around.  This way I could see the landscape, the gardens and the architecture.

I didn’t know until chef Joe Realmuto quizzically (or astoundingly) watched me disembark from the bike at East Hampton’s Nick & Toni’s restaurant and farm out back, and hearing him say, “Did you ride your bike here from Sag Harbor?” that I had the surest feeling that this is not the norm.

“Yes,” I replied.  “Is that crazy?” I added for assurance.  “Well, kinda” he offered.

I was already a bit late, having mis-judged the travel time on bike (I had gotten a bit turned round the day before when chef Michael Rozzi fortuitously happened to be driving with his wife not too far away and he came and picked me up – bike in tow in the back of the SUV for our appointed interview at the Della Femina restaurant.

My next bike trip for the interviews was to the North Fork – via two ferries – to Satur Farms…

Next up:  the adventure trip to North Shore on the bicycle.

The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook Secures Pub Date

I have a date with a warehouse.

Well, in fact, my book does!  

My editor, Melinda, wrote yesterday to say the book “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook is printing the end of March and is scheduled to be in the warehouse here, April 25.

That is music to my ears.

And it’s pretty much spot-on, timing-wise for heralding the spring and summer homegrown edible gardening and farming, and dining season!

To pre-order my book "The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook" at B&N, Amazon:

http://tiny.cc/b435

I also got to “E-Meet” Brenda who is the publisher’s pro and my contact for ordering the book.  It’s my understanding that Brenda will be working with me and the restaurants and farm stands and gift shops to make the book available to homegrown fans and enthusiasts. 

And Melinda wrote last week that they have assigned a public relations expert to work with me locally to get the word out about the book and the amazing master chefs and the farmers who inspire them.

We tightened up the mailing list this week for the growers and farmers and added a few web sites for those artisanal growers who are just putting up a web site.

I am now trying to add the book jacket and the pre-order link to the signature on my email accounts and to my blog.  But boy, is technology wrestling with me. Oooohhh.

But hey, I’ve come through the rings of fire to get to this point so this pesky posting is like a walk in the park.

Culinary Cubs

I am very much looking forward to producing a fascinating cohort of passionate foodies and cooks to test out and try the recipes from the book, prior to publication. 

I am naming my special cooking group, the Culinary Cubs :)   

If you are a foodie and want to be part of the experience, do let me know. 

My plan is to share a recipe or two every week with the Culinary Cubs. 

Everyone will make the dish(es) and then write and or blog about the recipe preparation and the finished dish. 

I’ll publish the unedited feedback here on the Master Chefs blog and will also share a monthly update on my Examiner.com Food & Drink column.

It will be fun and informative! 

And oh-so-delicious. 

It’s getting exciting now.

Cheers.  

The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook layout has arrived!

I have worked on the book for what has long seemed like “forever.”

And then, just like that, the book’s pages land in my inbox.

My amazing editor Melinda dished up the review copy just before she left town for a well-deserved holiday.

I cannot tell you how exciting it is to see the book. 

For too long it was a dream. 

It existed in my head – and in my heart. 

I think I was even afraid to write about the making of the book here in the blog. 

I am too superstitious I know, but it was no coincidence that it seemed every time I did start to chart the amazing, intriguing, funny, against-all-odds story about the process of going from an idea to the bound book, something would change – the goal posts got moved. 

Jinxed.  (More summary on that later)

But now I’m feeling that it is not just a dream.

The book is indeed, at long last, a reality. 

I love telling (and listening to) stories: family stories (I did lots of genealogy research for my own family), funny stories (life!), love stories, and fairy tales and the bedtime stories my father told about the birds and squirrels.

But I especially love telling stories about art and accomplishment and the talented among us who make a difference – those thought leaders and over-achievers who are passionate about making others happy with what they produce. 

The Hamptons & Long Island Cookbook is full of those special art gurus.

In the book, I am so lucky to have been able to profile the stories about the master locavore chefs and the growers who inspire their culinary creations.

The Voyageur Press world-class graphic team has done a heroic job with the design of the book!  I understand the CEO weighs in with his experienced eye and opinion, too. Wow.

All this thoughtful compilation and curating has resulted in a manuscript that visually, is both delicious looking and gorgeously sensual.  The writing is pretty cracker-jack, top notch too, I will say. J  But then again, look who I got to showcase.

The list of master Long Island chefs from my Examiner.com news post for Long Island Restaurant Week:

http://exm.nr/sXVBFg

The process of writing a book like this is that it is a very intimate experience.

The interviews I conducted with the chefs explored their life: their motivations, their loves, their families, their challenges and ultimately the intrinsic, intangible thing that made them challenge the status quo and reach beyond their safe, expected successful world, to create recipes and restaurants that weren’t like the others. 

Sure it was more work. Sure they had to develop food sources that perhaps didn’t exist.

And if they did, they had to be persuaded to work with a chef.  At a time and place that growers eyed chefs and those business margins with less than happy scrutiny. 

The mutual success they now enjoy, built on an abiding, mutual respect is at the core of the book. The book explores the connection to grower and the chef and to the land and sea.

It is an uncompromised, unconditional love.

The growers – from honey farmers to oyster farmers to duck growers and vintners, as well as the mushroom growers and traditional small family vegetable and fruit growers – work harder than anyone but the chefs and their families can know, in order to produce a quality product that is so full of nutrition and flavor and good things – and oh, by the way, it is sustainable and happy -- it is no wonder these sprites of nature bridge the world of growing food and inspire our master chefs.

The stories have just begun.  

Stay tuned.

American Chocolate Week

American Chocolate Week

March 21 through March 25

Seriously?  Isn’t every week chocolate week?

No need to ask any chocolate lover twice for a reason to indulge and celebrate the food of the gods.

Bring on the heavenly, storied, melt-in-your mouth confection.

Aphrodisiac or health food? Who cares! 

A Cliff Notes dip into the history of chocolate reminds us chocolate is truly a Native American treat.

The Mayans of Central American cultivated the seeds of the cacao tree.  The warring Aztecs conquered tribes and demanded restoration and payment in cocoa.  Aztecs believed wisdom and power came from eating cocoa “fruit” and that the tree was stolen from paradise.

The Native Americans, by and large, drank their chocolate thick and unsweetened.

It was bitter by our standards.

But the early Spanish explorers saw the value of the cacao: it was used as monetary exchange and currency among the peoples and nations of American cultures.

It was also shockingly, temptingly, delicious.  Heaven and stars in the mouth.

Once the exotic, American chocolate discovery landed in the royal circles and upper crust European gentry of Europe, they couldn’t resist having their cooking staff add sugar to sweeten the chocolate.

Fast forward more than a few centuries and head Downtown to Kee Chocolatier on Thompson and Spring Street in New York’s SoHo or Midtown (inside HSBC) and the center of the universe is yet again where chocolate reigns supreme. 

No less authorities than The New York Times hailed Kee’s as “Hands down, the best chocolates in New York. Maybe the World.” And Martha Stewart reported: “One taste and you’ll be over the moon.”  Zagats perennially votes Kee the best chocolatier in New York.

Proprietor and chocolatier goddess, Kee Ling Tong, presides over her chocolate kingdom, albeit small at 350 square feet, she is not unlike the early Aztecs with regard to a dedication to purity.

The shop is simple and unadorned. No pretense.

There are just two glass cases.

One is filled like a Cartier jewel box, tiered with the variety of balled and intricate-shaped bon bons; nestled in carefully stacked Collections.

The other is a flat-topped case showcasing the petite, colorful macaroons, with chocolate-dipped fruit such as apple and orange and lemon peels, along with macadamia nuts dipped in chocolate.

Subtly, this makes the focus on the chocolates all the more pronounced.

One might think they stepped into a place of transition.  And in a matter of speaking, that is not so off the mark. 

The chocolates are so in demand, the contents of the cases are replenished at least a dozen times a day.

Constant change.  Always fresh.

And the concept of transition and change is also a metaphor for the alchemy Kee orchestrates phasing the chocolate from a pure block to the one of a kind, exquisite chocolate recipes she creates.

Kee inserts her handmade, locally-sourced fillings. After cooling, she hand breaks the molds in order to retain the thin, pure shell that "snaps" when one bites into the chocolate bon bon. 

Then the team rolls the outer flavors and herbs:  

While enjoying a successful Wall Street career at JP Morgan and Bear Stearns, this native New Yorker was stubbornly determined to follow her passion.

She enrolled in professional training at The French Culinary Institute. 

She claims she wasn’t exactly the best student at thinning and making chocolate.  Hard to believe!  Maybe because she was going to make chocolate in a new, special way all along…

In 2002, upon graduation, she found the space at 80 Thompson Street. “It drew me in” she says. 

It served as both retail and production space until she got the space across the hall three years ago where the production is now.

Kee doesn’t have far to go for work. She lives upstairs. 

“I can roll out of bed and work my 12-14 hour days.” She jokes.  

Here she is with her sales associate: Josie.

Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, Kee found her calling.

“I like making tiny, pretty, intricate things,” she says, in case staring at the exquisite, mesmerizing confections reflecting through the glass left any doubt.

 

Key to her distinctive art are a few elements:

• All the chocolates are hand made daily at her shop: she mixes the chocolates, makes the molds. She adds no sugar to the chocolate
• All the filling recipes are her own creation, (“I never looked at a recipe and I don’t share,” she said.  She uses top-quality, local ingredients – herbs and fruits – from Chinatown and NY Greenmarkets.
• The “crack” or “snap” one senses biting into the ultra thin shell is critical
• Good, pure chocolate has its own shine (and not an oil-based sheen)
• Clean finish; no after taste

Kee has 48 flavors in her eclectic chocolate portfolio, with about 35 in the case at any one time.  Four are white chocolate, including Green Tea, Almond, and Pistachio.  

Gleefully, one can select from bon bons filled honey, jasmine, ginger and saffron; coated with chile, white and dark sesame; a dark chocolate ganache; Black Rose with dark chocolate truffle with black tea infused with rose petals; Blended Peppercorn with four different peppercorns with dark chocolate ganache; Elderflower – dark chocolate ganache with elderflower and Coconut with dark chocolate truffles coated with toasted coconut.

Kee offers four seasonal fillings, two in the spring: pineapple lychee and mango green and two for the winter: honey kumquat and yuzu.

According to Kee, her best seller is the crème brulee.  It sells out early too.

She just added a new flavor: Lotus Flower, a gift from a friend who had traveled to Vietnam.  Kee waved her magic wonder wand and next thing you know – a new exotic Kee chocolate creation.

Kee makes 22 flavors of the glamorous macaroons including key lime, shiso, green tea with jasmine, rosewater lychee, kaffir lime and truffle oil. 

Looking ahead, she is considering making pate te fois, or jelly-coated fruit with sugar.  Another eye candy treat for sure!

In fact, it’s hopeless. Just a taste, renders one under the spell of Kee’s magical chocolate spell.

Kee tempers all her chocolate, makes her molds and “eyeballs” the ingredient measurements for the fillings. There are no exact or precise renderings. It’s all Kee’s artisanal culinary talent. 

At the same time, she says it’s all “A learning process” -- from the making of the chocolate to the business management.  

Kee is a hands-on, artisanal chocolatier, dedicated to the highest quality hand made chocolate who is front and center for her customers, (“How are the twins?” she asks of a customer”) to her staff, Josie and international clients, (“I’ll do my best” she confirms to a London caller.)

There is no finer example of American Chocolate, than Kee Chocolatier

www.keeschocolates.com

to see a full listing of the divine, exquisite specialties.

It's Official

“It’s official.” 

I started this entry almost two months ago.

 

I got my damaged, useless, hard drive returned from the second of the companies who bill themselves as experts in retrieving information from damaged hard drives. 

It's official.  It is dead.  Nothing more they could do.

I feel so betrayed, by data doctors, the first company who sweet-talked me all the way through a month, my account rep Kelly cooing and reassuring me that “It looks good, they are sending out for more equipment.”  And “Looks good, starting testing.”

And so on. 

Just like someone nervously waiting and clinging to every word the doctor administers to the attendant family members while their loved one lays in the recovery room, I am fearful and at the same time, understandably hopeful. 

I hear “Looking good” as the constant refrain.  I hang on those words. That’s not surprising is it?

This goes on until I get a call on my mobile a hot afternoon in late July.  I recognize the Arizona area code by now. I’m driving so I pull over, foreboding.  When I hear a man on the other end, rather than my soothing Kelly, I know it is bad.  I should’ve hung up.

This new persona informs me there is nothing more they can do.  Dead. Morte. 

I say I can’t believe it.  Where’s Kelly?  Thinking she might be my rabbit’s foot, I resort to the known, the familiar.  This pronouncement of finality is more than I can manage. 

I refuse to believe there is nothing that can be done.  “What if there were state secrets on there? Or the cure for cancer?”  I had invented a litany of “what if “scenarios that could be most catastrophic and momentous to the world unless retrieved. 

To me, nothing was more important to me than my book.  And my pictures. 

But I was trying to appear more concerned with the welfare of the world and how a situation I describe could indeed happen and they just needed to take measures now to save the world.

Reality like this crash never really settles in. I had to ignore the “Why me?” explorations and blaming myself and wanting to turn back the hands of time…

I had already started to rewrite the chef’s profiles for the book, “Homegrown Long Island.”

I couldn’t let this disaster get in the way of publishing the book.

I owed it to the noble chefs, their farmers and gardeners and fishermen and herders and dairymen. 

And to my family and friends.  To my garden design clients. 

So many people had supported me throughout the process of the concept – securing the first publisher in 2002, getting the green light from Voyageur in 2008, the contract in 2009, the selection of New York City and Garden State and Hampton chefs in 2009 and 2010, and the change in direction or switch to expand the Hampton and to make the first book focus on Long Island. And to make the book about the New York City chefs, that was such a completed work by last November when the change was made, the second book. 

I’d come so far. I couldn’t let this crash derail the integrity of the project.

I had to complete the chef’s profiles for the book.

As I said, we did try another data recovery company and while they read to me from the same soothing script about doing the “testing,” “looking good,” blah, blah… I knew better than to be lulled.  While we had to try – figuring it is always necessary to secure the second opinion before declaring it terminal– it was useless. I knew. Dead is dead. 

(When this is all over, I swear I want to work with some techies to develop some way there can be a gas gauge kind of meter to alert the user that the hard drive is heading for the cemetery.  There must be a way.) 

Immediately, I had started writing from the very beginning.

Meanwhile, almost a month had passed since disaster struck. 

My wonderful, kind editor gave me an extension to September 15^th.

 

I had 15 chefs to write about. 

The profiles offer an intimate look into what makes these sterling chefs the leaders of the local food movement.  And such outstanding cooks. 

The profiles chronicle how they doggedly got to the elevated, joyful, frustrating and rewarding position they are in today.  How they give back to their communities.  How they nurture and develop local food sources to meet their exacting standards. How they respect their terroir and their food relationships.  And oh, how they can combine ingredients to create such amazing, over the top culinary art. 

It was a very tall order to honor them.  Even with a lot more time to do it.  Now I had to crunch.

In terms of writing the profile, it is a four-step process for me.

From the notes I took for every chef interview I write the profile overview – a more fully- fleshed out outline, if you will. 

Next, I add to the overview draft from the digital recordings I made during the interview.  Whether on the phone or in person, the recordings help me capture the nuance that is part of a shared conversation. 

Plus my handwriting is so bad and I get so swept up in the interview that oftentimes when I return to the notes, I have to ask myself, “What does that say?” 

It’s a little like putting together a puzzle.  More so for step three, which is putting the text into some kind of order that makes sense – chronologically, mainly.

Then I have to think. Dream.  What makes this chef and his or her vision so unique?  Why are they leaders in the fork to table or fin to table movement? 

They offered me a very personal look into their culinary art -- what compels them to create delicious food that is full of local flavors – and to want to share their gastronomic alchemy.

The profile narrative has to be sweet to read.  So interesting for the reader to want to learn more about each chef and their unique story.

Then I write.

And write and write. 

It wasn’t always pretty… The process was filled with more drama and not a few frustrations.  I am hoping I will look back at the time and laugh.

It’s too raw to laugh yet….

It's Official also, that I can report the Manuscript is complete! 

I prevailed.  With help from family – mainly my talented, academy-award winning cousin Maryann who read through the profiles, offering input and support on the individual narratives, I made the September 15^th manuscript deadline!  (Those email exchanges could be a book unto itself – the give and take and learning on both sides...) 

The profiles are now in the hands of the chefs for them to fact check. 

I am now rendering the gardens and farms into the watercolor art for the book and securing the plant lists and the four recipes from each chef.

Getting the manuscript written in time for the deadline was a huge, seemingly impossible task given the amount of time, or lack thereof, the work that had to be done for the extended photography sessions where we photograph the chef in their inspired garden or farm with their farmer or gardener friend, in the kitchen cooking, and of the plated food. 

And a myriad of other issues and things to tend to in this, the hottest summer on record in the northeast.

Now that the manuscript is completed, I can take the time to chronicle the making of the book. 

It’s been more than an adventure, I can assure you! 

So now I can start the Prequel.

If It’s Too Hot, Get Out of the Kitchen!

In our case, we couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen.

This year’s photography sessions for the book, “Long Island Homegrown” about master chefs and the gardens and farms that inspire their culinary art, began June 22 on the North Shore of Long Island.    

In the middle of the east coast’s record-breaking heat wave this summer season, we got lucky and our weather has been splendid for the days of shooting thus far.

I determined we could take the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) from Penn Station to four of the restaurants --two on the North Shore: 18 Bay in Bayville and Bistro M in Glen Head.  And two on the South Shore: The Lake House in Bay Shore and The Grey Horse Tavern in Bayport.

After some dodgy, early-morning “meet you at the clock shop” on 34^th Street and 7^th Avenue, as advised by agent Hercules from the LIRR (which is in fact now a Swarovski Crystal shop,) the photography team met and was altogether:  Jennifer Calais Smith, the photographer, and Patty White, the food stylist – along with her very talented daughter, Lina.  (Lina possesses and innate eye for art and detail – her Italian side of the family are all artists, Lina draws amazing anime, and contributes when she can to the food compositions, having learned from her mother the pro.) 

So, tickets in hand and with great anticipation for this year’s adventures, we boarded the train to arrive at our first restaurant stop: Bistro M (bistromrestaurant.com) to photograph chef and owner, Mitchell SuDoc.  

(“M” is for Mitchell, in case you overlooked the obvious as I did…Hey, I’m thinking big picture ^:^)

His restaurant is not unlike a garden sprite’s toadstool secret abode, complete with undulating, low sloping gingerbread roof.  It just needed a large Elephant Ear or colocasia leaf to hide under.  

This former candy store is poised almost on the train tracks. When giving me “directions” on how to get to the restaurant, Chef Mitchell says he tells his customers, if you take a breath when you get off the train, you’ve gone to far.  

I replied I won’t “hold my breath” getting to him, thinking I was being funny. 

It was only later, after we left Bistro M, that I noted, I was indeed holding my breath, or hyperventilating - which is probably a better way to characterize our departure...

Truth is, I didn’t even look when we got off the train, as for some reason, I thought he was meeting us. 

He called my mobile to connect, thank goodness…

As we walked to the restaurant, I was thinking I might need to solve a riddle to be admitted to this lavender-topped confection, just like in a Grimm’s fairy tale.

Shortly, we were whisked away to the Rottkamp farm down the block – Chef Mitchell’s selection for his inspired garden.

As soon as you turn in the shaded driveway, there is no doubt as to why. 

The farm reveals itself in row after row of well-tended vegetables to the right punctuated by a cluster of “Bridges of Madison County”-looking barns bordered by a bed of happy yellow sunflowers and jewel-toned zinnias in another bed

The farm beyond seems to rise up in front of you like a bit of heaven. 

They were poised and ready for their close up… Or so I thought. 

The two Rottkamp farmers married two French sisters, Marianne and Michelle who help manage the 150-acre farm.

We were extremely honored the Rottkamps allowed us to take some of the book’s photo images thee as they have a VERY strict policy of no commercial photography at the farm. 

It was not lost on us for a minute.   We were doubly committed to honor the farm and its heritage.

Repeatedly they told us it was only because of Chef Mitchell they even considered this first ever photo shoot to take place!

The mutual respect was palpable. 

When we first got there, we walked into the barn where the wooden tables hold and display the stacks of fresh picked vegetables, fruits and flowers that a Hollywood set designer couldn’t do match for a one-two Technicolor punch that assault all the senses. 

I think we were like sleepwalkers, transfixed by the charm and bounty of the farm-fresh food and the artful arrangement. 

We started clicking away – digital camera, iPhone, and the professional camera. 

It was then we heard “no pictures.”  As we say in France – tant pis – or too bad.

So, that means that you my dear reader must take the train to Glen Head, NY and visit Rottkamp Farm first-hand.  Believe me, it’s worth the trip. 

The experience is a guaranteed nostalgic trip to the small family owned farms of France and America.

And it goes without saying the pristine vegetables; fruits and flowers are worth a king’s ransom.

With parasols, hats, and team in tow, we were able to enjoy a beautiful morning walk up the farm dirt road to the eggplant and tomatoes that were ripe and ready to be picked by Chef for Bistro M and our photo shoot.

Proud of their produce, the sisters Rottkamp and their manager stayed with us, telling us how much they admire Chef Mitchell and enjoy it when he brings his daughter to the farm. 

The heirlooms tomatoes were like candy!  And looked like jewelry bedazzling in their basket – surpassed only by their moniker:  Coeur de boeuf: Heart of the meat/beef – or what we might call, Beefsteak tomatoes!

Back to Bistro M Restaurant where Chef Mitchell will “cook up” or prepare – after all this is summer and we can go light on the cooking element -- a sampling of the recipes he will contribute to the book. 

Here he crafted a farm-fresh beet salad, and fried green tomatoes and what he calls the Rottkamp Farm Market Vegetable Salad – using what’s fresh that day. 

This morning, Chef Mitchell selected a dish that was a treat for the eyes and the taste buds.  My friend Celeste who owns Marquette Restaurant on 12^th Street often reminds me that there is an old French saying that the “eyes eat first.”

And with the bumble bee yellow and American Flyer wagon red watermelons, purple and gold eggplants, crisp red and white radishes, those Rottkamp heirloom tomatoes, fried green tomatoes and fresh basil – the composition was an artful study that was movie-poster gorgeous and delicious to taste.

Chef also made pecan-crusted rack of lamb tapas with lavender-infused ricotta, and buttermilk lemon dressing for the garnish of fresh tomatoes and herbs.  This was crazy good. 

We photographed the completed plated recipes in the outdoor dining area where Bistro M also offers live music that adds to the sensual pleasure of enjoying a fine dining experience. 

Chef Mitchell and I chatted and reviewed a few elements for the profile I write.  Jennifer and Patty were busy working with the ambient light and the plates to make certain we capture the best angle. 

The images help underscore the narrative about each chef and pay respect to their culinary craft.

 

The best photographs this morning are a still life of Chef Mitchell’s artistic creation that will inspire the reader to undertake making these recipes…

Jennifer and Patty work so hard in a very time-compressed window.  We usually have daily double appointments. Moreover, we are mindful of the chef’s precious time and work very hard not to monopolize their schedule or their kitchen.

We were soon back inside the air-conditioned restaurant – thank you. Especially as Bistro M was closed for patrons.  All of us, including Lina, enjoyed the dishes Chef Mitchell prepared.  Mmmm. 

The last order of business before we needed to hop on the train to go further east was to take Chef’s portrait.  I try to get the chefs in a natural yet professional profile to showcase their stature as leaders in the farm to table revolution.  We often have them assume an authoritative stance either in front of the restaurant’s logo or sign or some definitive place within the dining room, in order to lend the image an added sense of place.

(I will share a funny aside about taking Nick & Toni’s Chef Joseph Realmuto’s head shot in a future post – ha!)

We elected to photograph Chef Mitchell outdoors where the restaurant’s name and logo are writ large on the side of the restaurant.  It was now nearing noonish and the heat was blistering.  Especially as there are neither trees nor shade from the building next door.  I tried to shade him with my too-small parasol.  He suggested Patty grab the outdoor umbrella from the restaurant’s entrance.  That worked pretty well and Jennifer worked around the sun issue and the position of the sign and Chef.  

I frequently look at the image on the camera, with Jennifer clicking through and tapping into a more focused close up, noting she can clean this up or highlight that or whatever her photographic talent allows her to do once the images are downloaded onto the Mac. 

I was trying politely (naturally) but firmly trying to herd our team of kittens to make the train.  Granted we were a breath away from the station stop, but we needed to pack up the equipment, take some personal shots with Chef Mitchell; finish cleaning up, and a quick trip to the head. 

After numerous admonishments:  “We need to go.”  “We must go.”  “Must go – Now,” Quickening the frequency – “Must go – Now.” became a mantra of sorts. 

I scooped up Jennifer and our bags and we headed out. 

I was sure Patty and Lina were following right behind us.

We no sooner got to the platform than the train came into view – its locomotive front high beam glaring in the noon day light. 

Yikes! 

Jennifer and I look to the right and see Patty and Lina nervously exiting Bistro M and looking to us. 

The two of them start walking fast, maybe running, down to the platform – but on the wrong side!  Jennifer and I are waving like two air traffic controllers to come back and over the tracks, mouthing, “NO. This side”

The train stops well short of the crossing near the restaurant and we anxiously tell the conductor and the engineer our plight.  “Our associates are on the other side of the tracks and we need them to get on this train as we have another photo shoot/work appointment a few stops east.” 

They kindly tell us, “No problem. We’ll wait for them.”  They can see Patty and Lina. 

Understandably, they did not want to cross the tracks.  (Train track crossing is almost a phobia of mine and even if there is not a train in sight, I have a problem crossing over – whether on foot or in a car!  So I am most empathetic to their plight.)

So I now run back down the platform and steps so they can hear me over the roar of the engine and to tell them, “The train is waiting for you. Come on.  The engineer and conductor will wait.”  They still hesitate.   I can’t get them to understand the train will not go until they are on board…. I keep running.

At some point, they do indeed cross the track and are now barreling toward the car door. 

Out of breath but now safely ensconced in our seats, the conductor smiles as he comes in to take our tickets. 

It was a high drama moment and a quiet train right to our next destination…

Catching up with the book

Today is my first posting about writing my first book.  

I had every intention of doing this much earlier - years ago, in fact.  

Maybe because we just came home from seeing "Julie & Julia" at the cinema or maybe I seemingly have more time now (more about that later), but I was determined to launch writing about the book today.

The soon (too soon?!) to be published book started as a concept in early 2002.  At that time, I was most interested in how the garden inspires artists -- all artists: musicians, painters,  fashion designers, cinematographers, writers, photographers and .... But most significantly, culinary artists, because they so obviously utilize the bounty of the garden to create their own art.  

So I thought a book franchise might start there --exploring the art of the garden from the perspective of how provocative and compelling a garden is to the creativity of  artistic endeavor.  

And it was!  I was over the moon when I was able to secure a publishing contract at that time for the book, "Celebrity Chefs & Their Gardens."  But then, all too soon, that publisher said there were too many garden books on the market and we needed to wait.  

For me?  Other opportunities arrived and I put the book concept on the shelf, so to speak. 

 

I had a new publisher interested in 2007 and we worked through the concept throughout 2008.  

At the same time, the world of gardening changed. A lot. Increasingly, gardeners were focusing more on growing their own food.  More and more, community gardens were turning from ornamental plants to vegetables and fruits.  Food scares and concerns about the safety of our food were news headlines!  Michael Pollan and Alice Waters were becoming icons for what seemed to be a growing (sorry) movement..

So I could feel the book subtly migrate to explore and learn about the unique chefs that celebrated not just the art of the garden but the integrity and tradition and purity of the garden and what that meant to our culture.  

I set out to identify those "celebrity chefs" who I now prefer to refer to as master chefs or noble chefs, who are leaders in marrying culinary art with garden art in an almost truer sense.  They grow their own food for the restaurant, their gardens do indeed inspire their work in the kitchen, and/or they elevate their local farmers and growers as partners in their pursuit of truly fine dining.  Menus imbued with seasonal, fresh local food. Not imported. Not exotic in the old way.  

I hoped these chefs, these culinary artists, could illuminate how they heroically changed the way we think about dining, about food, about nutrition.  They helped lead a revolution - a movement.  It soon became about lifestyle and politics too.

The book contract was finalized around Christmas 2008. I was so honored and so excited.  The book is to be published for spring 2010.

This will be the story of how that book came about, my overture to the chefs, my interview adventures (and there have been some epic tales!) and securing the perfect lineup of celebrity, er, noble chefs. And  finding the most wonderful photographer, food stylist and of course, working with a fantastic and supportive editor.  

Whenever I tell my friends and family about the chefs and their philosophy, not to mention the struggles and "triumphs" to coordinate all the elements of the book, they love it. I hope you do too. It is so exciting to learn from these culinary leaders.  

This first book focuses on chefs from New York City, the Hamptons and the Garden State.  I will share the list of chefs later...  

(Tell me who you would nominate to include in the book?)

I hope you will enjoy this story....