I read the memo wrong and arrived at 11am, lunch to me means sometime in the early afternoon. Upon arrival I found the set up crew just getting underway, tables bare, no other chefs, just Julie Resnick with her clipboard. My dish, the Inside Out Lasagna was made (14 10 inch springform pans) and ready to go into the pizza oven.
Happy to know that I wasn’t running late I took the opportunity to go home and spend two quiet hours with my wife watching a movie.
Thank you Quail Hill! That never happens.
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Last fall I was honored by Slow Food’s Long Island chapter with an award, The “Snail of Approval”. Slow Food is a relatively young organization, at least on Long Island, and I was aware of the work they were doing through my contact with Ted Conklin from the American Hotel in Sag Harbor. More Importantly I was at an event a few years ago at The Kontokosta Winery on the North Fork when my friend Gerry Hayden was honored with the first Long Island “Snail of Approval” recognition.
In late March, on a quiet Wednesday morning an Estia breakfast customer overheard me describing my daughters summer job in Maine. As I moved back toward the kitchen he quietly suggested I look into a far away dining room in Freedom, Maine called {the} Lost Kitchen, “it’ll be well worth the effort” he said.
If you passed the Post Office in Freedom, Main you missed the sign to the Lost Kitchen
So I did. That night, on the internet I read a story in Food & Wine about a sharp woman named Erin French who followed her dream back to the town she grew up in. A few weeks later my new breakfast customer was back, again as I passed him at the counter he whispered ” Time to call Lost Kitchen”, and I did. It was early April and Erin had started reserving seats for her 2016 season, after a few exchanged calls I secured a table for 3, Wednesday July 13. Planned in tandem with our visit to catch up with Mansell, our 19 year old camp counselor.
{the} Lost Kitchen
It’s not easy to find Freedom, Maine, GPS is strongly advised. After leaving our hotel in Camden we drove past gorgeous lakes, through pine forests and over hills that crested to views of farm fields that went on for miles. The nice thing about being on vacation in Maine is that you must slow down, in some ways I felt forced to. We didn’t need to hurry either as the reservation was set for 6pm. That is the time they start and there’s only one nightly seating at “Lost Kitchen”. Read More »
Recipe by chef Sam McCleland of The Bell & Anchor in Sag Harbor, NY
Smoked Baby Beet and Arugula Salad
serves 4
16 baby beets, roasted and quartered lengthwise
1/4 cup olive oil
6 sprigs of thyme
1/2teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 bulb of fennel, cored and shaved thinly
4 cups baby arugula
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
2 oz cranberry vinaigrette (recipe to follow below)
For Beets:
Preheat oven to 400°F. In a medium bowl, toss whole beets, olive oil, salt, pepper and whole thyme sprigs. Transfer to a sheet pan, cover tightly with aluminum foil and roast in oven for 30 minutes or until tender. Cool and then gently remove skin with a dry towel (skin will slip off when gently rubbed). Read More »
Recipe by chef Justin Finney of Highway Restaurant & Barin East Hampton
Roasted baby beets, yogurt, honey, orange, pistachio and mint
makes three salads
2 lb. local beets (tops removed)
2 tbl olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1tsp cracked black pepper
To roast the beets mix all the ingredients together and place in a roasting pan. Cover the pan with foil and place in a 350°F oven for 25-30 minutes. Test the beets with a toothpick to make sure they are done. Let the beets cool for 15 minutes and then remove the skins. Read More »
Gathering in the fields of Quail Hill Farm, Colin Ambrose again invites local farmers, seed experts and chefs to participate in this, the second video in his From Seed to Plate video series. This time, participants share their knowledge about growing and preparing the versatile and romantic root vegetable–the beet.
Participants:
Petra Page-Maan & Matthew Goldfarb, seed experts at Fruition Seeds, Canandaigua, NY
Scott Chaskey, farmer at Quail Hill Farm, Amagansett
Harry Ludlow, farmer at Fairview Farm, Bridgehampton
Justin Finney, chef at Highway Restaurant & Bar, East Hampton
Sam McCleland, chef at The Bell & Anchor, Sag Harbor
Arie Pavlou, chef at Bridgehampton Inn Restaurant
Megan Huylo, chef at Amber Waves Farm Kitchen, Amagansett
Rick Kallaher, videographer
Colin Ambrose, organizer & chef at Estia’s Little Kitchen, Sag Harbor
In June of 2015 I was in the audience at the Food Lab’s first general session, topics included marketing in the new food media, designing flavor forward healthy snacks and getting them to market, as well as a host of other relevant food forward thinking.
Southampton College
This years perspective of the Food Lab provided a different vantage point. While my assistant Kat Savoia and I were on campus for the first 2 full days of the event, we didn’t attend a single seminar but we did get an energizing educational experience on how to execute dinner service for 202 people utilizing a bag of tricks that I’ve been storing for years.
The menu was extensive because I felt it was important to consider a broad range of diets in the audience. While some would eat everything, others would have specific diets encouraging grains, or raw vegetables.