Hanukkah Specials

Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton will offer à la carte dinner specials on Sunday and Monday to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah. The dishes will include a chanterelle mushroom kugel appetizer for $19, an entree of pomegranate braised beef short rib with roasted root vegetable for $42, and, for dessert, cinnamon honey donuts with apple butter for $15.  

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will offer Hanukkah specials Sunday through Tuesday. The dishes include matzoh ball soup for $12, a braised lamb shank entree for $28, and a piece of coconut macaroon cake with chocolate ganache and hazelnut crumble for $12. 

Holiday Bake Sale

The Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons is taking orders for pastries baked by members of the church’s Ladies Philoptochos Society and the P.T.O. Ladies. The options include desserts such as baklava, 12 pieces for $25, as well as frozen hors d’oeuvres such as spanakopita, 16 pieces for $25. A menu and order form are available on the church’s website. The pickup days for the pastries are Dec. 8 and 16 between noon and 12:30 p.m.

Holiday Gift Cards

Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett is offering a special on gift cards through Dec. 31. A purchase of a gift card of $100 or more includes a complimentary $20 card. 

Almond in Bridgehampton is offering two deals on gift certificates through Dec. 24. The purchase of a $200 certificate includes one for $50, and a $100 purchase includes one for $20.

At Smokin’ Wolf in East Hampton, those who purchase five $20 gift cards receive a free $20 card through Dec. 24. 

Catering Christmas

The Art of Eating in Bridgehampton has a special catering menu for Christmas events. The prepared dishes include dips and spreads, soups, salads, and entrees such as whole grilled salmon for $39 per pound and a baked Heritage ham for $16.50 per pound. Orders must be placed by Dec. 17 for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and 72 hours in advance for other days. 

Clubhouse Special

The Clubhouse in East Hampton is offering a children’s dinner special on Sundays. For every order of an adult entree, two kids meals are free.  

Wine Class

Park Place Wines and Liquors in East Hampton will hold a tasting of six holiday wines on Dec. 15 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Reservations are by calling the store. 

Champagne Dinner

Reservations are being taken for a Wolffer Estate Vineyard five-course champagne dinner on Dec. 16 at 5:30 p.m. at Wolffer Kitchen Sag Harbor. Roman Roth, the estate’s winemaker, and Michael Ronzino, the restaurant’s chef, will be in attendance, and the dinner will feature special vintages of Bollinger champagne. The cost is $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Reservations are via the Resy website. 

Half-Price Wine

At Indian Wells Tavern half-price bottles of wine, not including champagne, can be purchased with any dinner entree Sunday through Thursday.

Carissa’s Deadline

The last day to place Christmas orders from Carissa’s Bakery in East Hampton will be Sunday. The pickup times for orders will be between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Dec. 22 through Dec. 24. 

Christmas Eve Dining

Continuing an 18-year tradition, Almond in Bridgehampton will offer a special dinner of roast suckling pig with seasonal side dishes from 5 to 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The cost is $36, and a portion of the revenue will be donated to the Pajama Program, which provides new pajamas and books to needy children, many of whom are waiting to be adopted. The restaurant’s à la carte dinner menu will also be available.

The dinner specials at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton on Christmas Eve will include an appetizer of beet cured salmon and avocado toast with caviar for $21, and an entree of cioppino with lobster, Dungeness crab, and monkfish for $48. 

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will offer lunch specials on Dec. 24 including lobster bisque for $14, a chanterelle mushroom omelet for $16, and lobster roll for $32. The restaurant will be closed for dinner. 

The dinner specials at the Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton on Christmas Eve include chestnut and mushroom ravioli for $30, veal Milanese for $50, and pan-roasted halibut for $44. 

Christmas Day Prix Fixe

Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will offer a three-course prix fixe dinner from 2 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 25. The entree options include roast duck, filet of beef in a Perigourdine sauce, and pan-seared blackfish. The cost is $74 for adults, and $28 for children. 

The restaurant is open for dinner Thursdays through Saturdays from 5 to 9:30 p.m. and Sundays from 3 to 8. It also serves breakfast weekdays from 7:30 to 11 and brunch weekends from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

You don’t have to celebrate Christmas to love Christmas breakfast! From friends near and far-flung, I learned of so many wonderful cuisines, cultures, and traditions. Some were elaborate, creative, and inspiring. And frankly, some were just downright sad. 

Drake’s coffee cake? No. Full-size, warm from the oven? That doesn’t make it any better.

My friend and former NPR colleague, Bill Drummond, offered to send me the Christmas breakfast menu from San Quentin prison. (Bill teaches journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and also helps the inmates of San Quentin with their newspaper.) But then the prison went on lockdown. Then Bill said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would get back to me by deadline. Alas, they didn’t, so I looked them up. Sadly, there has been considerable illegal drug trafficking at the prison lately so their hands are full. Apparently, drones can deliver drugs. So I found a Christmas breakfast menu from San Quentin 1928. Among many more fruits, cereals, breads, and egg dishes, there were baked apples with cream, white figs, grilled French lamb chops, eggs Vienna style, and Parker House rolls. The lunch and dinner menus were so elaborate that they’re in pidgin French.

My childhood friend Dicky Brennan is an excellent cook. His family starts the day with fresh juices, scrambled eggs, brioche with honey and jams, toasted slices of stollen, and bacon. When his brother and sister-in-law arrive by lunchtime they continue with Bloody Marys made with Clamato juice and aquavit, smoked salmon on toast points, and Alice Lees, named after his grandmother. These are savory little wedges of toasted English muffins topped with cheddar cheese, Worcestershire sauce, chutney, Tabasco, and enough mayo to bind, then broiled.

Chefs do it up right. Brian Szostak of the Bridgehampton Inn makes cinnamon roll pancakes with bourbon maple syrup. The proprietress, Sybille van Kempen, goes with a Danish-German mash-up of “anything goes frittata, smoked trout with horseradish sauce, cucumber salad, strong black tea, stollen with marzipan, and sugar plums.” Colin Ambrose of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor whips up chicken hash on a grill in his home kitchen fireplace. Ellen White, although a superb cook and former chef, had to succumb in childhood to her Scottish father’s tastes. She wrote, “Those Scotts LOVE their offal, so we would have broiled kidneys and proper bacon, what in the U.S. is called Canadian bacon, for breakfast.” She says she loved it.

Another former nipper, Maury Schlesinger, shared that his wife is Danish, so they have ebelskivers (little pancake balls) at Christmastime and ebelskivers serving as sufganiyot for Hanukkah. Amy Eller has what she calls “Jewish Christmas” breakfast consisting of leftover caviar and blinis fried in butter, a warmed up cranberry orange compote, hot chocolate, and champagne. This was one of my favorite menus but my question is: Who has leftover caviar?

Kathryn and Gavin Menu of The Sag Harbor Express go straight into brunch time after the kids have been fortified with Grandma Marge’s pancake breakfast. His mother makes a tomato sauce-based dish with sausage, chicken thighs, and peppers, along with eggs, bagels with the works, and home fries.

Shira Sacks-Barzilay makes a challah bread pudding with mascarpone, almond extract, and a surprise caramel sauce at the bottom. Don’t all of these menus sound delicious?

Cinnamon rolls and sticky buns were mentioned a lot, either homemade or good ol’ Pillsbury. Strata, an eggy, bread pudding-like casserole that sets over­night in the fridge before baking in the oven in the morning, is another popular item. I usually make eggs Benedict with the cheat of using Knorr’s Hollandaise sauce mix all doctored up with lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. Don’t judge me, it’s Christmas morning!

Some traditional Christmas breakfast dishes from around the world sound wonderful and worth trying, some just sound plain dreary. Would you want to wake up on Christmas day in a country where it’s cold and dark for months and months and be served riispurro, a Finnish rice porridge made with plum juice? But, hey, whoever finds the hidden almond in that cruel gruel will have good luck for the rest of the year. Hopefully that means travel to a warmer climate. The Danish also make a porridge, this one out of rye bread, called ollbrod. Their dish known as aebleflaesk sounds much more appealing: roast apples with bacon, onions, and thyme. More tasty options are atole (thick hot chocolate) from Mexico, which becomes champurrado when you add cinnamon. Croatians make povitica, a walnut-swirled, lightly sweetened bread, and krofne, doughnuts filled with jams or jellies or custard. The Belgians and Greeks make sweet breads representing swaddled baby Jesus or the cross. 

In Jamaica, along with callaloo, beef liver, breadfruit, and fried plantains, they have their national dish for Christmas, ackee and saltfish. This is a saute that resembles scrambled eggs: codfish, boiled ackee, Scotch bonnet peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

I recently took a 23andMe DNA test. It was no surprise that I am mostly Irish. But with a mostly Norwegian grandmother (Wiborg) and fully Norwegian immigrant great-grandfather, I assumed I was a decent fraction Scandinavian. But zut alors! Mon dieu! I am more French than Norwegian. Some of my dead relatives have a lot of explaining to do. That being said, I suppose we may be having  oeufs en cocotte avec croissants et brioche this coming Christmas morning. Joyeux Noel and joyeuses fetes everyone, whatever you celebrate, wherever you are, and whatever you eat.

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Have you dropped the ball by not making a plan for New Year’s Eve? No worries, you still have plenty of options. Whether you prefer to celebrate by dancing or indulging in a gourmet meal, here are some of the venues offering festive ways to ring in 2019. 

Gurney’s Resort in Montauk will hold a beach club-themed party with an open bar and music provided by Vikas Sapra, a New York D.J., in its Great Hall from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. The cost is $180. Tickets can be purchased via the resort’s website.

At Scarpetta Beach, the hotel’s restaurant, there will be two seatings for a five-course prix fixe dinner. The menu features dishes such as black tagliolini with shrimp, wagyu beef, and venison. The cost is $105 for the 5 p.m. seating, and $125 for the 7 p.m. seating. 

The Wolffer Kitchen restaurants in Amagansett and Sag Harbor will offer a three-course dinner for $75 at 6 and 8 p.m. seatings, and a four-course dinner for $100 at 10 p.m. 

At the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, G.E. Smith will be in concert at 8 p.m., followed by the Nancy Atlas Project at 10. Tickets are $30 for each show and available at the door. 

Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton will serve a la carte dinner specials from 5:45 to 10 p.m. The menu includes a white truffle tagliatelle appetizer at market price and an osso buco entree for $48.

At Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, there will be à la carte specials for dinner, including a grilled rack of lamb for $32.

The 1770 House in East Hampton will serve a four-course prix fixe dinner from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Menu items include tuna tartare, foie gras, lobster, and filet mignon. The cost is $110 per person not including tax, gratuity, and beverages. 

The Clubhouse in East Hampton will hold a Roaring Twenties-themed party starting at 9 p.m., with passed hors d’oeuvres, free well drinks from 10 p.m. to midnight, live music, party favors, and a champagne toast. The cost is $50 for tickets purchased today and $65 thereafter. 

The five-course prix fixe dinner at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will feature a beef and truffle tartare appetizer and a lobster thermidor entree. The cost is $120 for the seating between 5 and 8:30 p.m., and $135 for 9:30 to 11 p.m. 

Duck à l’orange and veal Oscar are among the entrees on the five-course prix fixe dinner menu at Page at 63 Main in Sag Harbor. The cost is $80 for the first seating at 7 p.m. The second seating, at 9:30, which costs $180, will feature live music by Joe Lauro and the HooDoo Loungers and a champagne toast at midnight.

Also in Sag Harbor, Lulu Kitchen and Bar will serve its regular à la carte dinner menu between 5 and 7 p.m. A four-course prix fixe menu will be available at 8. The cost is $125, plus tax and gratuity. Alfredo Merat, a singer-songwriter, will play music at the latter seating, and diners will be given party favors. The menu features champagne and mussel soup, butter-poached sturgeon, and roast venison loin. 

Jean-Georges at the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton will be serving a four-course prix fixe dinner for $98. The menu has dishes such as seared black sea bass and wagyu beef tenderloin. The hotel will also have a champagne party with a D.J. and dancing from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The event will include passed hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. The cost is $125. Tickets can be purchased on eventbrite.com.

At Pierre’s in Bridgehampton, there will be two seatings for a three-course prix fixe dinner. At 5 p.m., the menu features an escargot appetizer and a lobster fricassee entree. The cost is $75. At the 8:30 p.m. seating, which costs $135, the menu includes a foie gras appetizer and a rack of lamb entree. There will also be a dance party in the restaurant’s upstairs lounge. 

From 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., Union Cantina in Southampton will hold a party with a full dinner buffet and dessert table, a four-hour open bar of top-shelf liquor, and live music by the Bay Ridge All-Stars. The cost is $75. Reservations are via the restaurant’s website. 

Claude’s restaurant at the Southampton Inn will serve a four-course prix fixe dinner for $125, featuring entrees such as duck breast and a winter vegetable risotto plus a prosecco toast at midnight.

Christmas Deals

The American Hotel will offer five-course prix-fixe dinner specials on Christmas Eve from 5 to 10 p.m. and Christmas Day from 12:30 to 7:30. The cost is $85 for adults and $40 for children. Reservations are by calling the hotel.

The Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, the home of the Jean-Georges restaurant, is offering a deal on gift cards. Those who purchase a gift card on the hotel’s website will receive a complimentary one at the same value.

The L&W market in Bridgehampton is selling holiday gift baskets filled with products prepared by Almond, its sister restaurant, and other local artisans. Prepared baskets feature items such as assorted pickles for $35, and citrus cured olives and smoked almonds for $26. Customers can also choose their own assortments. The market will be open on Christmas Eve from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

New Year’s Day Dining

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will have à la carte lunch specials on Jan. 1 including salmon Benedict for $18 and a smoked trout and chives omelette for $16. 

The 1770 House in East Hampton will offer a three-course prix fixe dinner menu on New Year’s Day starting at 5:30 in both the dining room and the downstairs tavern. The cost is $35. The special will be available Sunday through Thursday.

A separate story on New Year’s Eve celebrations at restaurants and other locales appears elsewhere in today’s paper.

Baron’s Cove Special

On Thursdays from 5 to 9:30 p.m., Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor has a three-course prix fixe for $48 or an à la carte menu for  Specials on wine by the glass or bottle are also available.  

New Year’s Catering

The Art of Eating in Bridgehampton has a special catering menu for New Year’s Eve parties. The prepared dishes include dips and spreads, soups, salads, and entrees such as rack of lamb for $29 per pound. Orders must be placed by Sunday and picked up by 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 31.

Restaurant Week Coming

Looking ahead, foodies may want to mark their calendars for Nov. 4 through 11, when the fall iteration of Long Island Restaurant Week brings prix fixe deals to a range of restaurants across the Island, including half a dozen on the South Fork. A full list is at longislandrestaurantweek.com.

On Food Culture

Stony Brook Southampton has added an eight-week seminar on contemporary food culture to its fall curriculum. Taught by Brian Halweil, the founding editor of Edible East End magazine, it will cover topical issues such as food safety, animal welfare, the use of genetically modified organisms (G.M.O.s), and school lunch reform. 

Each class will also feature a 30-minute workshop on cooking, gardening, and food preservation. Two supplemental gardening intensives will be included.

The course is for “anyone interested in making food a bigger part of their career and life,” said Mr. Halweil in a statement. The class will begin on Oct. 25 from 5:20 to 8:10 p.m. in Chancellors Hall, room 237, and meet weekly through Dec. 20. The gardening intensives will take place on Nov. 10 and 17, from 9 a.m. to noon. The cost is $985, and registration is on the college’s website.

If you are a writer, chances are your friends bestow upon you fascinating books, blank journals, and fancy pens as gifts. If you are an artist, you may receive canvases, paintbrushes, inks, and oils. If you are a gardener, perhaps you have received heirloom seeds, exotic orchids, and colorful books of English rose gardens. As a semi-retired pastry chef and food writer, my friends and family have given me endless pleasure and puzzlement with the most staggering array of cooking equipment, ancient cookbooks, and truly peculiar ingredients.

Have you ever heard of ebelskivers? Miraculin? Pandan extract? A Toas-tite? Go! Go! Curry sauce? The Smoking Gun? These are some of the fascinating items I have been given over the years, along with X-rated potholders (anatomically correct male and female), a first edition 1902 White House Cookbook, and a kitschy pie server shaped like a dressy shoe with a crystal heel. This last one always gets some giggles when I ceremoniously pull it out to slice into a homemade blueberry pie or quiche. 

My dear childhood friend Dicky is also an avid cook. He is responsible for the ebelskiver and the Smoking Gun. We’ve spent a good amount of time fiddling with these contraptions when he visits. The ebelskiver is a Danish invention, a cast iron pan with deep round indentations to cook little pancake/popovers with fillings. They are mostly meant to be sweet, but we thought a savory version with a little cube of Gruyere cheese in the middle would make a pretty soigné canapé! 

The Smoking Gun looks like a piece of medical equipment with a rubber tube and motorized hot fan. You add some wood chips (cherry, mesquite, apple), turn it on, and trap the smoke over some bourbon or beets or potatoes or whatever. I think my true chef and bartender friends play with theirs more than I play with mine.

Along the lines of “what the heck do I do with that?!” is the pandan extract. This comes from the Pandanus amaryllfolius plant, common in Southeast Asian cooking. The extract is used in sweet and savory cooking and has an aroma similar to basmati rice — nutty and botanical. The extract is a brilliant green and one of these days I plan to attempt a pandan chiffon cake. This was given to me by a chef friend Daniel. 

When he gets a break in the summer, he goes to a remote island off of Brittany and harvests sea salt and wild fennel pollen. He brought me a jar of this pollen salt recently and I must say, it has become my favorite finishing salt of all time. Just sitting on the table, its fragrance wafts around in a heavenly way. I have used it before searing a filet mignon, in mashed potatoes, on green beans, and sprinkled on good butter to serve at the table.

Many years ago, before computers and Amazon, those gateways to getting any damn thing you want from around the world, my friend Cheryl brought me little packets of squid ink from Italy. I squealed with delight as onlookers wrinkled their noses in disgust. I had had squid ink pasta and risotto on my honeymoon and loved it and never thought I’d see it again. It is salty, briny, umami, and black as night. It was a risky gift, but so much appreciated.

My son gave me the miraculin, or “miracle fruit,” which is a glycoprotein that binds to your taste buds and makes sour fruit taste sweet. This was, for sure, a weird science novelty.

When it comes to cookbooks, my friend Fraser wins the award for most peculiar and obscure. (He is also responsible for the aforementioned X-rated potholders.) Who knew that Vincent Price was a gourmand and published an enormous volume called “A Treasury of Great Recipes”? This book is full of fantastic color photos and menus from around the world. Fraser also gave me a first edition of “The White House Cookbook” from 1902. It is full of menus, recipes, and harsh opinions over what causes colds. A beer before bed, apparently. Duly noted.

Another treasured book I received is from the mother of a friend in Texas: “Feeding the Flock” from the West Freeway Church of Christ in Fort Worth. It has a lot of congealed salads and tortilla soups and cow patty cakes, but the jewel in the crown is Frito candy. When you have been cooking for most of your life, you reach a point where you can read a recipe and pretty much know what it will taste like. Frito candy is truly a ghastly sounding recipe: a bag of Fritos with boiled sugar, corn syrup, and peanut butter poured over it. I made it out of boredom one day when I was pastry chef at the old Laundry restaurant in East Hampton. This literally became the most requested treat to be served at staff parties for years after. If you like PayDay candy bars (crunchy, salty, chewy, peanuty, caramely) then you will love Frito candy. 

The batch I made Sunday was enjoyed by the staff at Guild Hall the next day, thanks to my neighbor and good friend Kathleen, she of the high-heeled bejeweled pie slicer gift.

Some food gifts expire or get consumed; some remain treasures to be cherished for the rest of my life. Some just give me the giggles. Regardless, they always make me think fondly of the giver, and sometimes wonder what could possibly have been going through their minds when they picked up a copy of Ted Nugent’s “Kill It and Grill It” or “Last Dinner on the Titanic” or “Cooking With Coolio.” 

“Who would appreciate this?” they may wonder. “Laura, that’s who.” So true.

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Thanksgiving Tips

A cooking class on preparing healthy but satisfying side dishes for Thanksgiving dinner will be held at Sang Lee Farms in Peconic on Nov. 8 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Karen Lee, an owner of the farm, and Stefanie Sacks, a culinary nutritionist, will teach students how to make five plant-based dishes. A family-style meal will be served following the class. The cost is $150, and registration is via the farm’s website. 

Nick and Toni’s Specials

Pizzas made in a wood-burning oven are back on the dinner menu four nights a week at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton. They are available Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The restaurant is also offering three-course prix fixe dinner specials. A pizza or pasta entree with a romaine or mixed green salad, and a dessert of either gelato or sorbetto is $32. A roasted chicken entree with either a romaine salad or penne appetizer, plus a quarter tartufo for dessert is $37. The chef’s choice dinner, featuring an appetizer, entree, and dessert of the day is $45. Bar menu specials, offered weekdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., include an artisanal cheese plate and crostini for $10, and bruschetta for $6. 

Demo and Dinner

Arie Pavlou, the chef at Bistro Ete in Water Mill, will hold a cooking demonstration and wine dinner on Saturday at 4 p.m. The cost is $125, plus tax and tip. Reservations are by calling the restaurant. 

Planning Ahead

Long Island Restaurant Week, a promotion featuring $29.95 three-course prix fixes, will run from Nov. 4 through 11. Reservations are being taken now at the participating restaurants, which include 10 on the South Fork and two in Greenport.

Almond in Bridgehampton is taking reservations for holiday parties, and offering a gift certificate for up to $200 to those who book an event. The restaurant can accommodate up to 200 people for cocktails, and 80 for sit-down dinners. Reservations are by emailing [email protected]

It is true that certain foods can feed mind, body, and soul. Think about how you feel after a healthy, flavorful, balanced, and colorful meal. Then recall how you’ve felt after a Big Mac, basket of French fries, and a milkshake. Big difference, right?

Ayurveda, which has been in existence for over 3,000 years, is one of the world’s most sophisticated and powerful mind-body healthy systems. Some of it simply sounds logical: Eat that balanced diet, get adequate restful sleep, exercise, breath correctly, live in tune with nature, and be motivated by love. But this is easier said than done.

Which brings me to the little miracle occurring right now in Sag Harbor. For a mere $15 donation, four days a week at lunchtime at Sen, you can dine on a balanced and utterly delicious Southern Indian meal prepared by Corey DeRosa, who has been running the Tapovana Ashtanga Healing Center of the Hamptons for 13 years. For $5 you can get the “two hour” chai, a seasonal mixture of spices simmered with black tea and milk. On the day I went, the usual combination of ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon also had fennel, giving it a more mysterious and deep flavor.

The meal was served in the traditional small metal bowls used in India. There was butternut squash palya with coconut and red peppers, lime rice with green peppers, coconut, and toasted cashews, pigeon pea soup with green chili and cumin, and tomato gojju with red peppers and lentils. The butternut squash dish was mild and a bit crunchy from the mustard seeds. The lime rice was complex; the long-grained brown and white basmati rice was slightly tart and sweet, with toasted lentils, rich grated coconut, and roasted cashews. The tomato gojju was spicy, a perfect accompaniment to all the other dishes. For a few dollars more you could order the potato vada, crispy potato cakes with curry leaves, ginger, and black mustard seeds topped with a sweet-tart date and tamarind chutney.

Corey was raised Catholic in an Italian family. From his religious upbringing he always felt that the “seeds of spirituality” were in him. From his family, he learned the importance of food as part of bringing people together, whether to celebrate occasions or mourn losses. Cooking for people you love.

He was always athletic and recognized the importance of a healthy diet. In his 20s he was on his way from semipro to becoming a professional soccer player. And then he broke his back. He realized right away that muscle relaxers were not the best road to recovery. He spent many years as a waiter at Sen, Phao, and Jeff and Eddie’s, and then opened Tapovana Ashtanga Healing Center of the Hamptons.

“I’ve been a vegetarian, a vegan, tried the raw food diet, then discovered ayurveda. Ayurveda made the most sense to me, with the mind-body health connections.”

He learned Southern Indian cooking in Gokulum, Mysore, and began cooking at home and bringing the food for students at the yoga studio one day a week. This became so popular that soon he found himself cooking four days a week for 20 to 40 people. When the Suffolk County Health Department got wind of this generous (yet illegal) activity, he was shut down. Eventually he called his friends Jesse and Tora Matsuoka and Jeff Resnick at Sen and asked if he could use their kitchen to continue serving the community healthy, extremely reasonably priced meals. “We have the best local ingredients out here. We’re not looking at the bottom line, we’re not cooking to make money. The donations are to pay the people serving and helping to make the food [such as Bala Dev, a yoga student] and to pay for the food. Thanks to Jeff and friends at Sen, this is now possible.”

Expounding on the beliefs of ayurvedic cooking and the importance of good digestion, he explained that not only should every meal have the six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent) to be balanced, but every bite should. He says he is like a kid in a candy shop this time of year. “It’s harvest time and I love making dosas. The other day I made them with parsnips and Brussels sprouts.” He also makes paneer from scratch. This is the silky, slightly firm Indian cheese made from fresh milk that is the perfect foil to spicy curries. It is obvious from his cooking that he understands the balance of flavors and proportion. “I started practicing cooking this way 12 years ago, and if a recipe was good I kept at it. It’s really a science.”

Corey lives in Sag Harbor with his wife, Erika Halweil, and daughters Milla and Neelu. On the day of my visit, Erika was at Sen enjoying her husband’s food with some mutual friends. She is lovely and funny as heck and also teaches yoga. In our interview, Corey frequently mentioned her and said how he couldn’t have done any of this without her.

The restaurant filled up gradually on this off-season Tuesday afternoon. If environment is indeed conducive to good digestion, then Corey couldn’t have chosen a more serene atmosphere than Sen.

He also teaches cooking classes; the next one will be on Nov. 10. It will 

be a demonstration, an introduction to ayur­veda, recipes, and then the meal. “You can’t learn this kind of cooking from a book, you really need to learn the techniques,” he said.

People (including yours truly) have told him that he could/should charge more for these delicious and perfectly balanced meals but that is not the goal. He is supporting the community that supports him. Maybe someday he will have an opportunity to open his own place. In the meantime, let us give thanks for this little miracle on Main Street in Sag Harbor.

The Tapovana South Indian Cafe at Sen is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m

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