As the earth awakens from a long, cold slumber, Frank Trentacoste is awakening to a new path, exchanging a 15-telephone turret and bank of Bloomberg terminals for a tractor and pickup truck.

    Mr. Trentacoste, who was an equities strategist and director at Macro Risk Advisors and worked before that at two New York hedge funds, has established Bhumi Farm, an organic vegetable farm, on the Amagansett land he leased from the Peconic Land Trust.

    He plans to grow a range of produce on his two-acre plot, including beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes, which will be sold at farmers markets at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton and at Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton. Mr. Trentacoste has also applied to sell at farmers markets from Montauk to Westhampton Beach.

    Like the nearby Quail Hill Farm, Bhumi will be a cooperative farm in the community supported agriculture format. Families and individuals can purchase a membership for the 22-week season between Memorial Day and Oct. 20, or for smaller periods within that span. Mr. Trentacoste hopes to realize 60 percent of the farm’s revenue through these memberships, with farmers markets accounting for the balance.

    With a five-year lease in hand, the new farmer’s plans are the manifestation of an inner transformation that he hopes will extend to the community. Though he maintains a positive view of his work and the financial industry, a life under the open skies in the fields off Town Lane reflects the changed priorities to which many a transplanted urbanite can relate.

    In New York, he said, “you have pace and noise and masses, and culturally it’s more robust. But it gets exhausting. As time went on I wanted something more tangible, a feeling that I was contributing more to society at large. It’s a huge lifestyle change. I’ll make a lot less money, clearly. My life, hopefully, will be more rewarding in other ways.”

    Mr. Trentacoste, who grew up in Lynbrook, exuded passion and excitement for his new career as he walked the length of his plot on a cold and windy afternoon earlier this month, measuring the parcel he will soon till. “One of the driving forces of the farm is for people to get grounded and back into earth,” he said. “We just wanted a place where people could slow down.”

    That slowing, he said, should extend to diet, as illustrated in the recent emphasis on consuming locally grown food. “Life has gotten so crazy,” he said. “You’re texting, you don’t have conversations anymore. That pace has manifested itself into really poor diets, and those poor diets have led to really, really bad health in children. It makes me sad. I’m not saying people are bad parents, but this is where society is heading. Society has really moved away from farming — growing your own food, preparing your own food — to its own detriment.”

    The statistics are well known and irrefutable: obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are epidemic in the United States, and some types of food — fast, junk, processed — are leading culprits. “The goal of the farm is to connect people to the land,” said Mr. Trentacoste, a vegetarian since 2009. (Bhumi, the Hindu goddess of the earth, taught that living in harmony with sea, soil, mountains, plants, and animals is necessary for mankind’s survival, according to the farm’s Web site.)

    “I look at my nieces and nephews, see them glued to the television, computers, not understanding where food comes from, not having any sense of what is healthy and non-healthy,” he said. “I think a farm is a great place, because it’s an interactive classroom.”

    To that end, Mr. Trentacoste will offer free, educational children’s crafts at the farmers markets and offers himself as an educational speaker to classes, scouting groups, and other organizations. Last month, he visited a Girl Scout troop in Greenlawn, which is recounted on the Bhumi Farm Web site, bhumifarm.com.

    His change of course may seem radical, but there is precedent for Mr. Trentacoste’s career U-turn. “My grandpa used to have a vegetable garden,” he said. “I spent a lot of time with him. That’s where the love came from.”

    Mr. Trentacoste’s brother is a member of Quail Hill Farm, he said, and the act of picking produce with him proved an additional catalyst for a career change. “I liked the feel of it,” he said. “It was a different sensation. I would leave there feeling very relaxed, very alive, just having different feelings about working the land.” Last summer, he spent time with Jon Wagner and Karin Bellemare, the owners of Sunset Beach Farms, who have since vacated the plot on which Bhumi Farm now sits and relocated to Vermont. “I worked with them and learned more. I just felt it was time to do something for others, and everything aligned,” he said.

    Last week, Mr. Trentacoste learned that he has been selected as a member of the chef Jamie Oliver’s Ambassador Program, an outgrowth of Mr. Oliver’s Food Revolution movement to combat obesity and poor diets. “That basically means doing what I’m doing now,” he said. “It was something I wanted to do anyway, but now I’m basically co-branding. I’m hoping people will listen a little harder.”

    Mr. Trentacoste’s altruism is clear, but goes hand in hand with an equally unmistakable humility. He is learning the fundamentals of his new career, but acknowledges the likelihood of missteps. He hopes to blog about his experiences as farming begins in earnest, hiccups and all. “I’ve been studying a ton, but that only gets you so far,” he said. “It could be really funny to see all the blunders I make. I’m not the first person, but there will probably be more behind me that do this.”

    Hamptons Restaurant Week begins on Sunday and brings an opportunity to sample the fare at restaurants from Eastport to Montauk, including the North Fork, at a discounted price.

    From Sunday through April 14, all participating restaurants will offer a three-course prix fixe, most for $27.95, although a couple of eateries will offer a $19.95 option. The special will be available all night every night except Saturday, when it will be offered only until 7 p.m.

    Among the local restaurants involved in the event are the Harvest in Montauk, the Bell and Anchor in Sag Harbor, the 1770 House, Fresno, and the Living Room in East Hampton, Almond in Bridgehampton, and the Coast Grill in North Sea. A full list can be found at hamptonsrestaurantweek. com.

Mozzarella-Making Classes

    Jeanine Alfano Burge of Silver Spoon Specialties is offering classes in making homemade mozzarella, which include not only instruction in the surprisingly easy process, but information about menus incorporating the cheese and a tasting of all the menu items, with a glass of wine. The cost is $40 per person.

    The next session will be held on Monday night in Montauk, in the kitchen at Sausages Pizza, and future classes will take place in both Montauk and East Hampton. Groups of five to eight people may schedule their own private class. Reservations can be made by e-mailing [email protected], or calling Ms. Burge at 875-4400.

Plaza Cafe

    The Plaza Cafe in Southampton has a $32, three-course prix fixe menu available between 5:30 and 6:45 p.m. Sunday through Friday. Tax and gratuity are extra. The menu choices include prosciutto-wrapped shrimp, Long Island seafood chowder, or organic field greens to start, and, as main courses, horseradish-crusted Chatham Bay cod, sliced flatiron steak, and lemon-herb marinated chicken.

Giant Charitable Bunny

    George Hirsch, a chef, cookbook author, and host of a new TV series, “George Hirsch Lifestyle,” which will be shown in the fall on PBS, was the winner of a giant chocolate Easter bunny at the 1770 House on Sunday.

    Mr. Hirsch had purchased a number of raffle tickets sold by the inn to benefit the Flying Point Foundation for Autism, and won the prize.

   The familiar sights and sounds of children and families talking and laughing as they munch on pizza and sip soda returned to Fierro’s Pizza last Thursday. Al Fierro, a co-founder of the pizzeria, which opened at 104 Park Place in East Hampton in 1983, was back behind the counter, along with Stephen Hickey, his new business partner. A portrait of Mr. Fierro’s father, Albert Fierro Jr., looked down from a wall by the counter and a Yankees preseason game played out on the television overhead. All was right in this little slice of the universe.

    “They haven’t had the pizza in about two weeks, so they’re kind of jonesing a little bit,” said Mr. Fierro, gesturing to the children who filled nearly every table. “But this is the after-school hit that we get every day.”

    Mr. Fierro and Mr. Hickey had just completed a renovation of the restaurant: new ovens and furniture, a new ceiling, newly painted walls. This, after Mr. Fierro, his brother, John, and their mother, Barbara, sold the business in 2007.

    It was only about six months ago, said Mr. Hickey, that he and Mr. Fierro bought the business from Claude Cardin, to whom the Fierros had sold it. “It was really exciting for both of us, because we’d looked at other opportunities over the years,” he said. “Al and I wanted to go into partnership together in some type of restaurant, but we never dreamed that this opportunity would arise. It was a blessing that we waited.”

    The partners had met and worked together at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, where Mr. Fierro was a bartender and Mr. Hickey a member of the waitstaff. “I had no other restaurant experience,” said Mr. Hickey, who moved to the South Fork from Connecticut in 2008 to care for his ailing father. The job at the tavern, he said, provided essential on-the-job training. “I figured I’d do whatever they told me to do. It really helped, learning the business from the ground up. But if there was anybody I would have done this with, it was only going to be Al. I was leaning on his expertise.”

    Mr. Fierro has plenty of it. With his family, he’s operated pizzerias UpIsland, in Farmingville and Shirley. Being back in the restaurant that bears his name, he said, “feels like I came back home — I kind of grew up in this building.”

    After the summer, Mr. Fierro said, he may make some adjustments to the menu, but the offerings will remain consistent with what patrons have come to know and expect. “Our chicken rolls are great,” he said. “We make some great crispy chicken salads, chicken tenders, and the wings are great. We’ll have some great gelato in the summertime. But we’re here for pizza. And of course, the lottery — I don’t have to tell anybody about that.”

    Mr. Hickey is thrilled to be part of the once-and-present ownership. “Al has people who have come here since they were 10 years old, and now they’re coming in with their own 10-year-olds,” he said. “He’s a staple of the community, so it was really special for him to get back into the business. I feel blessed to be part of it. We’re excited.”

    It is said that John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, “invented” the sandwich while locked in a 24-hour card game. Nowadays, Gamblers Anonymous would have a field day with this. What, he couldn’t stop gambling long enough to fortify himself? All he did was ask his valet to put meat between two slices of bread so his cards wouldn’t get all greasy. His cronies started ordering “the same as Sandwich,” and hence the name was born. But it could be said that the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder created an earlier version when he wrapped some Paschal lamb with bitter herbs between two pieces of soft matzoh during Passover.

    There are so many versions of sandwiches around the world — paninis from Italy, smorrebrod from Scandinavia, croque monsieur from France, banh mi from Vietnam. There are regional versions of submarines, hoagies, heros, and grinders. There is the Philly cheesesteak and muffalettas from New Orleans. If you want to stretch the meaning of any bread with fillings you could include pita wraps, gyros, burritos, and bagels.

    One of my favorite sandwiches is the Reuben. Its origins are up for debate. One story, also involving a bunch of gambling men, credits Reuben Kulakofsky of Omaha, Neb. In the 1920s his gang of cronies, nicknamed “the committee,” used to have poker games at the Blackstone Hotel. The owner of the hotel, Charles Schimmel, put the Reuben on the menu and it became nationally famous when one of his employees won a competition with the recipe. Another story credits Arnold Reuben of the now defunct Reuben’s Delicatessen in New York City. Regardless of its origins, it is a perfect combination of salty meats (corned beef, turkey, or pastrami), crunchy vegetables (saurkraut or coleslaw), Thousand Island or Russian dressing, and/or Dijon mustard on good rye bread.

    The club sandwich is another delicious classic, a combination of turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on toasted white bread. This sandwich has been seen on American menus since 1899 and is believed to have originated at, you guessed it, a gambling club in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

    Some sandwiches sound downright dangerous or gross. Remember fluffernutters? Nothing but marshmallow cream and peanut butter on white bread. The chip butty of Sheffield, Yorkshire, is French fries with vinegar or ketchup on bread. In the Baoding Hebei province of China they eat a savory sandwich of shredded donkey. The Danish enjoy a slice of aspic and red onion with salt beef on fat-smeared rye. Another Danish specialty is sal over Gudhjem, an open-faced rye sandwich with smoked herring, chives, and a raw egg yolk.

    Remember tea sandwiches? People seldom make them anymore, but they are a charming, dainty tradition for parties. Cucumbers or watercress and finely minced chicken salad or smoked salmon are spread on super thin white or wheat bread. Seasoning, moisture, and restraint are the key ingredients. Crusts cut off, cut into triangles, pinkies in the air when consuming! The trick I learned about tea sandwiches is butter on one slice of bread, mayo on the other. My favorite is a Vidalia onion tea sandwich. Use paper-thin slices of the onion, which is quite sweet and mild. Another good one is made on thin pumpernickel or brown bread spread with a schmear of cream cheese that has been flavored with grated orange zest.

    At the other end of the sandwich spectrum are Sloppy Joes and Dagwoods. Sloppy Joes were popular when I was growing up. They are basically a mixture of a barbecuey-tomato sauce and ground hamburger meat on a bun. The Dagwood can be any sandwich piled up ridiculously high with ingredients, made famous by Dagwood Bumstead of the Blondie comic strip. The muffaletta of New Orleans is another huge, thick sandwich made on big round loaves of Italian bread. It contains a wide variety of meats like salami, ham, sopressatta, and cheese. The key ingredient, however, is olive salad, an oily, vinegary mixture of chopped green olives, celery, and garlic.

    Another great sandwich that has gained popularity is the banh mi of Vietnam. It is often made with a layer of paté, some roast pork, pickled vegetables, some hot sauce, and mayonnaise. The bread used is key. The Vietnamese version of French bread is lighter and crisper, a bit spongy, like Cuban bread. You don’t want a chewy, dense baguette scraping the roof of your mouth with this sandwich.

    A grilled cheese sandwich can be as simple as the child-pleasing American cheese on white bread to the more sophisticated Taleggio with quince paste or cheddar and gouda layered with bacon and tomatoes on Portuguese buns. The French croque monsieur or croque madame is made with a good Gruyere cheese, ham, and a layer of bechamel.

    Of course, two of the best sandwiches ever invented are the lobster roll and a plain old tomato sandwich, always only served at the height of summer with a perfect beefsteak tomato, thickly sliced.

    You can make a simple sandwich for your children to enjoy, a healthy vegetarian sandwich utilizing hummus, avocadoes, sprouts, and any other vegetables you like on a seven-grain bread, or make one of those belly bombs like a Reuben or Cuban sandwich (roast pork, ham, pickles, cheese, and mustard). Use your imagination! Here are some recipes to inspire you, starting with one of my favorites, the sandwich my father used to make for us on Sunday afternoons.

Click for recipes

Now For Home

    The tomato sauce prepared and used at Astro Pizza and Felice’s Restaurant, the side-by-side Italian spots in ­Amagansett, can now be purchased for use at home, and even ordered by mail. Containers come in two sizes: 16 ounces for $5.50 and 36 ounces for $7.50. Homemade pizza dough and the restaurants’ homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing are also available in takeout packages.

Heating Up

    Slowly but surely, the restaurants that have been shuttered for a winter break are reopening. In Montauk, Sammy’s by the docks will fire up the stove once again tomorrow, and will offer St. Patrick’s Day-inspired prix fixes nightly through March 17.

    The Coast restaurant, downtown in Montauk, reopens next Thursday, and will serve dinner beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursdays through Sundays. Next Thursday, as well as on March 21 and 28, there will be a family trivia night, with teams of four to eight people competing.

    An admission price of $20 for adults and $10 for children includes dinner, with children offered a choice among three entrees and a dessert, served with a juice box, and the grown-ups offered a choice of soup or salad, and one entree of three on the list.

    Advance reservations have been suggested and can be made by calling the restaurant or sending an e-mail to reservations@ thecoastmontauk.com.

Chocolate and Wine

    At Wolffer Estate vineyard in Sagaponack on Sunday, a chocolate sommelier will offer tastes of different sweets, all paired with wines. Roxanne Browning will discuss the cacao varietals and blends, and their terroir.

    Four different pairings will be served during two sessions. The first will be from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., followed by a 2 to 3 p.m. tasting. The cost is $35 per person, plus tax, or $30 for Wolffer wine club members. As seating is limited, reservations should be made online at wolffer.com

   I have a huge cookbook collection. I am constantly editing, but the collection grows. People give me books, I buy more. I am first in line at the cookbook booth at the Ladies Village Improvement ­Society Fair. I have even bought back books I donated to the L.V.I.S. That’s mental.

    And this collection was never well organized until I moved. These books now reside in a little closet lined with shelves. I am proud to say they are currently arranged by nationality, single subject, resource, narrative, local, etc. I recently began to ponder, which 10 books are my absolute favorites, and why.

    When I mentioned favorite cookbooks to a fellow foodie friend, he insisted that I must include Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and “Joy of Cooking.” Sorry, I seldom crack either of these open. Some of my choices are sentimental, some books I simply love for their pictures, menus, and stories. Here are five favorites.

    Edna Lewis was an African-American born in Freetown, Va., in 1916. In her 80-year lifetime she published four books and worked for many years at Cafe Nicholson in New York City, where she was best known for her roast chicken and chocolate souffles. Craig Claiborne declared her book “The Taste of Country Cooking” “the most entertaining regional cookbook in America.”

    The menus are mouthwatering. How does this one, for a late spring dinner, sound? Skillet spring chicken with watercress, buttered Jerusalem artichokes, garden green peas in cream, biscuits, pear preserves, and rhubarb pie. Here is another menu, this one for Christmas Eve supper: oyster stew, baked country ham, scalloped potatoes, pan-braised spare ribs, ham biscuits, wild blackberry jelly, watermelon rind pickles, yellow vanilla pound cake, hickory nut cookies, dandelion wine, plum wine, and coffee. Keep in mind that every meal that was prepared in Freetown was grown, fished, farmed, hunted, preserved, and foraged.

    Aside from having so many simple but delicious seasonal recipes, this book also was my favorite because when my son was attending East Hampton Middle School he would read this book in the car every day on his way to and from school. I think there is something comforting and cozy in Edna Lewis’s manner of writing that even reached a 10-year-old boy.

    Richard Sax’s encyclopedic “Classic Home Desserts” has more foolproof delicious recipes than any other dessert book I own. Mr. Sax was a prolific chef and cookbook writer and was the founding director of Food and Wine magazine’s test kitchen. Sadly, he died of AIDS at the age of 46. His book is filled with historical tidbits, entertaining quotes, and has the best pie streusel, ginger hottentots, butterscotch pudding, and lemon custard ice cream. It has fools and syllabubs and flummery, crisps, compotes, and cobblers. He even had a soft spot for ancient English recipes, which he appreciated for their “unadorned frankness.”

    Douglas Rodriguez’s “Latin Flavors on the Grill” is one of my favorites because it was a gift from my brother, Sherman, and it is just so darned good. Mr. Rodriguez has been dubbed the godfather of Nuevo Latino cuisine. By the age of 13 he had his own collection of pots and pans and cookbooks. He is the author of four books and has several restaurants throughout the country. Every time I am looking for a light and spicy way to prepare fish, I turn to this book. Tuna with mango ginger lime mojo, salmon with dill chimichurri, and clams with chipotle cachucha mojo with bacon are outstanding. This book also has the best chocolate cake recipe, ever.

    Martin Picard is a wild man, French-Canadian chef, author, and TV personality. His restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, is famous for elevating Quebec’s “muscular” food to new heights. It is loud and bawdy, a bastion of excess. Foie gras appears on the menu in every way, shape, and form. His cookbook “Au Pied de Cochon” looks more like Hunter S. Thompson’s rambling stories in Rolling Stone illustrated by Ralph Steadman. There are spatters of blood, pig’s feet, and foul language. This book was a gift from my son, who knows what I like.

    Mr. Picard is an avid hunter and fisherman, as well as an expert maple syrup maker. This book is full of stories about the people who fish and farm for him, full of photographs of the messy behind-the-scenes world of restaurants, and most of all, full of Mr. Picard’s passion and love for what he does — feed the lucky gourmands who flock to Au Pied de Cochon.

    The late Lee Bailey was a resident of Bridgehampton and the author of several lifestyle cookbooks. He contributed stories to Vogue and The New York Times and had a charming little housewares shop in Henri Bendel. His book “Country Weekends” transports you to the beach, to the field, and to the garden for simple, accessible meals, or as the title proclaims, “recipes for good food and easy living.” His lovage and apple stuffed roast chicken with pan gravy is my favorite go-to chicken recipe. Now imagine it accompanied by the rest of his menu, grits souffle, beet and carrot puree, flaky biscuits with parsley butter, followed by grapefruit sherbert and candied grapefruit rind! The table settings and flower arrangements are beautiful but look like something any of us could do. Or as Mr. Bailey said, “there is a kind of appealing grace in having the end result of a project, food or otherwise, seemingly brought off without strain.” The book is set up from Friday evening meals to more elaborate Saturday suppers to Sunday lunch and finally Monday diet meals. Who knew white china, wildflowers, and your back porch could make a meal feel special?

    I am the kind of cookbook owner who dog-ears pages, spatters the recipes, and makes notes in the margins. Some might find this disrespectful, but when I open one of these favorite books and find a favorite old recipe that I have been preparing for over 30 years, I don’t see stains and scribbles, I see history and love and many, many meals shared with family and friends. Thanks to Edna and Douglas and Richard and Martin and Lee.

Click for recipes

Lovage and Apple Stuffed Roast Chicken

    Here is Lee Bailey’s recipe. I substitute celery leaves for lovage.

    Serves six.

2 21/2-lb. chickens

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 cup butter, softened

1 handful lovage

1 large cooking apple, peeled and cored

Gravy:

1 Tbsp. butter, softened

2 Tbsp. flour

1 cup chicken stock, heated

1 Tbsp. chopped chives

    Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry chickens, mix salt and pepper into softened butter. Chop apple and lovage (or celery leaves). Alternately stuff chickens with softened butter and apples and lovage. Reserve a bit of butter for tops of chickens.

    Place chickens breast side up on rack in roasting pan. Smear rest of butter over chickens. Bake an hour and 15 minutes, basting occasionally. Remove chickens to warm platter.

    To make gravy, mush butter and flour together to make paste. Pour fat out of roasting pan and add hot stock. Swirl around and scrape up crispy bits in pan. Thicken with the flour butter mixture and cook until thickened, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chives.

Grilled Asparagus With Crab Mayonnaise

    This recipe is from Douglas Rodriguez’s “Latin Flavors on the Grill.” It is great as an appetizer or served with fish, chicken, or veal.

    Serves six to eight.

1 lb. asparagus

2 Tbsp. oil

Salt and pepper

Zest and juice of 3 lemons

2 Tbsp. adobo sauce, from canned chipotles in adobo

1 lb. Alaskan crabmeat or jumbo lump crabmeat

1/4 cup minced chives

1/2 cup finely diced red onion

2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

4 red jalapenos, stemmed, seeded, diced

    Blanch asparagus for four minutes, then plunge in ice water. Drain, then peel away tough outer skin.

    Prepare a medium low fire on the grill.

    In bowl, toss asparagus with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill for a few minutes on each side, until lightly charred. Transfer to serving platter.

    In another bowl, combine mayonnaise with lemon zest, juice, adobo, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Gently fold in rest of ingredients. Spoon crab mayonnaise over asparagus and serve.

Mary’s Pignoli (Italian Pine Nut Macaroons)

    This is a great recipe from Richard Sax’s “Classic Home Desserts.” If you find pine nuts to be too expensive, you can substitute slivered or sliced almonds or a combination of pine nuts and almonds.

    Makes about five dozen.

    1 lb. almond paste

    11/4 cups sugar

    4 large egg whites

    1 lb. pine nuts

    Preheat oven to 350. Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly butter the pans.

    Break up the almond paste and place in bowl with sugar. Crumble together with your fingers or in an electric mixer until evenly combined. In separate bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Stir a little of the egg whites into almond paste mixture. It will be fairly dry. Fold in remaining whites.

    Place nuts in shallow bowl. Roll almond paste mixture into one-inch balls and press each into nuts, gently turning to coat evenly. They will look like little porcupines. Place on baking sheets, one inch apart.

    Bake until cookies are evenly pale gold, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool.

    In Montauk, the Coast restaurant, which has reopened for dinners on Thursdays through Saturdays, will also be open this week on Sunday, when the Friends of Erin holds their annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the bar will be open and a takeout menu featuring soups, stews, reuben sandwiches, and more, will be offered. Tonight will bring the second in a series of family trivia nights at the Coast, with a prix fixe meal offered to adults for $20 and to children for $10, along with an opportunity to compete on a trivia team. Another session will take place next Thursday.

Montauk Yacht Club

    This month, the Gulf Coast Kitchen at the Montauk Yacht Club is offering a five-course prix fixe for $29.95 every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It includes an amuse bouche, an appetizer, an entree, petit fours, and dessert.

    South Fork residents, from Westhampton Beach to Montauk and including Shelter Island, who dine at the yacht club may register to receive a keychain that is good for a 10-percent discount on food and beverages at the Gulf Coast Kitchen as well as at the other yacht club eateries, Hurricane Alley and the Barracuda Bar and Turtle Lounge. Keychains will only be given to the first 1,000 registrants, and may also be used for savings on lodging.

Cooking Class

    Next Thursday, the East End Chefs cooking class series at the Whalers Church in Sag Harbor will begin its 2013 session by featuring Greek cuisine. Tim Salouros, the owner of the Old Stove Pub in Sagaponack, and Emmanouil Aslanoglou, the restaurant’s chef — who was selected chef of the year in Greece in 2010 — will demonstrate how to prepare a classic Greek salad, a beef pastitsio, a moussaka, and, for dessert, ekmet, a traditional Greek cake topped with roasted pistachio nuts, pastry cream, whipped cream, and mastic syrup, which comes from a tree in Chios, Greece. Advance reservations have been requested. Admission is $30 and includes wine.

Suffolk Theater Eats

    Tom Schaudel, the chef behind restaurants such as Allure in Southold and A Mano in Mattituck, and the author of “Playing With Fire,” is the culinary director at the newly reopened Suffolk Theater in Riverhead, which has a restaurant with two bars. A small plate menu, which is crafted to fit with the theater’s Art Deco theme, includes items such as fish tacos, crab cakes, a cheese or salami plate, spring rolls, quesadillas, burgers, tuna sashimi, clam fritters, wings, and a selection of seasoned flatbreads.

Best Burger Award

    The Smashed Smoke Burger served at LT Burger in Sag Harbor won an award sponsored by the Red Robin food chain at the recent South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami. The burger features black-peppered bacon, New York State cheddar, Spanish onion, and a sweet sauce. It will be offered for a limited time on the menus of more than 465 Red Robin restaurants in Canada and the United States.

    The well-known chef and part-time Amagansett resident Bobby Flay won the People’s Choice award at the festival’s Burger Bash with his green chili cheeseburger topped with queso sauce, green chili relish, pickled red onions, and potato chips.

Rowdy St. Patrick’s

    Also on Sunday, Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will serve Irish drinks and an Irish meal in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. A two-course prix fixe for $22 will include either an appetizer and entree, or an entree and dessert. The menu includes potato leek soup to start, followed by a choice among three entrees, corned beef and cabbage, bangers and mash, or shepherd’s pie. Drink specials will include a special holiday tap beer, Magner’s Original Cider, and Irish Mimosas, which is the cider with orange juice.

    Last week I offered up the first five of my 10 favorite cookbooks, now for the second.

    I had meant to include a “Silver Palate” cookbook but which one? They are all good, and were revolutionary for their time, but I simply couldn’t choose. I am also partial to my little collection of historical cookbooks: Thomas Jefferson’s “Congressional Wives” and “The First Ladies Cookbook,” but none stood out in particular. So I have narrowed my list down to two marvelous French cookbooks, another dessert cookbook, one “Barefoot Contessa,” and one purely for the kitsch factor.

    “The Taste of France” by Robert Freson is one of the most beautiful coffee table-type cookbooks ever. Mr. Freson is best known for his photography and every picture in the book was taken in natural light. The pictures are not glossy, shiny, colorful close-ups of glistening roast chickens and artfully arranged vegetable towers or perfectly symmetrical sci-fi desserts. They are realistic and messy, often portraying the before and after of ingredients. This can be disconcerting when it’s a furry bunny next to a terrine of lapin, but this is France, after all. The book is divided by regions and their cuisines such as Normandy and Brittany, Provence, Perigord, Alsace, etc. The veal scallops with cream and mushroom sauce is one of my favorite recipes, served with sauteed apples and sugar snap peas. Another favorite, so simple and delicious in the summertime, is the salade Tourangelle, no more than a selection of cooked artichoke hearts, asparagus, and green beans served with raw celery and mushrooms. Each vegetable gets its own separate vinaigrette, a sprinkling of herbs such as chervil, and the whole is served with toast and fresh walnuts.

    Ina Garten, a k a the Barefoot Contessa, has written eight books, thus far. I have most of them and have favorite recipes in each. But if I had to choose one, it would be the first, “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.” This book has the only brownie recipe you will ever need, called Outrageous Brownies. There is a curried couscous full of vegetables and my favorite, the pan-fried onion dip. One of the reasons she is so successful with her cookbooks and TV show is that she wants to share recipes that the average home cook anywhere can find the ingredients for. They are simple and foolproof.

    “The Presley Family Cookbook,” a spiral-bound, cheapo production, is more like a regional church or ladies society cookbook. It was compiled by Elvis’s uncle Vester Presley and the longtime cook at Graceland, Nancy Rooks. There are personal anecdotes scattered throughout the book such as after the Twelve-Flavor Ice Cream Dessert, which is one scoop each vanilla, black walnut, banana split, butter pecan, strawberry, chocolate chip, black cherry, lemon, and peach ice cream, and pineapple, lime, and orange sherbet with one pint of fresh strawberries. Ms. Rooks’s notation: “Some days this is all Elvis would have during the day.” After the recipe for Red Eagle Meatball and Spaghetti Dinner (which contains 1/4 cup bacon fat and butter-flavored salt) she added, “This is the last meal Elvis ate.” There are some classic Southern recipes, such as for crowder peas (cook three and a half hours), black-eyed peas (cook three and a half hours), pork ears, feet, and tails (cook two and a half hours), hush puppies (“These are good for children after school”), and fried squirrel (boil, dry, fry.) I think the editors were half asleep when working on this book because some of the black and white photographs are repeated throughout the book. It is definitely more kitsch than kitchen, but I love it.

    I have a lot of cookbooks by professional chefs and/or from well-known restaurants. Quite often the recipes are flawed because the chef is used to producing in great volume and when the recipe is reduced and simplified for the home cook, it simply doesn’t work. This is not the case with Claudia Fleming’s “The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern.” Every single recipe I have tried comes out perfectly. Ms. Fleming, who owns and is the pastry chef of North Fork Table, along with her husband, Gerry Hayden, the chef, has divided her book into sections such as berries, stone fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs and flowers, and sweet essences. She is best known for her composed desserts, such as chocolate souffle tart with extra bittersweet chocolate sorbet, milk chocolate malted ice cream, and a chocolate malted. Besides each recipe being accessible and well explained, there are serving suggestions for each dessert so you can keep it simple or be a showoff. This book has the best pecan Sandie cookie recipe ever.

    My last and absolute favorite cookbook of all time is Patricia Wells’s “Bistro Cookbook.” It is my favorite for several reasons. One, bistro-style cooking is my favorite. It is simple, rustic, and seasonal. Secondly, my brother John, an excellent artist, painted a lovely watercolor in the front of the book. When this painting faded away from various cooking stains, he painted it over again. Ms. Wells tells a story about each recipe and the bistro it came from. There are wine suggestions, menus, and various entertaining quotes. Here is the kind of menu that sends me to the store for ingredients: salad of fresh spinach and sauteed chicken livers, Chez Rose’s chicken fricasee with mushrooms, Madame Laracine’s potato gratin, and golden cream and apple tart. Like most of my cookbooks, this one is dog-eared, spattered, and full of my own notes such as this for two chocolate cake recipes in a row: “Great! Would be good served with strawberries or raspberries!” Next page: “Even better!” Madame Cartet’s gratin dauphinois is so easy and delicious. The pear clafoutis with vanilla sugar is simple and inexpensive to make. This book only came out in paperback and it has just a few black and white photos and some sketches. It is simple and classic, just like the recipes within.

    I confess that I love it so much, that when I see a copy at a friend’s house, I pull it off the bookshelf and start to dog-ear and scribble in it.

    Maybe my top 10 list will inspire you to get some of these books, or at the very least, try some of the recipes I have chosen from them. As someone who has cooked professionally for many years, these books probably mean more to me than they would to the average cook. It all boils down to a favorite quote from Grimod de la Reyniere: “Life is so brief that we should not glance either too far backwards or forwards . . . therefore study how to fix our happiness in our glass and in our plate.”

Click for recipes

Salade Tourangelle

    This recipe from “The Taste of France” is more of a guideline, and does not give measurements. Each vegetable is prepared separately but served together on the same platter.

Asparagus tips, cooked and sprinkled with a vinaigrette made with walnut oil and white wine vinegar to which you have added salt and pepper, some finely chopped shallots and a little chopped parsley

Cooked artichoke hearts, with a stronger vinaigrette containing mustard, chopped fresh tarragon, chives, chervil, parsley, and salt and pepper

Cooked green beans, seasoned with same vinaigrette as asparagus

Sticks of celery, strings removed and served raw, sprinkled with lemon juice and salt

Raw button mushrooms, sliced finely and sprinkled with lemon juice, then dressed with heavy cream flavored with mustard, seasoned with salt and pepper, and sprinkled with chopped fresh chervil.

    Serve this salad with toast and fresh walnuts.

Gratin Dauphinois Madame Cartet

    This recipe is from Patricia Wells’s “Bistro Cookbook.”

    Serves four to six.

1 garlic clove

2 lbs. baking potatoes, such as russets, peeled and very thinly sliced.

1 cup (about 3 oz.) freshly grated French or Swiss Gruyere

1 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream

Salt

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub a shallow six-cup porcelain gratin dish with the garlic. Layer half of the potatoes in the dish. Sprinkle with half the cheese and half of the creme fraiche. Sprinkle with salt. Add another layer, using the rest of ingredients. Bake uncovered, until gratin is crisp and gold on top, from 50 to 60 minutes. Serve immediately.

Pan-Fried Onion Dip

    This recipe is originated in Ina Garten’s “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.” I add one extra onion and reduce the fat by using Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, reducing the amount of butter and oil, and using a lighter mayonnaise. Serve this with really good potato chips and crudites.

    Makes two cups.

2 large yellow onions

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup good mayonnaise

    Cut the onions in half, then slice into eighth-inch half rounds. You will have about three cups onions.

    Heat butter and oil in large saute pan on medium heat. Add onions, cayenne, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 more minutes, until onions are browned and caramelized. Allow to cool.

    Place cream cheese, sour cream, and mayonnaise in bowl of electric mixer fitted with a paddle and beat until smooth. Add onions and mix well. Taste for seasonings. Serve at room temperature.