Opened, Closed

    Tom Colicchio opened his restaurant at the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton last weekend. The restored 1842 Greek Revival mansion will also house a luxury inn. The 50-seat eatery will have a locavore focus, with a vegetable-centric menu that includes dishes made with produce grown on an on-site garden plot.

    Mr. Colicchio, the recipient of five James Beard Foundation Awards and the head judge on the Bravo TV show “Top Chef,” has a résumé that includes numerous prominent Manhattan restaurants, among them the Quilted Giraffe, Gotham Bar & Grill, and Gramercy Tavern, which he opened with Danny Meyer in 1994.

    In East Hampton, Spring Close restaurant is shuttered after reports of management and financial difficulties. Its phone has been disconnected and its Web site taken down.

The Blue Parrot

    Southwestern specials at the Blue Parrot in East Hampton include $10 enchiladas on Wednesday, tacos plus a Tecate beer or tequila on Thursday for $12, and a daily happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m. featuring $7 margaritas. For Sunday sports lovers, free chips and salsa are served, along with “touchdown shots.” The Blue Parrot opens at noon Friday through Sunday and at 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.

Oktoberfest

    The annual Oktoberfest at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will get under way with a kick-off party on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. The restaurant will be transformed into a traditional German beer garden, with picnic tables in the courtyard and communal dining tables inside. German bar snacks will be offered, such as fresh-baked pretzels with mustard, and knockwurst, bratwurst, and bockwurst platters. There will be traditional Bavarian music, too.

    Beer specials are to include brews served in a Rowdy Hall commemorative beer mug for $7, with refills for $4. Several Oktoberfest beers will be available on tap as well as bottled, and a tasting flight will be offered for $9.

    Throughout Oktoberfest (through Oct. 7), Rowdy will offer a daily “fester preis,” or prix fixe, featuring German fare for $24 each night starting at 5. The dinner specials will change weekly. The first, to be offered beginning Saturday, will include wienerschnitzel with herbed spaetzle and gold beets, with Black Forest trifle for dessert.

Osteria Salina

    At Osteria Salina in Bridgehampton, a “stuzzichini,” or late-night menu, is available starting at 9. It includes Sicilian classics such as fritto misto — shrimp and squid with zucchini, capers, lemons, and arrabiata sauce — and meatballs. Charcuterie plates with imported olives and cheeses and cured meats, served with orange blossom honey and fig marmalade, are also available, as are seafood dishes such as jumbo lump crab cakes with saffron citrus aioli, and yellowfin tuna served with pepperoncino oil, cucumber, and avocado.

Pork and Football

    The football season at Townline BBQ in Sagaponack features not only the games on TV but also specials on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to closing, as well as on Monday nights after 7, during the games. They include a Sunday “pigskin special” for $16, with a half-pound of pork served with potato bread and barbecue sauce, or with tortillas and avocado salsa, plus two sides. A can of Porkslap beer can be added for an extra $3. Townline will also offer beer specials on pints, cans, and pitchers, plus specials on bar snacks to nosh on during the games.

Fall Prix Fixe

    “Economy gastronomy” at Muse in the Harbor, on Sag Harbor’s Main Street, means a $30 prix fixe that includes a choice of appetizers, entrees, and desserts. The special is available all night on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and on Friday and Saturday nights from 5 to 6:30.

Gourmet to Go

    Fall hours at Pepalajefa, a takeout food shop in Sag Harbor, are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Tuesday. The shop is closed on Wednesday. Among the offerings are sandwiches, salads, including lentil salad, Argentinean potpies, figs with goat cheese and bacon, roasted potatoes with lemon and cumin, meatloaf, and figs with goat cheese and bacon.

    At Lucy’s Whey cheese shop in East Hampton, the seasonal hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. However, the shop can make up a platter or gift box during the week, if orders are placed by calling its other location at Chelsea Market in Manhattan.

At Camaje

    Abigail Hitchcock, the chef and owner at Camaje Bistro on MacDougal Street in downtown Manhattan and a local girl who attended the Hampton Day School in Bridgehampton and East Hampton High School, has announced a lineup of special events at her restaurant this fall.

    Camaje features Dark Dining Projects, evenings in which diners are invited to explore “new frontiers of sensory experience” that combine new gourmet dishes by Ms. Hitchcock along with music and other elements. One such event was filmed by VH1, and those interested will be able to view it later this fall.

    Also starting up at Camaje is a 13th season of cooking classes, held in the restaurant’s kitchen during service hours. After preparing their own meal, students repair to the dining room to enjoy it with wine. Additional information is on the eatery’s Web site at camaje .com.

Seasonal Cupcakes

    Hamptons Cupcake Lounge has new fall varieties of its cupcakes and “cuptails” — an adult version of the sweets, containing spirits. They include pumpkin spice, caramel apple, Oh So Gingy! and Blueberry Bliss, which uses Duck Walk vineyard blueberry port.

    The cupcakes are made with natural ingredients such as unsweetened applesauce and fruit purées in place of butter and oil, and with Truvia, a natural sweetener, instead of sugar. Eggs are limited, and organic grains are used.

    The cupcakes have been sold at farmers markets, including the Southampton market on Sundays on Job’s Lane, which continues until Oct. 10, but they can also be ordered online at hamptonscupcakelounge.com.

Cooking Demo

    Silvia Lehrer, a Water Mill cookbook author and cooking teacher, will be at the Williams-Sonoma store in Bridgehampton on Saturday. At 11 a.m., she will demonstrate how to prepare mushroom caviar, served on crostini, and an apple galette using local ingredients.

    I moved recently from East Hampton Village to Sag Harbor. All of my friends think I should miss my oceanfront childhood home but I really don’t. I now have my dream kitchen. It’s big enough for a table that will seat six, it has a fireplace, and there’s a six-burner Garland stove, a dishwasher (a small luxury I have been living without for two years), and windows galore.

    For various reasons, I have been living out of a suitcase for six weeks. This has not been a trial. What has been a trial is the fact that my friends insisted I repaint the entire interior of the new house before I bring in my furniture, cooking equipment, clothes, cookbooks, etc. In the last stages of the move out of East Hampton, I packed up some fancy, frilly dessert plates, etched wine glasses and other glamorous flotsam and jetsam that belonged to my grandparents and great-grandparents. This is all I have to work with. Oh, and one tea kettle, one Griswold cast iron skillet, a Pyrex baking dish, and a bowl.

    For the first couple of nights I lived on pizza and salad from Espresso in Sag Harbor. A small pizza lasted three days. Smothered with fresh tomatoes, basil, and garlic, it was awesome the first two nights, not so hot by the third. I would fry the slices in the skillet and eat them off one of the fancy dessert plates.

    But my desire to cook a proper meal, despite the lack of equipment, got the better of me. I bought some chicken and threw together a Vietnamese marinade. I managed to concoct a cornbread without measuring cups and spoons. At least my moderate skills as a pastry chef come in handy when eyeballing and guessing measurements. A salad of raw corn cut off the cob mixed with red peppers and parsley rounded out my first meal. Served, yet again, on one of the dainty dessert plates.

    On my first evening in the house, my friends and I broke out the etched wine glasses to celebrate. Sure enough, I broke mine within 10 minutes. Sorry, Grandma!

    I have borrowed a pot to boil water and a spatula. Now I can make pasta with cherry tomatoes and bread crumbs. I attempted the breadcrumbs in the cast iron skillet and set off the fire alarm. Slowly but surely, I am getting the hang of cooking without my usual cooking equipment.

    I’ve probably got another two weeks before I can retrieve my belongings out of storage. I have begun to see this as more like camping, or college boy bachelor life, than a nuisance. When I get takeout from Espresso, I grab as many plastic forks and napkins as good manners will allow. I tip heavily for this pilfering. I ask for extra dressing that comes with every delicious rosemary focaccia bread sandwich. This I stockpile for later use. For those who have been dying to know how they make this creamy, addictive sauce, I think I have been able to deconstruct it. I’m guessing, but I think it is a little bit of cream or mayo, balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and black pepper.

    Cooking pasta in larger than necessary amounts has also helped. Each batch can be tailored to suit whatever vegetables I have purchased that day. Roast cauliflower with onions and curry one day, fontina cheese with fennel and peppers the next. I have also been consulting Web sites tailored to dorm cooking. They all seem to rely on canned condensed cream of mushroom soup, hamburger meat, and microwave ovens. Blech.

    I fantasize about my first dinner party. I will have my beloved well-seasoned wooden salad bowl with utensils to toss oily leaves of arugula. We shall dine on my plain white plates with no fear of breakage. My Le Creuset casserole will be put to good use with a quickie duck cassoulet. Wine shall be drunk out of bistro-style Duralex glasses.

    I don’t mind that I am still wearing my summer whites, layered with a sweatshirt I found in the trunk of my car. And until I get all of my cookbooks and cooking equipment, I don’t even mind my limited abilities to prepare a balanced meal. If I can do it, you can too. Here are some recipes I have managed to throw together quite successfully.

Click for recipes

   It takes Fred Overton, the East Hampton Town Clerk, two days to make 30 gallons of chowder. He does the kitchen prep the day before and puts everything together in two 15-gallon vats on the morning of the East Hampton Town Trustees’ Largest Clam Contest.

   Clams and potatoes in equal amounts — 50 pounds apiece — are the main ingredients. (The Seafood Shop in Wainscott sells 10-pound “setups” of clams and their juice. Mr. Overton uses five setups.) Then, 8 to 10 pounds of onions — “I don’t like too many onions, they overpower the soup,” he said — and about eight 28-ounce cans of canned whole peeled tomatoes.

   The number of tomatoes “depends on what it looks like.” Bonac chowder should not be too red.

Borrow a vat from the firehouse if you can and line the bottom with quarter-inch strips of salt pork (one package lines one vat). Add equal amounts of clam juice and water: 10 quarts juice, 10 water. Add potatoes, chopped onion, diced tomatoes, and “just a pinch of thyme.” Simmer. Put the clams in last, “not until after the potatoes are done. Otherwise they get rubbery.”

   Season to taste. Some people add carrots or celery. This recipe serves at least 200.

   A story on the contest and its winning clams and chowders appears elsewhere in today’s Star.

    It takes a family to make a bagel — and to run a bagel mini empire.

    “Izzy was the bagel maven,” Paul Wayne, a partner in Goldberg’s Famous Bagels in East Hampton and Montauk, said of his grandfather, Izzy Goldberg, who started the family in the bagel business in the years after World War II.

    As he talked on Sept. 16, he cut a brisket into paper-thin slices. Rosh Hashana would begin at sunset, and the demand for brisket, corned beef, and pastrami was strong. As was the call for challah bread, which the store continued to make throughout the day.

    Mr. Goldberg had four sons, Artie, Jerry, Alfred, and Marty, all of whom went into the family business, starting at a shop on Webster Avenue in the Bronx, then at shops in Brooklyn and Manhattan, before the family took their businesses to New Jersey.

    Outside of the five boroughs, “there was a lack of bagels in the late 1960s,” said Mr. Wayne, whose father, Marty, changed his last name to Wayne, after his hero John Wayne, during a brief pursuit of a theatrical career.

    It was Mr. Wayne’s cousin Mark Goldberg who brought the family business from New Jersey to the East End. “Fourteen years ago, I was vacationing out here and I saw a sign in Southampton that said, ‘Bagel store wanted.’ I left a bunch of stores in Bergen County for a better life in the Hamptons,” Mr. Goldberg said.

    Located on County Road 39, Goldberg’s Southampton shop was a success, and six years later, Mark Goldberg had the opportunity to open an East Hampton store, this one at 100 Pantigo Place.

    “I was in O’Malley’s when I heard that the health food store wanted to get out of their lease,” Mr. Goldberg said. His uncle Marty Wayne was his partner in opening the second South Fork store.

    At first, the elder Mr. Wayne had his doubts about the location. “You’re in the back of a building. You’re not in town,” Mr. Wayne remembers his father saying to his cousin. But he threw himself into the business.

    “My father was a real schmoozer,” Mr. Wayne said about the business’s early days in East Hampton. “He would go to London Jewelers, Prudential, the hair salons” to drum up business.

    Eventually, though, the elder Mr. Wayne wanted to return to New Jersey. His son wanted to come to East Hampton. “He was 65. I said to him, ‘Whenever you don’t want to do this anymore.’ ” Two years ago, the two men traded businesses, with Paul coming east.

    Now, Paul Wayne knows most of his clientele by their first names, and just how they like their bagels.

    Key to the Goldbergs’ success was mastering the art of making a bagel and slicing the lox.

    “My dad taught me,” Mr. Goldberg said. “I am by trade a bagel roller and bialy maker. Paul is more of a counter man. Cutting corned beef and pastrami, a lox cutter.”

    Lox must be cut paper thin to qualify for a Goldberg’s bagel or flagel (a flat bagel).

    From Memorial Day until Columbus Day, Goldberg’s imports a lox slicing expert from Staten Island to stay ahead of the demand.

    “I’ve been doing this since I was a kid,” Stuart Kull, the Goldberg’s hired knife, said last week.

    “The key to slicing lox is a light hand and a sharp knife,” Mr. Kull said. “During the height of the season, I can slice up to 100 pounds a day.”

    While not a Goldberg, Mr. Kull is part of the extended family. “His dad had a store next to my dad’s store in Jersey,” Mr. Goldberg explained.

    Indeed, the entire staff has a family feel. “It’s fun here,” said Aura Hernandez, as she doled out bagels to hungry customers.

    Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Wayne are willing to discuss their recipe for bagels, to a point. “Flour, water, brown sugar, a little salt, and our own special ingredients,” said Mr. Wayne, explaining that the secret ingredients used date back to the first Goldberg store in the Bronx.

    “We mix the dough for about 12 and a half minutes,” Mr. Wayne said, adding that some bagels can be mixed in one of their 200-pound mixers, though all are rolled by hand, while other bagels, pumpernickel among them, must be done entirely by hand, depending upon the particular dough.

    Mr. Goldberg’s father taught him the art of bagel rolling.

    Originally, the bagel business in New York City was a wholesale business, with the bagels being sold to delis and stores nearby. 

    The bagel rollers who made the bagels were part of a tight union, which was strictly father and son. Owners were not taught the secrets of the trade.

    That changed when the first retail bagel store opened, according to Mr. Goldberg, “The first retail store was Bagel Oasis on the Long Island Expressway — really called Triboro,” because the three owners were from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. “That’s where everybody went to learn back in 1960. It was in Fresh Meadows, and is still there today.”

    That was where Mr. Goldberg’s father learned the secrets of bageldom, which he, in turn, taught his son.

    But there is more to Goldberg’s than bagels. There’s also what Mr. Goldberg called “the Jewish soul food” — brisket and corned beef, pastrami and matzo ball soup, and other traditional dishes, all prepared under the direction of Denise Goldberg, Mr. Goldberg’s wife, who doubles as chef, as well as supervising the day-to-day operations at the Southampton store, along with their daughter, Amanda.

    At the beginning of July, Mr. Wayne and Mr. Goldberg opened Goldberg’s Bagels and Flagels Deli in Montauk, which they are hoping to keep open year round.

    Besides their Hobo, a bagel with eggs, cheese, bacon, and home fries, their Power House wrap — egg whites, turkey, and cheese in a whole wheat wrap — became their hottest Montauk seller.

    The East Hampton store is open seven days a week, 365 days a year, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    “It’s not about the money,” Mr. Wayne explained. Their customers rely on them to be there, on holidays as well as on working days, and so they are. Mr. Goldberg gets to work at 4 a.m., and Mr. Wayne not much later.

    “It’s a mom-and-pop kind of place,” Mr. Wayne said, “It’s old school, just like the bagels.”

    Fall harvest time brings lots of celebrations of local bounty. The Wolffer Estate Vineyard harvest party will take place at the vineyard in Sagaponack on Oct. 7 from noon to 5 p.m. The rain date is Oct. 8.

    There will be barrel-rolling, hayrides, face-painting, a petting zoo, and a horse-jumping competition, along with a gourmet lunch, live music, and a chance to pick and stomp grapes. And, of course, there will be Wolffer wines. Tickets are $135 plus tax for adults, and $65 plus tax for those ages 4 to 20. Kids younger than 4 will be admitted free. No pets will be allowed.

    Wolffer Wine Club members may purchase two adult tickets at a discounted price of $125. The event usually sells out, so those interested might wish to check the vineyard’s Web site at wolfferestate.com.

Class at Old Whalers

    The three chef-owners of the Red Horse Market in East Hampton will take part in a food event at the Old Whalers Church’s East End Chefs series next Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

    Pasquale Langella will start things off with his house-made mozzarella, served with prosciutto. Tim McClung will demonstrate sausage-making and then how to incorporate the result into a main course. Finally, William Bertha will dish up a chocolate-caramel tart. Wine and water will be served throughout. Registration in advance, with Lillian Woudsma, has been asked: 631-553-6515.

    The proceeds go to the Sag Harbor church’s Community House fund.

For the Group

    Up on the North Fork, the McCall Vineyard and Ranch in Cutchogue will host a dinner prepared by Tom Schaudel on Saturday to benefit the Group for the East End.

    The Wood-Fired Full Moon Harvest Supper is billed as a “farm-to-table celebration,” and will include a cocktail and hors d’oeuvres hour followed by an Argentine-style barbecue dinner al fresco. Tickets are $150 per person.

Indian Wells Tavern

    Prime rib night returns to Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett on Thursdays. A dinner of prime rib, soup or salad, potato, and a vegetable will be served for $22.

Wine at Race Lane

    The coasts meet tomorrow in a five-course wine dinner featuring some of California’s notable vineyards at Race Lane in East Hampton. Champagne-poached Montauk oyster is paired with a Domaine Carneros rosé, steamed scallop with a 2009 Lincourt sauvignon blanc, and duck Magret with a 2008 Schug pinot noir, to describe but three of the courses. Reservations are a must.

    The cost is $72 per person plus tax and tip. Service starts at 7 p.m.

Shagwong Fest

    Starting tonight, the kitchen at the Shagwong restaurant in Montauk will simmer with a distinctively German sizzle for a month-long Oktoberfest offered Monday through Thursday for $21. Monday’s main course is weiner schnitzel a la Holstein, Tuesday’s is sauerbraten with potato pancake, Wednesday’s is roast duck with sausage stuffing, and Thursday’s is a mixed grill of sausages, smoked pork chops, and sauerkraut.

Slow Food East End

    Slow Food East End will have its annual meeting and potluck dinner on Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Hayground School on Mitchell Lane in Bridgehampton. Mary Morgan is handling the R.S.V.P.s at mcfm.morgan@ gmail.com. Those taking part have been asked to provide a dish serving six to eight people.

Rowdy Oktober

    Rowdy Hall in East Hampton Village begins its version of Oktoberfest this evening through Sunday with knockwurst, bratwurst, bockwurst, and German potato salad. As with the rest of the weeklong special menu, the cost is $24 per person. On Monday the main course will switch to kassler rippchen with cabbage and grilled apples. Next Thursday, things change again with sauerbraten on the plate. German-style desserts will accompany the entrees all week.

    A Rowdy Hall beer mug will be sold for $7; refills are $4. Notable from the taps for the week will be Paulaner Hefe-Weizen, Warsteiner Premium Pilsner, and Hacker-Pschoor Oktoberfest.

Osteria Price Fix

    A fall special of three courses for $27, plus tax and tip, has been added at Osteria Salina on School Street in Bridgehampton on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.

    Choices include eggplant parmigiana-pomodoro, crab cake with saffron citrus oil, Scottish salmon, strip steak, and rigatoni with eggplant, tomatoes, peperonciono, and basil.

Almond Veggie

    Almond in Bridgehampton has announced a fixed-price menu with three changing courses each night from 5:30 to 7 p.m. for $28. On Mondays, the choices will be entirely vegetarian.

Nick and Toni’s $35

    Three courses at Nick and Toni’s are $35 for its prix fixe special on Wednesday-Thursday and Sunday-Monday.

Andrra Hours

    For the fall, Andrra, off Gann Road at Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, will be open Thursday through Sunday from 5 p.m. The kitchen closes at 11 p.m. on Friday and Sunday.

    New on the menu is a tuna tartare “tower,” strip steak, filet mignon, swordfish, and house-made gnocchi with fresh squid.

   Four men on a mission delivered 34,000 pounds of fresh local produce last year to food pantries in Southampton, Sag Harbor, Springs, East Hampton, and Amagansett, the harvest of the three-acre East Hampton Food Pantry Farm on Long Lane.

    The farm, now in its fourth year of operation, has recently built a 34 by 100-foot hoop house, which will extend the growing season into the fall and winter, increasing the range and volume of food it can produce for those in need.

    With help from commercial growers such as Balsam Farms in Amagansett and Dale and Betty on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, a total of 17 tons of food was delivered last year to thousands of people — everything from carrots to cauliflower, broccoli to beets, sweet potatoes to watermelon.

    “We also grow and deliver flowers to the pantries,” said John Malafronte of East Hampton, a former Wall Street executive. “It’s a nice pick-me-up.”

    “The need is so great,” especially after Labor Day, when many who rely on seasonal business can no longer make a livable income, said Mr. Malafronte, who founded the farm with Peter Garn­ham of Amagansett, its director, before being joined by Bruce Warr of Montauk and Ira Bezoza of East Hampton.

    The four men work diligently and regularly alongside Darcy Hutzenlaub, their full-time field manager, to increase the quantities of food they can donate.  Last year a fruit orchard was added. They were quite pleased with the quality of the peaches harvested; Mr. Bezoza said they were the sweetest he’s ever eaten.

    Ms. Hutzenlaub’s goal is to provide food that not only tastes good but has the highest nutritional value. (On the Brix test, which measures nutritional value, the peaches registered 15 out of 18.) “People can be malnourished no matter how much they eat,” she said.

    The farm’s planting approach, including companion planting, doesn’t always create a perfect-looking carrot, she said, and those that do look good are not always healthy. Organic growing methods encourage beneficial insects, Ms. Hutzenlaub explained. Pollinators such as honeybees, for example, “love buckwheat,” she said, pointing at a spread called Buckwheat Field.

    “We pay Darcy the best we can,” Mr. Malafronte said of the farm’s only paid employee, and help with her insurance and schooling. 

    Ms. Hutzenlaub has experimented with sustainable farming methods including last year’s “moon cycle-driven” biodynamic method, which, said Mr. Malafronte, resulted in the farm’s losing not one crop. “Today is a root day,” he said, pointing to a calendar in the Stella Natura catalog. “From noon on, it is best to plant or harvest a root crop.”

    On Monday morning, children from Project Most poked their fingers in the soil. Eliza Kellman, a second-year summer intern from California, was teaching them to plant seed. “We’re starting to get groups here,” Mr. Malafronte said.

    The farm is dependent on volunteers. Thirty-five people doing community service hours have worked there too, and many later returned to volunteer.

    With no financial help from any municipality, “We look for volunteers, and we look for money,” said Mr. Bezoza, a lawyer. Having become a nonprofit organization in 2010, the farm had 100 donors step up to the plate last year.

    The money has allowed the farmers to buy seeds, supplies, and equipment such as a compost spreader, as well as to pay their rent to the town-owned EECO farm. “We knock on doors and also hold some cookouts” to raise funds, said Mr. Malafronte.

    Though they would love to have a truck, the men use their own vehicles to transport supplies and deliver the produce to the pantries. The installation and purchase of the hoop house ran about $55,000, raised by donations.

    “It’s magic here,” said Ms. Hutzenlaub. “It feels good to be part of this.”

   There is news for the Mary’s Marvelous fans out there who have been wondering when Mary Schoenlein, the Amagansett food shop’s owner and executive chef, would open the doors of her new location on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village.

    A grand opening party for the new store, which comprises the old Bucket’s Deli site plus the space next door, will take place on Aug. 31. The interiors have been renovated, and, on one side, will contain a packaged food retail section featuring baked goods and more, and on the other, a place to order the fresh-made specialties for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that are featured at the current Mary’s Marvelous store. The Amagansett location is now open till 6 p.m.

East End Chefs

    The next East End Chefs session, a series of cooking classes and tastings at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor, will be presented by “the butcher, the baker, and the mozzarella maker,” according to a release. Three chef-owners of the Red Horse Market in East Hampton will show attendees how to prepare homemade mozzarella, cold seafood salad with orzo, and a key lime parfait. Along with the food, wine will be served. Admission costs $30 at the door, but reservations have been requested as space is limited. They can be made by calling the church.

Savoring the Hamptons

    Silvia Lehrer will present tastings from her cookbook, “Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End,” at the Bridge Gardens on Mitchell Lane in Bridgehampton tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m.  Admission is $25. The event is sponsored by the Peconic Land Trust, and reservations, which have been requested, can be made by calling the land trust’s Southampton offices.

Summertime Treats

    Special-sounding ice cream flavors made by Jeni’s ice cream are available at Lucy’s Whey in East Hampton, along with late summer fruit tarts and plenty of cheeses. The ice cream comes in dark chocolate, pistachio honey, and sweet corn blackberry varieties.

Souper Tuesdays

    The Peconic Land Trust is holding Souper Tuesdays each week in August  from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Amagansett Farmers Market. Each Tuesday, there will be a soup made with ingredients grown at one of the featured local farms, which include Amber Waves, Balsam, Sunset Beach, and Quail Hill. Michael Cinque of Amagansett Wines and Spirits will provide tastings of local wines, and farmers and land trust staff will be on hand to meet attendees. The event will be canceled in case of rain. Tuesday’s featured farm will be Balsam Farm.v

    Kathleen King, who has forged a baking empire with her goods now sold under the Tate’s Bake Shop name, garnering accolades from foodies such as Ina Garten and Rachael Ray, will sign copies of her new cookbook, “Baking for Friends,” at the mint-green painted shop on North Sea Road in Southampton on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m.

    “Baking for Friends” includes gluten-free, low-fat, vegan, and nut-free recipes among the categories of muffins, pies, tea loaves, cookies, and party cakes, to name just a few, along with tips on stress-free baking. It is Ms. King’s second cookbook, after a 2006 release, “The Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook.”

    Those who attend Saturday’s event will be able to purchase an advance copy of the book and to taste some of Tate’s sweets, as well as to enter a drawing for a chance to win a KitchenAid stand mixer.

Zucchini Pepper Soup

    Anna Pump’s recipe for zucchini pepper soup, which was included in the “Hamptons Long Island Homegrown Cookbook,” will be prepared during a free cooking demonstration at the Loaves and Fishes Cookshop in Bridgehampton on Saturday. It will take place from noon to 2 p.m.

More Summertime Soup

    Produce from the Peconic Land Trust’s Quail Hill Farm will be used to make the soup that will be sold at the trust’s next “Souper Tuesday” at the Amagansett Farmers Market. Each cup of soup costs $6, which will benefit the land trust’s conservation efforts.

    The event, from 5 to 7 p.m., will include live music, tastings of local wines, and a chance to chat with farmers and Peconic Land Trust staff. It will not take place if it rains.

   About two dozen members of the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons in Sag Harbor celebrated their new cookbook recently with a “Munch ’n’ Brunch” at the home of Marcy and Emil Braun in Bridgehampton. In attendance were many of the women and men who provided the recipes, who brought tastes of dishes including flourless gateau de mousse chocolate, mushroom quiche, Aunti Gertie’s apple pie Canarsie, and Egyptian charoset.

    While some guests mingled and tasted on the poolside patio, Ms. Braun offered a challah-baking demonstration in her kitchen. As she braided and twisted the dough, she offered tips: Begin in the middle, where it’s widest, then tapers down. “Yeast is everything,” she advised. “Don’t stand around all day waiting for bread to rise.”

    Acceding to popular demand, Ms. Braun made pumpkin challah, which, she explained, requires the cook to cut the water in the recipe in half, and decrease the amount of oil. Crucial to successful challah, she warned, is the exact measurement of salt. “Count and count again,” she said.

    Challah is commonly baked in the Jewish tradition. It is not specific to any holiday, but works particularly well for kosher cooks, who must prepare food before sundown on Friday to last through Saturday, when kitchen work is traditionally prohibited.

    Titled “Ekhol B’Simha,” which means “Eat in Joy,” the cookbook is named after a traditional Shabbat song usually sung around the table. Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, who was in attendance, explained that blessings are recited before and after eating, to focus attention on the nourishment gained from the meal and in anticipation of “the pleasure of the meal,” thus the title of the book, for which she wrote the introduction. She wrote that food, among other things, is a catalyst for intimacy with others, a way of expressing care and concern for others, and a setting around which words of the Torah are discussed.

    The cookbook is dedicated to Marion Gotbetter, the daughter of longtime congregation members, who was known as a master personal chef and baker. Ms. Gotbetter’s mother was brought to tears at the sight of a sign, upon the table where cookbooks and aprons were displayed, with a picture of her daughter. “That’s just the way she was,” she said, “always with a smile.”

    Near the cookbook display were long tables filled with dishes from the book. Stacy Menzer, president of the congregation, presented salmon in the dishwasher. The fish, she said, is wrapped in double foil with spices, then run through a full cycle on the top rack of a dishwasher (with no detergent!). The cookbook explains that this is an easy way to have a dish ready for Seudah Shelishit on Friday, without taking away oven space for Shabbat dinner.

    A piece of the challah dough was removed before Ms. Braun baked it, and it was wrapped in foil and burned. Rabbi Uhrbach said this was part of the tradition of “giving of the first of everything to God . . . and dedicating it.”

    As the challah was ready to be baked until golden, glazed, and topped, voices of song emerged from the living room, where Cantor Marcos Askenazi and Rabbi Uhrbach led a group in secular melodies, as well as a Hebrew/English version of the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” and Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”

    More than 125 recipes fill the book, in seven categories: challah and other breads, soups and salads, vegetarian and dairy, fish, chicken and meat, desserts, and Passover favorites. Dishes range from rich delicacies such as Brooklyn Heights brownies to tri-color gefilte fish loaf, as well as such basics as vegetarian chili and matzoh balls.

    The $20 cookbook also includes tips and hints, a measurement equivalency chart, suggestions for quick fixes, calorie counts, and even napkin-folding.  Proceeds will benefit the general fund of the synagogue.

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It’s Marvelous

    Tomorrow from 4 to 7 p.m., the new Mary’s Marvelous store on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village will have an opening party featuring free hors d’oeuvres, and samples of smoothies and baked goods.

    The new store, where Bucket’s deli used to be, will be the second location for the takeout food shop first opened by Mary Schoenlein in Amagansett 10 years ago.

    It will feature packaged goodies such as cakes, cookies, and spiced nuts, along with other retail goods as well as ready-to-go and made-to-order sandwiches and other dishes, such as soups, vegetables, and grain dishes. At breakfast time, Mary’s makes steel-cut organic oatmeal and its signature “eggs Colombian.” There will be a smoothies menu, as well as a larger salad menu at the East Hampton store.

    The shop will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

At Gosman’s Dock

    Visits to Montauk can be especially nice in the early fall, and Gosman’s Dock restaurant has a lineup of prix fixe dinner specials that will be offered after Labor Day.

    Mondays will be burger or rib night, with dinners for $15, Wednesdays will feature the local seafood catch of the day prepared with a seasonal twist and served with a glass of wine for $24, Thursdays are steak nights, also for $15, and on “fried Fridays” diners will have a choice of fried shrimp, fish and chips, or a fisherman’s platter with coleslaw and French fries for $15. Sunday nights will be lobster nights, with a $24 prix fixe to include a 1 1/4-pound lobster, corn on the cob, coleslaw, and fries.

The Lobster Roll

    The Lobster Roll on the Napeague Stretch will remain open seven days a week for lunch and dinner for a while, and is offering specials as well as a happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. daily featuring $5 margaritas.

Silvia Lehrer and Her Book

    Silvia Lehrer, the author of “Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End,” will give a cooking demonstration at the Loaves and Fishes Cookshop in Bridgehampton on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. She will prepare guacamole with tomatillos.

Saturday Party

    Spring Close Restaurant is celebrating the end of summer with a Spring Open Labor Day Party on Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m. featuring music. After Labor Day, the restaurant will fire up its wood oven to prepare early fall menu items, and will be once again serving lunch.

Tomato Taste-Off

    The 14th annual tomato taste-off at the Peconic Land Trust’s Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett will get under way at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Volunteers are needed tomorrow to help harvest tomatoes, either during a morning or afternoon session, as well as to prepare buckets for tomato rinsing. On Saturday, helpers are being sought for set up, beginning at 7:30 a.m. at the farm orchard, for assistance during the event, and for cleanup after the tasting is finished at noon. Those interested in lending a hand have been asked to sign up at the Quail Hill farmstand or to send an e-mail to [email protected].

    Nearly 50 varieties of organically grown tomatoes will be laid out for tasting, including cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and heirloom varieties. Tasters will visit various tables with a clipboard in hand to rate the flavor of each. The names of the tomatoes that receive highest accolades will be posted on the trust’s Web site at PeconicLandTrust.org. The cost to participate is $10; free for kids under age 12. In case of heavy rains, the event will be canceled. Those planning to attend have been asked to park on Deep Lane and to walk into the orchard.