Food

When Michael Cohen was 15, growing up outside of Philadelphia in Cheltenham, Pa., his father told him and his brother it was time to get summer jobs. “My brother went to work in a pet store, because he was interested in fish and reptiles,” Mr. Cohen recalled one sunny afternoon in the garden of East Hampton’s 1770 House. “I said I’m going to work at a restaurant as a busboy. I found a job at a really swanky restaurant, and I got the bug. I’ve had a passion for wine and hospitality ever since.”

Some big food events of the summer are almost here. Dan’s Taste of Summer’s GrillHampton, a Taste of Two Forks, and the James Beard Foundation’s Chefs and Champagne, are among the many exciting happenings.

The Hamptons Greek Festival was held last weekend in Southampton at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons.

Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett will be the site of the Peconic Land Trust’s annual outdoor supper. The event will be held on Aug. 7 at 4 p.m. Slow Food East End has organized a summertime potluck “snail supper” to be held on Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Judith Axelrod’s house along the bay in Sag Harbor.

Gone are the days of tenderloin of rabbit, white tablecloths, and a $60,000 winking snowy owl art installation by the bar. Goodbye Tom Colicchio, hello Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Goodbye lobster mushroom gnocchi, hello . . . hamburgers and spaghetti? Whaaaat?

Rustle up some good food at Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe on East Lake Drive in Montauk. The new brunch offerings include dishes such as eggs benedict, asparagus and caramelized onion omelette, lobster asparagus frittata, brioche French toast, and more. Open Minded Organics has a new farm stand on Butter Lane in Bridgehampton. It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sam Gelin was enjoying a nice piece of fish that had come from Montauk one day not long ago in New York when he thought it would be really interesting to use salt that derived from the same waters. He had recently traveled on the West Coast, where he had seen a sea salt company, and it “kind of lodged in my mind,” he said in a recent interview. And so the Montauk Salt Company was born.

Hungry for seafood? Bostwick’s, the seafood spot on Pantigo Road in East Hampton, is now open seven days for lunch and dinner, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Sail your boat westward to the Bell and Anchor in Noyac for even more seafood. It is now featuring raw bar specials on Montauk Pearl oysters and littleneck clams, for $2.50 each, all night Sundays through Thursdays, and on Fridays and Saturdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Twenty years ago, on the fourth of July, Breadzilla opened its doors. Well, it was about to open its doors, but the owners realized 20 minutes before that they forgot to get screen door handles. So Brad Thompson, co-owner, co-chef, and friendly ex-husband of Nancy Hollister, co-owner, co-chef, and friendly ex-wife, grabbed a drill and some nails and some forks and spoons he found in the basement and .created some bent utensil door handles. They remain in place today as just another quirky and charming element to this bakery and takeout shop.

When he talks about the various dishes from around the world that can be made over an open cooking fire and the different effects flame has on food itself, Adam Kelinson exudes enthusiasm and expertise.

Wolffer Estate winery in Sagaponack will release a new rosé, Finca Wolffer Rosé, on July 1. It is the second vintage of a rosé made from grapes grown in Mendoza, Argentina. Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett will kick off a series of brunches and dinners with an Argentine-inspired asado barbecue meal in the field on Saturday. It will be cooked by Paula Segura Mallmann, whose uncle, Francis Mallmann, is an Argentine chef, along with her partner, Emiliano Cordeiro.

Some call it preppy food. I call it WASP soul food. For those not familiar with this acronym, it stands for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. As an Irish Catholic with a good dose of Norwegian from my grandmother’s side, I am clearly not a member of this tribe. But many of my schoolmates and lifelong friends certainly are. As a result of this, I have become extremely familiar with WASP “cuisine.”

The Hamptons goes rosé wild! Events include a “pink party” at Domaine Franey Wines and Spirits in East Hampton on Saturday from 3 to 7 p.m. Then Five rosé wines from the Channing Daughters winery in Bridgehampton will be paired with each course of a dinner at Almond next Thursday at 7 p.m. Arbor restaurant in Montauk will also feature summer’s pink wine at its prix fixe weekend brunch.

The chef, John Ross, will speak at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton at noon on Wednesday about his new cookbook, "The Poetry of Cooking,” Registration is with the library, by phone, or at myrml.org. Today is the debut of the Montauk farmers market on the Montauk green from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thirty-five vendors will participate this year.

At the ripe young age of 23, Jay Astafa is an accomplished vegan chef, owner of his own catering and event company, a consultant for Surf Lodge’s vegan menu, and will be providing the food for the Wellness Foundation’s summer benefit on June 18 at the Mulford Farm in East Hampton.

Kozu, a restaurant that offers Japanese cuisine and sushi with Peruvian influences, has been opened in Southampton by Zach Erdem, the restaurateur behind 75 Main. The head chef, John Keller, is formerly of Nobu; the sous chef, George Nikolo­polous, worked at Le Bernardin, and the sushi chef, Joseph Kim, is formerly of Morimoto. The second annual Food Lab conference will take place tomorrow through Sunday at Stony Brook Southampton, sponsored by Slow Food East End.

The farmers markets have opened for the season, and while many visitors associate them with the bountiful berries, corn, and tomatoes of mid to late-summer, right now is a glorious time. There are tender stalks of freshly picked asparagus, bright peonies, crisp spinach and lettuce, plants to help you to get started on your own garden, mushrooms, honey, cheese, chickens, and so much more.

While the culinary world’s emphasis on locally sourced ingredients shows no sign of abating, the ingredients and techniques of global cuisine are increasingly important to the chef community, as exemplified by the presence at the Stony Brook Southampton Food Lab’s upcoming conference of Deuki Hong, a 25-year-old chef at one of New York’s hottest Korean restaurants.

I like to drink, but I don’t like to get drunk. If I’m going to drink with alacrity I do it at home or within walking distance of home. Do I even need to say you people should drink responsibly? Call a cab if you’ve had one too many out on the town, or have a designated driver. Our roads are dangerous enough, what with all the dumb deer and city folk in Escalades.

The farmers markets are reopening. The Hayground School market in Bridgehampton opens tomorrow and the East Hampton farmers market, which sets up in the Nick and Toni’s parking lot on North Main Street, launches for the season on Friday, May 27. The Amagansett Food Institute’s market on Main Street, in the Amagansett Farmers Market building, will also reopen on Friday, May 27.

Seasons by the Sea: All the Tools You Need

There are three new cookbooks with local ties — “Plated: Weeknight Dinners, Weekend Feasts, and Everything In Between” by Elana Karp and Suzanne Dumaine, “Tiki With a Twist” by Lynn Calvo with James O. Fraioli, and “It’s All Easy” by Gwyneth Paltrow with Thea Baumann.

“It’s the crust. The sauce has to be good, too. And don’t forget about the cheese,” said Mr. Giugliano, pizza maker extraordinaire at the Red Horse Market in East Hampton. “Anybody can make pizza, but you also need a heart. Without that, it doesn’t come out the way you want it to.”

The Red Maple restaurant at the Chequit Inn on Shelter Island has added a weekend lunch and brunch service for the 2016 season. Juice Press, a chain offering fresh juices, is adding an East Hampton shop to its stores in Bridgehampton and Southampton.

Today is Cinco de Mayo, so get down to La Fondita in Amagansett for some holiday specials. Saturday, Southern fare and mint juleps will be served at a Kentucky Derby party at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Flowers are the focus, along with food, at the Living Room restaurant and c/o the Maidstone in East Hampton. Sunday’s Mother’s Day brunch will include bouquets for moms whose families or friends make arrangements with the inn ahead of time.

When reviewing restaurants, I almost always sample their fried calamari offerings. Just about every restaurant out here has it on the menu. It’s a good test of the chef’s abilities. Is it lightly crisped and tender? Are the tentacles included? Is it served with an imaginative sauce or just a tepid marinara?

Ride a Hampton Jitney busto the North Fork to visit the Shinn Estate, Paumanok, and Palmer Vineyards for wine tastings, with a stop for a catered lunch. A $100 fee includes all. Sponsored by Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits. In Montauk, Navy Beach restaurant reopens tomorrow at 5 p.m., serving dinner through Sunday night as well as lunch on Saturday.

I had what I called a “dinner for swells” the other night. “Swell” is a word I learned from Lee Bailey, the cookbook author, lifestyle and entertaining expert, bon vivant, and Bridgehampton resident, a native Louisianan. It is an old-fashioned term used to describe important people you want to impress. In other words, you gotta step up your culinary repertoire.

The South Fork Kitchens Cafe in the student center of the Stony Brook Southampton campus will offer grab-and-go salads, soups, and sandwiches. The cafe is a cooperative food center. In observation of Passover, both Nick and Toni’s and Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will have a la carte menu specials from tomorrow through April 30.

This spring I had the honor of moderating the Peconic Land Trust’s “Long Island Grown: Food and Beverage Artisans at Work” panels for the third time. Sponsored by Edible East End, they manage to get the best people from the North and South Forks who are involved in farming, fishing, winemaking, beekeeping, baking, duck wrangling, cooking, mushroom growing, candy creating, fermenting, brewing, and more.