Food

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.

It’s mid-April and the weather forecast calls for temperatures in the 30s at night. Harold McMahon Plumbing sends out a form every “spring” asking clients when they’d like their outside water turned on. The form warns against turning it on before April 15. But the cheery flats of pansies are out at Wittendale’s, so spring must be drawing nigh. Right? This is zone 7a and 7b, after all.

Lisa Kaplan will be the speaker at the wine talk at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits, on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Her subject will be “The Wild Man of Walla Walla: Charles Smith’s Washington Wines.” The sixth annual Taste of Tuckahoe benefit will take place on Friday, April 22, at 230 Elm in Southampton

The Golden Pear Cafe will offer a new Healthy Kids breakfast and lunch menu that will feature healthy and enticing choices. Stratis Morfogen, a Manhattan restaurateur, is opening a branch of the Jue Lan Club, his Chelsea Chinese restaurant, on Elm Street in Southampton later this month.

Almond’s Brussels Sprouts

"What Do You Mean, the New California? The Case for Santa Barbara,” is the title of the wine and tasting program at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits. Steve Clifton, a winemaker for Palmina Wines and La Voix Winery, will present the program at the wine shop on Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The Dock in Montauk is slated to reopen for the season tomorrow, April Fool’s Day, perfect timing, it seems, for George Watson, its owner, who is known as a trickster.

What are you supposed to do when you are trying ever so hard to stick to a nutritious diet and you travel a lot? At home, every aspect of what you eat is under your control. When traveling, almost none of it is. Interestingly, it seems like airport terminals have gotten better about offering healthful choices (hummus, sushi, fresh fruit), but the airlines have gotten worse.

Airplane Carry-Ons

Kurt Vonnegut once said of critics: “He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.” As a restaurant reviewer, my job is to literally attack that hot fudge sundae or banana split. And then to analyze it, take into account my guests’ opinions of it, deconstruct its components, contemplate its freshness, price, presentation, and finally to praise or criticize it.

An Easter brunch will be served at Baron’s Cove restaurant in Sag Harbor on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Outdoors on the lawn, there will be Easter egg hunts for kids at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The 1770 House in East Hampton will serve a Easter Sunday dinner a la carte beginning at 5 p.m.

Il Capuccino Italian restaurant in Sag Harbor is back with a reopening tomorrow night. A new bar menu and a fresh lineup of specials will start the spring season. Cavaniola’s Gourmet cheese shop, which sells cheeses, sandwiches, soups, and other prepared foods in Sag Harbor, will be opening in Amagansett in early May.

For those who care about stocking the refrigerator with the freshest produce on the East End, March is the month to begin signing up for membership in a community supported agriculture program, or C.S.A.

The Am O’Gansett Parade starts off the early St. Patrick’s Day hoopla on Saturday and Indian Wells Tavern on Amagansett’s Main Street will do their part with a $20 corned beef and cabbage special all day. Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will start their Irish food and drink specials next Thursday and continue on March 19 and March 20, the day of the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade.

St. Patrick’s Day has turned into a silly affair in this country. What began as a religious holiday in Ireland has morphed into an excuse to get buckled, fluthered, ossified, scuttered, and stocious on green beer. There, you just learned some Irish slang for getting drunk. Needless to say, my people have a lot of terms for this national pastime.

Keith and Margo’s Murder Mystery Events will present excitement and skullduggery at the Southampton Inn on March 12. A package deal includes the dinner, open bar, and an overnight stay, along with a chance to participate in the sleuthing. Slow Food East End will hold a “spring market dinner” at Almond on March 24. The dinner will celebrate native and traditional East End foods.