The sweetness of corn is fragile, evanescent. As soon as an ear has been picked, the sugars begin to turn to starch, the flavor palls. Corn is Cinderella as midnight approaches.

Over 400 recipes have been published in “In Season." At least two dozen of them are truly favorites of mine, the dishes I serve to family and guests on a regular basis. Here is a sampling.

Tomatoes were originally grown to be admired rather than consumed. When the tomato was first imported to Europe from the New World by the Spanish conquistadors, it was considered a decorative plant; pretty but inedible, possibly poisonous. And that was long before Florida farmers shipped them green or doused them with pesticides. 

The cultural revolution has come to East Hampton. There was a time, in very recent memory, when Chinese cookery involving ingredi­ents more sophisticated than scal­lions, celery, and soy sauce required a trip to Mott Street. Now, the shop­ping expedition may be only a few miles down the Montauk.