WAG - July 2015

RUTH REICHL

THE WRITE APPROACH TO FOOD

THOUGHTFULNESS ON THE MENU NONPROFITS FIGHT HUNGER FOOD AND WINE: PETER KELLY AND KATHIE LEE THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA: WHERE SOMETHING’S ALWAYS COOKING A SWEET PAUSE WITH THE DESSERTIST CATERER NISA LEE SERVING STARS – AND STELLAR DISHES NURTURING THE GOOD LIFE: BOOK CELEBRATES HUDSON VALLEY’S BOUNTY A COMPANY MOST KIND

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CONTENTS

WHAT’S INSIDE:

Photograph by Bob Rozycki: Black truffle soup featuring beef broth, vegetables, black truffles and puff pastry, Soupe aux Truffles Noires Élysée Paul Bocuse, 1975, served at The Bocuse Restaurant at The Culinary Institute of America in 2 Park.

WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015 Hyde See story on page 22.

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Mmm… chocolate Passionate about passion fruit Banking on an end to hunger Food for thought…

If you can dream it, The Dessertist will create it ‘Culinary’ delights Kathie Lee Gifford: In vino veritas App helps divert food from trash heap Delicate beauties Be her guest A culinary dream about to come true Leveraging the farm-to-table label Black, beautiful and bountiful Hail the humble bean Rooted in the Hudson Valley Try a little KIND-ness Farm-fresh cheese, yes please COVER STORY: Ruth Reichl – The books of Ruth Feeding young ones’ bodies and souls WWOOF-ing keeps them down on the farm

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ON THE COVER: Ruth Reichl, at The Inn at Pound Ridge

by Jean-Georges

RUTH REICHL

THE WRITE APPROACH TO FOOD

THOUGHTFULNESS ON THE MENU FOOD BANKS, NONPROFITS FIGHT HUNGER KATHIE LEE GIFFORD TOASTS CHEF PETER KELLY THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA: WHERE SOMETHING’S ALWAYS COOKING A SWEET PAUSE WITH THE DESSERTIST CATERER NISA LEE SERVING STARS – AND STELLAR DISHES NURTURING THE GOOD LIFE: BOOK CELEBRATES HUDSON VALLEY’S BOUNTY A COMPANY MOST KIND

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WAGGERS

REECE ALVAREZ

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AUDREY TOPPING

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NEW WAGGER LAUREN SHARKEY is an intern at WAG magazine, having just completed her freshman year at Syracuse University.

A communications and business major, Lauren is also a newly initiated member of Tri Delta sorority. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and drawing.

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His heart was transplanted at 19.

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EDITOR'S LETTER GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

“PASSION’S FRUITS” — THE SUBJECT OF JULY WAG — OFFERS A DIFFERENT TAKE ON OUR ANNUAL FOOD THEME.

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Instead of looking primarily at chefs and restaurants or the farm-to-table movement, which we’ve done in the past, we decided to concentrate on people and places that have a special relationship with food, as well as on some foods we know and love.

Few people have had a more celebrated relationship with gastronomy than cover subject Ruth Reichl, the former editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, with whom we had the pleasure of dining at The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges for the first talk in The Inn’s Literary Luncheon Series. Is there any better combo than good food, good conversation and a good book (Reichl’s foodie novel “Delicious”)? Reichl herself combines a finely tuned palate with a gift for storytelling. And these — cooking and writing — grounded her when Gourmet went under during the great recession of ’09.

Kathie Lee Gifford’s relationship to wine is no secret to anyone who watches her with Hoda Kotb on the fourth hour of “Today.” But Gifford — who is as modest and gracious off-camera as she is saucy on — has made a commitment to the grape that is both spiritual and entrepreneurial, as we discovered when we caught up with her after a Bloomingdale’s White Plains fashion show.

Nisa Lee has both a personal and professional association with food. She loves to cook with her children — when she’s not catering parties for the likes of Helen Mirren or Paul McCartney or serving as the new caterer for the Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden in North Salem. Mary and Bob paid her a visit recently, as they did The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.

Sometimes, it’s about the relationship of the place to food. The CIA needs no introduction on that score. But did you know that Orange County is fertile ground for such staples as onions, leeks

and potatoes, celebrated in annual festivals? Or that Bangkok’s Mandarin Oriental hotel is such a gourmand’s delight that no one from Nijinsky to Mick Jagger has been able to resist it?

Speaking of irresistible, we had to weigh in on chocolate — I’m having a Hershey’s milk chocolate Nugget with a healthy almond as I write this — and passion fruit, which inspired this month’s title; and the not-so-humble bean, which, as Audrey explains, may be the Fountain of Youth. Maybe we could have chocolate-covered passion fruit and beans.

Chocolate-covered everything.

It’s the guilty pleasure not only of moi but of tennis player Novak Djokovic, actress Nicole Kidman, chef Peter X. Kelly and plenty of this month’s WAG Wits.

Sadly, many do not get to have guilty food pleasures. They’re too busy worrying where their next meal is coming from.

In Westchester and Fairfield counties — two of the richest places in the richest country on earth — as much as one-fifth of the population is food-insecure. The Food Bank for Westchester and Community Plates in Fairfield County are among the organizations trying to alleviate that.

If this issue does nothing else, we hope it inspires you to join them in the fight.

Georgette Gouveia is the author of “Water Music” and the forthcoming “The Penalty for Holding,” part of her series, “The Games Men Play,” which is the name of the sports/culture blog she writes at thegamesmenplay.com.

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POWERING NEW YORK

Mm

m

‌ chocolate

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

The pod of a cacao tree, where the sweet tree begins. Photograph by Ivo M. Vermeulen. Courtesy of The New Botanical Garden.

12 York WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

In 2012, NOVAK DJOKOVIC DEFEATED RAFAEL NADAL FOR THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN MEN’S SINGLES TITLE IN A NEARLY SIX-HOUR MATCH THAT IS STILL THE LONGEST FINAL IN GRAND SLAM HISTORY. The match was so grueling that blood

seeped through Djokovic’s socks, and he and Nadal were given chairs so they wouldn’t have to stand through the trophy ceremony.

Afterward, Djokovic — whom Forever Sports magazine has called “the fittest man in the world” — celebrated in the locker room with his guilty pleasure.

A square of chocolate.

Such is the lure of the treat for the famously disciplined “Nole” that he keeps it close by even as he doesn’t indulge, dispensing it at press conferences.

“I know you want two,” he’ll say to an enthusiastic reporter.

Nor is Djokovic alone among the slim, trim celebrity adherents. Once when a fan approached Nicole Kidman for an autograph, the Oscar winner reached into her purse only to produce a gooey pen, which had nestled near the (melting) chocolate eggs the actress had taken from the Easter basket she made for daughter Isabella.

Ah, the perils of the chocoholic.

But what makes chocolate such that it is treasured by athletes and actors alike — along with us mere mortals who have helped make it a $50 billion (and counting) industry?

“I think there are a lot of different ways to answer that,” says Sherry Blockinger, owner of the sherry b dessert studio in Chappaqua. About 80 percent of the goodies there have some chocolate, from the popular Chocolate Chunk Walnut and Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Monster cookies to the shop’s three kinds of brownies — the Sea Salt Caramel Stuffed Brownie, the Oreo Cheesecake Brownie and the Blondie Ate a Brownie.

“First, chocolate’s uses are sort of special,” says Blockinger, a self-described chocolate “cookie monster” who remembers always having chocolate

stains on her clothing in childhood photos. “Who Like many other New World products, it relied doesn’t have great memories of hot chocolate as a heavily on slavery. It’s a shadow from which chockid or birthday cakes made of chocolate or Valenolate lovers cannot free themselves, because half tine’s Day chocolates from a sweetheart? of the world’s chocolate today comes from the Côte “One of the nice things about chocolate is … you d’Ivoire with the help of child laborers who could don’t need to eat a lot of it to feel satisfied. You can never afford the treat themselves. Guilty pleasure use it as itself or as a flavor. There’s something apindeed. pealing about it, which may be why women are Then, too, chocolate offers a challenge as heat drawn to it when they’re PMS-ing.” and humidity are not its friends (s’mores and fudge Cocoa solids — contained in milk and dark but sundaes excepted). not white chocolate — are not only rich in flavanol “Keep it cool, away from the light and heat in a antioxidants, but also contain alkaloids like theocool pantry,” advises Blockinger, who stores hers in bromine, phenethylamine and caffeine, which sherry b dessert studio’s finishing kitchen, which have been linked to serotonin levels in the brain. has cooler temperatures and humidity controls.

(Theobromine makes milk and dark chocolate toxIt is perhaps odd that National Chocolate Day ic to animals so no-no to these bonbons for Fido.) should fall in the summer, on July 7.

The chemicals in chocolate may not only proBut then, we chocolate lovers know that every duce a pleasant sensation, but in the case of dark day is Chocolate Day. chocolate have a beneficial effect on blood pressure — although the jury is still out on that one.

Salted Caramel Stuffed Brownie.

Certainly, the presence of caffeine Photograph by Noah Fecks.

Courtesy of sherry b dessert studio. would account for the boost chocolate can provide. Once asked for the one full-proof food to get through an all-nighter, The New York Times’ food columnist Mark Bittman said a cup of coffee and a Snickers bar would do the trick.

Blockinger also points to chocolate’s almost 4,000-year-old history, beginning with the pre-Olmec peoples and continuing with the Maya and the Aztecs in Mesoamerica. Fierce and fascinating, these pre-Columbian peoples believed in a transcendence realized through blood sacrifice, a ballgame that resembled soccer, and chocolate, creating the bitter, frothy drink — often enhanced with chili and other spices — from the fermented, roasted seeds of the cacao tree.

The Maya liked it hot. The Aztecs liked it cold. The Spanish conquistadors were with the Maya, adding sugar and honey when they took the concoction back to Europe in the 16th century.

It wasn’t long before drinking chocolate took off among the elite, but it would take the 19th-century’s Industrial Revolution to produce chocolate for the masses, along with innovations (milk chocolate, boxed candies) and names (Lindt, Cadbury and Hershey) we know today.

Chocolate is not without its drawbacks.

WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

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J

PASSIONATE ABOUT PASSION FRUIT

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

UST AS MAY WAG (“PASSION FLOWERS”) TOOK ITS INSPIRATION FROM THE PASSION FLOWER, SO JULY TAKES ITS CUE FROM THE BITTERSWEET, SEEDY FRUIT THAT IS A SPECIES OF THE FLOWER (“PASSION’S FRUITS”).

The flower’s Latin genus name, Passiflora, was coined by Spanish missionaries who used it to teach the indigenous peoples of South America about Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

But passion fruit isn’t big only in Latin America. The fruit and the foods it inspires are savored around the world, including in the United States where passion fruit is grown on climbing vines in such temperate areas as Florida, Arizona, California and Hawaii.

Though the fruit is harvested heavily in late summer, with peak eating seasons in January and spring, it’s available year-round. (WAG found it recently online in Shop Rites in Garnerville and Milford.)

But even if you can’t find it locally at the moment, that shouldn’t stop you now from savoring passion fruit in other forms. In White Plains, you can sip a

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Passion fruit. Photograph by dreamstime.com

passion fruit mojito, made from Parrot Bay Passion Fruit Rum and passion fruit purée, at Serafina or The Republic of Tea’s bottled Passion Fruit Green Tea — which, despite the moniker, is actually a lovely ruby color — at Mariposa in Neiman Marcus Westchester.

Recently, Dannon’s 80-calorie Light & Fit Greek Yogurt began offering a creamy, tangy passion fruit flavor in a limited edition. Fortune 500 companies love passion fruit. In 2010, the Coca-Cola Co., whose Fanta soda comes in passion fruit, nonprofit TechnoServe and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a partnership to enable more than 50,000 mango and passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to increase their productivity and double their incomes by participating in Coca-Cola’s supply chain for the first time.

Such enterprises are not surprising for the versatile fruit, which comes in a grapefruit-size golden variety and a lime-size purple one and is rich in B vitamins, vitamins A and C, copper, fiber, iron, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus and especially potassium.

In Hawaii, you can enjoy passion fruit jam and jelly along with a syrup that’s used on everything from shaved ice to marinated meats and veggies.

Down Under, passion fruit tops pavlova, a regional meringue cake, and flavors the popular soft drink

Passiona and alcoholic beverages. In Brazil, it’s the basis for a mousse that’s a popular dessert.

The Portuguese, particularly on the islands of the Azores and Madeira, like their passion fruit in mousse and liqueur form, while Sri Lankans like to juice it. (Passion fruit is also made into an oil that has both cosmetic and dietary uses.)

One of the best ways to enjoy passion fruit, however, is fresh and unadorned. The purple variety is juicier and more flavorful. But whichever variety you chose, experts say you should look for a fruit that is ripe, plump, heavy in the hand and wrinkled (an indication of its sweetness). Minor cuts and spots are fine.

Store the fruit in a basket in a cool, dark place for a couple of days. Or, if it’s ripe, put it in the refrigerator, where it will keep for a week.

When you are ready for your passion fruit, wash it in cold water, pat it dry, cut it lengthwise and scoop out the pulp, which also freezes well.

You can give it a little Mexican zing by accenting it with chili powder and lime. But remember that the Brazilians sometimes use it instead of lime in mixing a caipirinha, their national, sugar cane-based cocktail.

Proving that the passion fruit is passionate enough.

BANKING ON AN END TO HUNGER

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

NANCY LYONS IS TALKING ABOUT CHILDREN’S BACKPACKS AND SOME OF THE ITEMS SHE AND HER TEAM PUT IN THEM — CEREAL, POWDERED MILK, FRUIT, VEGETABLES, RICE OR MACARONI. She shows you the surveys expressing the youngsters’ gratitude. Her eyes pool. Or maybe they are merely a reflection of your own.

You wouldn’t think that pancake mix or dried cranberries could bring a tear to the eye, but then, hunger is a moving subject — no less so when it exists amid a landscape of plenty.

Some 200,000 people in Westchester County are what the Food Bank for Westchester describes as “food insecure.” The Food Bank — which recently merged with the Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless — seeks to alleviate that insecurity through a variety of initiatives that are tailor-made for the 265 agencies and programs it serves.

“Since both organizations started in 1988… the food issue has become more important,” Ellen Lynch, the Food Bank’s president and CEO, says by way of explaining the merger. “What happened in 2008 and ’09 is that a whole section of the workforce dried up and it’s not coming back.”

She’s referring to service jobs that support the wealth sector — gardeners, window washers, waitstaff in country clubs now closed. The affected include those in what are always the most vulnerable demographic groups. About one-third of Westchester’s hungry are children. Some 22 percent are senior citizens.

The beauty of the Food Bank is that it is committed to nutrition that nonetheless considers the needs of different age, ethnic and geographic groups. The BackPacks Program, which provides 1,684 children

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This year, Curtis Instruments beat 10 other corporate teams to win the Food Bank for Westchester’s Golden Scoop trophy for the most food repackaged in one hour. The winners repacked 3,446 pounds of rice.

and families with weekend meals, will substitute canned tuna for peanut butter for nut-allergy sufferers. A truck and municipal housing drop-offs make it easier for those who have a hard time getting around.

The Food Bank — which dispensed 7.2 million pounds of food, or 6.6 million meals in fiscal 2014 — gets its supplies from three main sources, says Toby Pidgeon, vice president of operations. About 25 percent comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the form of shelf-stable products, including dried cranberries and brown rice. About 35 percent, or 353,627 pounds, is surplus food that the Food Bank picks up from retailers like A&P, Sam’s Club and Trader Joe’s, using a custom-designed refrigerated truck donated earlier this year by PepsiCo. The remaining 40 percent, Pidgeon says, comes in the form of food and monetary donations from individuals, corporations, houses of worship and other organizations and initiatives like Scarsdale Middle School and The Yom Kippur Food Drive, which has involved the Jewish community throughout Westchester for more than 20 years.

None of this would be possible without the space and the manpower. The Food Bank’s 37,000-squarefoot facility in Elmsford is about double the size of its

Photograph courtesy Food Bank for Westchester.

former Millwood headquarters. There are refrigerated and cold storage areas, along with a clean room, and everywhere floor-to-ceiling shelves laden with fresh produce and canned and boxed goods. The place hums with the sounds of men moving products on dollies and trucks loading and unloading.

Even on a Friday, when most of the food has been distributed for the week, there are always dairy products on hand. On this particular Friday, there are also shelves of Kettle Brand Popcorn as well as 1,000 pounds of rotini that have to be repackaged into one-pound boxes, Lyons, Food Bank’s manager of volunteer services, says. Fortunately, volunteers contribute about 24,000 hours, adding the equivalent of 10 full-timers to a staff of 40.

The Food Bank needs every one of those volunteers. Though it serves 120,000 unduplicated clients, there are still 80,000 people who are not being reached.

But here’s another important statistic, Lynch says: The Food Bank turns every dollar it receives into $4 of food.

That may not be the miracle of the loaves and fishes. But it’s pretty darn close.

For more, visit foodbankforwestchester.org.

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Food for thought: CAN WE RECLAIM THE AMERICAN DREAM?

BY AUDREY RONNING TOPPING

Hedrick Smith. Photograph courtesy Hedrick Smith.

HEDRICK SMITH, A PULITZER AND PEABODY AWARD-WINNING FORMER REPORTER AND EDITOR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES AND PBS’ “FRONTLINE,” GAVE US ALL SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT AFTER A TALK AND GOOD DINNER HOSTED BY THE SCARSDALE FORUM. To a rapt audience at the Scarsdale Women’s Club, Smith discussed the real and profound changes that have taken place in America since

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1970. He presented a compelling account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled to the point where we have become two Americas.

“Even as their stock portfolios swell and their values soar, many wealthy Americans are troubled by the growing divide between the rich and the poor,” he says.

Smith contends “Schisms in the soul of society keep us from solv-

ing any major issue,” whether it is climate change, inferior education, failing infrastructure or the national debt. “It’s not just deferred maintenance,” Smith says.

Our government has given no indication that it can handle these problems effectively. Therefore, he says, “We the people must deal with structural problems we have built into our system.”

Smith’s prime-time analytical specials for PBS have won several awards for examining systemic problems in modern America and offering insightful, prescriptive solutions. In his provocative latest book, “Who Stole the American Dream?”, Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians get shoved to the sidelines and how Wall Street often wins politically by employing more than 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists.

By relating the personal stories of a wide range of Americans high and low, including big and small businessmen and entrepreneurs, Smith compares conditions with those in the 1960s and ’70s, putting a human face on how middle-class America and the American Dream have been undermined.

Today, the minimum wage is 33 percent below the

1968 level, after being adjusted for inflation. Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. Then, the idea of stakeholder capitalism and shared wealth pressed Washington to do the right thing.

“Our politics became more effective and our economy more inclusive,” Smith says. “But two things changed, ideas and power. The CEO’s sole mission today is to deliver maximum return to shareholders — that’s it.”

Smith’s challenging book is filled with the penetrating insights, discoveries and empathy of a master journalist. But the unique thing about Smith is that he doesn’t just tell us what has gone wrong, he offers fresh and workable ideas for restoring America’s great promise and reclaiming the American Dream.

Getting help for homeowners and jobs for the roughly 17 million unemployed and underemployed Americans will require changing the political dynamics in Washington. He believes that the reflexive instinct of most Americans is to ask for a new Lincoln to pull the nation together again and restore a national sense of purpose. But great as he was, Smith believes Lincoln could not have done it without armies of volunteers.

“We are at a defining moment for America,” Smith

holds. “We cannot allow the slow, poisonous polarization and disintegration of our great democracy to continue. We must get together and take actions to rejuvenate our nation and to restore fairness and hope to our way of life. We see the challenge. It is now time. We the people must take action.”

Smith says a chief problem is that 85 to 90 percent of Congressional districts are political monopolies, designed so that the incumbent party, and usually the incumbent person, will stay in the government.

“It is disenfranchising in most states closed to half the voters. If your district is gerrymandered, the election doesn’t matter — your vote doesn’t count.”

Politicians aren’t interested in change, because the system is working for them. What can we do? “We must become organized people, confronting organized money and gerrymandering.”

While Smith laments, “We’ve lost the belief that we can have a better country. We’ve become fearful, disconnected, cynical,” he nonetheless asserts, “We need a new generation of agitators in America to protest intelligently on matters that are important to our society. We need to get active. We need to get engaged. We need to get going.”

For more, visit ReclaimtheAmericanDream.org.

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IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, THE DESSERTIST WILL CREATE IT

BY DANIELLE RENDA PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

I 20

IT ALL STARTED WITH A CAKE IN THE SHAPE OF A CAT. “It was one of my best friends’ birthdays and I wanted to make her a birthday cake,” recalls Samantha Eichenberg.

She’s popped into WAG’s White Plains headquarters with special cake pops and a gooey confection for photographing. Even without the sweet treats, her gold fork and knife

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necklace, offset by a black dress, signals her passion.

Which is for what ends a meal. Eichenberg is the founder of The Dessertist, known for custom-made, artistic offerings that reflect a fine arts/business background — honed in a program that she designed at Kent State. So it’s no surprise that her motto is “If you can dream it, I can bake it.”

“If there’s a particular flavor that you want, no matter how crazy it is, I can create it as a dessert,” she says proudly. “The artwork is unlimited.”

Eichenberg makes everything from cakes to cookies, brownies, mousse, truffles and her signature cake pops. Though she can produce any flavor at the client’s request, some of her most unusual homages include Fruity Pebbles, pineapple upside-down cake, bananas Foster and even a Cosmopolitan, for the legal sweet tooth.

“Everything inspires me with my desserts,” she says. “Anything that I taste or see or someone loves is an inspiration.”

Her muse might be produce purchased at a farmers’ market or a rare spice. But the roots of what she does stem from her childhood, when she first learned to bake.

“My family is my culinary school,” she says.

“I actually iced my very first cake when I was 3 years old, and I have a picture of that I keep around. It’s very special to me, because it re-

minds me of where I came from and where this all got started.”

Eichenberg’s fork-and-knife necklace is an heirloom, serving as a reminder of someone who played a crucial role in her life.

“It’s actually a tie clip that belonged to my grandfather,” she says. “When he passed away, I happened to find this tie clip, something that I hadn’t seen in years. It was a huge wake-up call that he was trying to tell me something, and it wasn’t until then that I had identified the forkand-knife as, ‘Wow, this is him telling me to pursue what I want to do.’”

Eichenberg fingers the necklace while conducting a cooking demonstration, unexpectedly whipping a torch out of her purse.

“I like to be able to torch on command,” she says, chuckling.

The Dessertist does not yet have a brick-andmortar store, though plans are under way for one in the near future. In the meantime, Eichenberg

operates the business out of her Croton-on-Hudson home along with The Dessertist Jr., her personal assistant and daughter, Charley, 5.

“My daughter Charley is extremely involved in my business. She always has been, since she was born,” she says with a smile. “She has been cracking eggs and measuring ingredients since she was 2 years old and, going all the way back, one of her first words was ‘cupcake.’ I think it’s important for a child to get to be a part of your life in every way possible.”

The Dessertist hopes to run cooking tutorials, particularly for children’s birthday parties. And Eichenberg is also developing a cookbook, in addition to doing charity work for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, No Kid Hungry and City Harvest.

“I have always been a bakery that gives back, and I love to just bring awareness to a lot of different issues,” she says. “Especially ones that I can take what I love to do and just make a difference.”

For more, visit thedessertist.com. To contact Eichenberg directly, email info@thedessertist.com

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Detail of “Gastrotypographicalassemblage.�

The work, designed by Lou Dorfsman and installed in 1966, long decorated the dining room at the CBS Building in New York City and is now restored and on permanent display at The Culinary Institute of America.

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

A

AMONG FOOD ENTHUSIASTS, THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA’S REPUTATION AS A PREMIER TRAINING GROUND FOR SOME OF THE REGION’S — AND THE WORLD’S — LEADING CHEFS, RESTAURANT OWNERS AND FOOD PROFESSIONALS IS UNDISPUTED.

And for those like us, lucky enough to be within driving distance of this Hudson Valley landmark, the CIA in Hyde Park is a treasure trove of culinary resources just waiting to be discovered.

The options are plentiful, designed to suit a variety of skills, interests and tastes (pun fully intended).

For many, the introduction to the 170-acre campus overlooking the Hudson River comes through dining at one of its restaurants. Students staff both kitchens and dining rooms, where menu options range from the Hudson Valley’s finest, showcased in the American Bounty Restaurant, to the classics of French and Italian cuisine — and most everything in between.

A casual option is the Apple Pie Bakery Café, where you can order up a few of the signature Canelés de Bordeaux pastry. (Yes, students make up a good part of the line, as one assures us on a recent visit, “It’s that good.”).

There are countless other ways to interact with the school, where students in chef whites dot the hallways and classrooms.

Take a student-led campus tour for an overview, for example. Jeff Levine, the CIA’s communications director, served as WAG’s guide on a recent sunny day.

Right away, you realize you’re in heady company. Within moments of entering stately Roth Hall, you not only spot a sign announcing the commencement address to be delivered by Jacques Pépin, but recognize Waldy Malouf just steps way. (The noted chef, restaurateur and author joined the staff of his alma mater a few years ago).

SERVING UP SUCCESS Over a few hours, WAG will peek into classroom and kitchen, food science course and restaurant, theater and office. It’s all part of a storied past.

The CIA, the first and oldest culinary college in the country, was founded in 1946 in New Haven, eventually growing beyond its borders and settling into its main Hyde Park campus, a former Jesuit novitiate, in 1972.

From baking and pastry arts to culinary science, bachelor’s and associate’s degrees are specialized — and wellearned.

The education emphasizes hands-on training, which is completed in more than 40 kitchens and bakeshops, four public restaurants, demonstration theaters and an extensive culinary library. The faculty of more than 170 chef-instructors has wide-ranging cultural and culinary backgrounds with experiences in restaurants, hotels and resorts. This main campus, along with others in California, Texas and Singapore serve nearly 3,000 students from 30-plus countries, Levine says.

It’s a tradition that’s produced many a mover and shaker in the food world, from Steve Ells, founder of blockbuster chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, to marquee television personalities and chefs such as Anthony Bourdain, Cat Cora, Michael Chiarello, Michael Symon and Duff Goldman.

STUDENT DAYS (AND NIGHTS) In an amphitheater-style classroom, we get a sneak peek at a student test. They’ll be asked to identify random vegetables and discuss their properties, lessons necessary for when they must order their own produce.

“We don’t want to spoon feed them. We give them a lot of information, but we want them to do it on their own,” says culinary arts professor Elizabeth Briggs.

Students will study wine and breakfast menus, high-volume cookery and knife sharpening. In one kitchen, culinary arts professor Thomas Kief is demonstrating “the flavor profiles, the ingredients” of “The Cuisines of the Americas.”

Moments later, we’re offered a handcrafted chocolate — yes, please — as students take instruction from bakery and pastry arts professor Peter Greweling.

Bakeries operate round-the-clock. Students in the restaurants are learning, Levine shares, everything from how to carry three plates to “how to welcome someone as a guest, not just a customer.”

“For most of the students, hospitality comes naturally,” he adds.

That’s more than evident as Levine hosts WAG for lunch

‘CULINARY’ DELIGHTS

Lots to savor at the famed Hyde Park training ground

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Jason Blais, a student from Southington, Conn., (under the watchful eye of Philip Papineau, assistant professor in hospitality and service management) who uses liquid nitrogen to dramatically kickstart a hand-churned creation of lavender ice cream.

We’ll go on to see the expanding Student Center, hear all about the upcoming craft brewery (soon to open in collaboration with Brooklyn Brewery) and the extensive library.

BEYOND THE RESTAURANTS CIA student Betsy Ruch, from Maryland, prepares shrimp in a “Cuisines of the Americas” class.

in The Bocuse Restaurant, a meal that gets off to a stellar start with a bowl of sublime spring pea soup dotted with Jonah crab.

Student after gracious student attends to our every need, from refilling the water glass to offering bread. We’ll end the meal utterly transfixed by

The bucolic setting also hosts Boot Camps, two- to five-day courses dedicated to everything from skill development to hors d’oeuvres to grilling and BBQ. Sounds serious, no?

Actually, no, says Brad Barnes, director of CIA Consulting & Industry Programs.

“It’s a very nonthreatening environment, if you will,” the White Plains resident says. “We don’t

want you to be nervous.”

These in-depth experiences have attracted those celebrating birthdays, family reunions or even corporate events.

“It’s team-building, fun, interesting… a kind of different way to spend time together,” Barnes adds. “We really do get a myriad of people here for different reasons.”

Outreach includes Taste magazine, which not only details Boot Camp and one-day or one-session offerings such as Saturday Kitchens (from “Artisan Breads at Home” to “Spain and the World Table”) and charity dining events but offers features and recipes.

Nancy Collazo, director of consumer marketing and a Danbury resident, says the CIA works hard to create events that resonate.

“Coming here to take a class will change your life,” she says, confident there is an audience that will connect.

It’s like the banners scattered throughout the campus proclaim: “Food is life. Create and savor yours.”

For more, visit ciachef.edu.

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L

KATHIE LEE GIFFORD:

IN VINO VERITAS

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN RIZZO

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT ABOUT KATHIE LEE GIFFORD, AMERICA’S CO-HOSTESS WITH THE MOSTEST: SHE WAS BORN IN PARIS, WHERE HER FATHER, A U.S. NAVY CHIEF PETTY OFFICER, WAS STATIONED. Is that why she feels so connected to wine?

“In a way I would say yes,” Kathie Lee offers at Bloomingdale’s White Plains. “My parents loved each other before they went

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Kathie Lee Gifford

there. But I don’t think they fell in love with each other until they went to Paris and I was conceived and born there.”

Growing up in Bowie, Md., Kathie Lee says wine was part of the family dinners, remembering her father enjoying a Chianti with his spaghetti.

“But they never drank to excess,” she adds. “It was always like a European custom.”

So when she had an opportunity to partner about a year and a half ago with Scheid Family Wines in Monterey, Calif., — where

the coastal fog and cool nights linger through the morning, allowing the estate grapes to ripen more slowly and evenly — “it felt like the most natural thing in the world,” she says on her website.

The fruits of that partnership are called GIFFT Wines — from Kathie Lee’s last name and belief that “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.”

They are described as a “light, crisp” Chardonnay, a “smooth, juicy and luscious” red blend and a fruity Pinot Noir Rosé. The trio’s logo is the place where Kathie Lee most enjoys pouring a glass for family and friend — the gazebo of the Greenwich-area home she shares with husband, Frank, of football and sportscasting fame, children Cody and Cassidy and three pooches.

“My husband calls Greenwich ‘God’s country,’ and he’s a California boy.”

The wines are part of the Bloomie’s festivities, along with hors d’oeuvres by Peter X. Kelly, chef and owner of Xaviars Restaurant Group, and a fashion

show hosted by Kathie Lee, Bloomingdale’s fashion director Brooke Jaffe and shoe designer Paul Mayer.

During the runway presentation, Kathie Lee — the Emmy Award-winning co-host of the fourth hour of NBC’s “Today” with Hoda Kotb and former co-host of “Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee” — is in sassy, self-deprecating Kathie Lee form.

Of one adorable outfit, she remarks, “Oh, my gosh, my daughter would love it, except I would steal it from her, but it wouldn’t fit me.”

Of another revealing J Lo-esque number, she says, “The only deep plunge I have is at the deep end of my pool.”

She teases the shy, bow-tied Mayer with “Paul, you have to pick up the microphone,” before complimenting him on the ballet flats the models are wearing. This leads to a feminist riff on the Cannes Film Festival’s recent ban of actresses not sporting high heels on the red carpet.

“I thought it was so sexist. If women have to

wear high heels, men should have to wear high heels.”

Backstage, however, Kathie Lee reveals a woman of softness and humility. She makes sure to acknowledge WAG’s intern Lauren Sharkey and gives us a parting “God Bless” — still very much the girl who went off to study music and drama at Oral Roberts University.

But at the end of the fashion show, she can’t resist one more saucy Kathie Lee-ism. It’s Peter Kelly’s birthday and she calls the chef onto the stage, exhorting the ladies in the audience to sing “Happy Birthday” in the manner that Marilyn Monroe sang it to President John F. Kennedy at his Madison Square Garden birthday bash in May of 1962.

As Kathie Lee presents Peter with a strawberry shortcake, she busses him lightly and he blushes, still very much the Irish Catholic boy.

But then, so was JFK. For more, visit kathieleegifford.com.

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I

Linda Koe is one of Community Plates’ “app”t volunteers.

Photograph courtesy Community Plates

APP HELPS DIVERT FOOD FROM TRASH HEAP

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

N FAIRFIELD COUNTY, SOME 110,000 PEOPLE DO NOT NECESSARILY KNOW WHERE THEIR NEXT MEAL IS COMING FROM. THAT’S ABOUT ONE-SIXTH OF THE POPULATION, ROUGHLY THE NATIONAL AVERAGE. “What I want to say is that it just doesn’t make any sense,” says Kevin Mullins. “It makes no sense on the basis of how rich this nation is, and it makes even less sense when you consider how much food we waste.”

That illogic spurred Mullins in 2011, along with Jeff Schacher, to create Community Plates, a national food rescue nonprofit based in Fairfield County that uses technology in a novel way to fight hunger.

With the GoRescue app, volunteers — between 200 and 300 locally, some 500 nationally and more than 1,200 since 2011 — can log in and sign up for food runs between food donors like Trader Joe’s and a recipient like the Open Door Shelter in Norwalk. You can adopt a run or un-adopt it while

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you’re away (though you might want to get someone to “foster parent” your run while you’re gone.)

“It’s about connecting the dots,” says Mullins, Community Plates’ executive director. “What the technology does is coordinate the activities of 10,000 volunteers as seamlessly as a person could do 100.”

The idea is not entirely new, he adds. Food Runners, a 28-year-old organization that relays food for more than 5,000 meals each day in San Francisco, has mentored Community Plates, which has locations in New Haven; Columbus, Ohio; New Orleans; and Albuquerque, N.M. “But (Food Runners) doesn’t leverage the technology in the same way,” Mullins says.

To date, Community Plates has rescued almost 8 million meals nationally — 6 million in Fairfield County alone — from bakeries, caterers, markets, restaurants and other food-service organizations, saving more than 8 million pounds of nutritious, usable food from going in the landfill. The nonprofit expects to rescue 2.5 million meals in Fairfield County this year.

Helping Community Plates to reach its goals is its signature fundraiser “Food for All,” held this past spring at The Loading Dock in Stamford.

The nightclubby scene turned a spotlight on eateries new to Fairfield — Abigail Kirsch, Aji 10 Latin Cuisine & Pisco Bar, Amore Cucina & Bar, Cafe Madrid & Tapas Bar, Fleisher’s Craft Butchery, Fortina, Golden View Firenze, Greenwich Cheese Co., Jax & Co., K is for Cookies, LeRouge Chocolates, Match, NEAT, Palmwich, Paloma, SOOSH, Strada 18 and Table 104 Osteria & Bar. Meanwhile, the craft cocktails bars were manned by restaurant vets bartaco, The Fez, The Spread, Walrus & Carpenter and Nestlé Waters.

The evening raised $75,000 to benefit the GoRescue platform — which includes best practices, technology, training and support — and save and deliver 1.5 million meals. (Every $1 donated equals 20 meals.) And this is just the beginning.

Mullins says, “We anticipate exponential expansion over the next 18 months as we work toward our mission of eliminating hunger nationwide.”

For more, visit communityplates.org.

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DELICATE BEAUTIES THE FRICK COLLECTION SHOWCASES ITS SÈVRES

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY THE FRICK COLLECTION Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (French), Tripod Table, ca. 1783, Gilt bronze, oak, and soft-paste porcelain, The Frick Collection, New 30 York.

WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

PORCELAIN HAS LONG BEEN A PART OF MANY A WELL-SET TABLE.

Those who entertain, after all, want to create a warm welcome for their guests, from the room where they serve that first cocktail to the table where guests might savor an elaborate meal.

And yes, sometimes they might even want to show off, even if just a little bit.

It’s no surprise, then, to hear that when American industrialist Henry Clay Frick was furnishing his new Manhattan home in 1916, his goal was to replicate the grand houses of Europe’s leading collectors. The way they surrounded their important artwork with equally stunning decorative goods was definitely intended to impress, and Frick was determined to do the same.

Guided by art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen, Frick as-

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sembled his own breathtaking collection of decorative arts, including many pieces made by Sèvres, the leading 18th-century French porcelain manufacturer. For Frick, though, the pieces served decorative not functional purposes, finding places of honor throughout the mansion that transitioned to a museum in 1935.

Now, those rare and intricately detailed works — including a few rarely displayed pieces along with recent acquisitions — are featured in a jewel box of a show, “From Sèvres to Fifth Avenue: French Porcelain at The Frick Collection,” which continues through April 24, 2016.

It marks the first time in 35 years that the spotlight has been put on the museum’s Sèvres holdings, along the way exploring the company’s effect on both French society of the day and America’s Gilded Age. The special exhibition indeed impresses, as Ian Wardropper explains in his Letter from the Director in the Frick’s current Members’ Magazine.

“Traditionally, these objects have been shown throughout the house, where they complement paintings by Fragonard and other Rococo artists,” the Mamaroneck resident writes. “For the first time, they can be viewed together in the Portico Gallery, allowing for

— Charlotte Vignon

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fresh comparisons and interesting juxtapositions. Seen in natural light with the Fifth Avenue Garden as a backdrop, they are marvelous to behold.”

Wardropper isn’t exaggerating, as a recent afternoon visit to the museum, on East 70th Street (off Fifth Avenue), makes clear.

Walking through the show with Charlotte Vignon, curator of decorative arts at The Frick and organizer of the exhibition, makes for a special introduction.

“I always wanted to take them out of their context, the house context,” Vignon says of the exhibition’s layout.

And here, in distinct display cases within the gallery, the exhibition unfolds.

“It’s small, but it really reflects Frick very well, his taste and what can be

From top: Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (French), Three Potpourris Vases, ca. 1762, soft-paste porcelain; and Sugar Bowl, 1756, soft-paste porcelain. The Frick Collection, New York.

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done” by a collector with means, she says.

The varied works and accompanying text allow many points of entry, from the history of the porcelain company to the role of French porcelain in the world of design, from the science used to create the works to the decorative elements that reflect trends and tastes of the time.

Vignon touches on it all with ease and assurance, discussing the properties of a vibrant hue called bleu céleste; the realistic depiction of the birds and flowers that decorate the plates, vases and tea service; the gilding techniques; and overall, the incredible artistry of the highly skilled craftsmen.

“You have to really think,” she says. “Painting on porcelain was the most delicate thing. … They were masters of their craft.”

The pieces here, she says, would have been created for an elite audience.

“It’s very much royalty and family, especially aristocracy.”

The work, she adds, was in its day “very, very expensive,” its creation quite “time-consuming.”

“At that period of time only the very few could afford it.”

A vibrant feeling is evoked throughout, no matter the piece that catches the eye, from the dramatic Potpourri Vase “à Vaisseau,” circa 1759, to the deceptively straightforward sugar bowl from 1764 to the circa-1783 Tripod Table, a charming celebration that incorporates gilt bronze and oak with the soft-paste porcelain.

Sèvres, it’s clear, has been a showstopper for centuries.

“The king absolutely used porcelain and the Sèvres porcelain as diplomatic gifts to show how strong the French manufactories were,” Vignon concludes.

And today, we can still see why.

For more, visit frick.org.

Charlotte Vignon, curator of decorative arts at The Frick Collection.

All photographs by Michael Bodycomb.

JULY 2015

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S O U N D W O R K S N Y. C O M

BE HER GUEST NISA LEE CATERS LIFE’S SPECIAL MOMENTS

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

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Nisa Lee’s chilled gazpacho and carrot-ginger soups.

A

A MEETING WITH NISA LEE WILL PRODUCE SMILES — AND A SATISFIED PALATE. WAG caught up with the noted chef and caterer at the Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden, a most fitting backdrop.

Lee is a few months into her partnership with the North Salem destination, where she’s not only bringing Pelham-based Nisa Lee Events — her full-service wedding and event planning, design and catering company — to private events but also many on the Hammond’s own calendar.

Coming to the Hammond, where Lee can accommodate events of up to 600 guests, was a revelation.

“I had no idea this was this hidden haven,” she says of her first visit this past autumn.

As she leads us through the event spaces and grounds, talking about celebrations past and upcoming, it’s clear the serene surroundings have affected her and that she deftly integrates the site into each and every event.

A signature is her circular seating, where no table is stuck in a corner. It mimics, she says, “the circle of family and friends because, you know, that’s all you need in life.”

The collaboration is already proving fruitful, says museum director Lorraine Laken: “She’s just very upbeat and has phenomenal ideas.”

WAG was pleased to have a couple of hours with Lee,

who proved as charming and down to earth as one might hope (It was an appointment, by the way, rescheduled to accommodate her meeting with client Helen Mirren — yes, that Helen Mirren).

Sure, Lee answered a couple of questions about the event she was planning for the actress of international acclaim and shared memories of occasions created for other bold-faced names ranging from Paul McCartney to Hillary Clinton. But she was equally excited to talk about savvy young clients or her own four children, raised in a (can you imagine?) microwave-free home.

Over a sunny morning, we chatted away, took photographs — and had a nibble or two.

“You have to try,” she insists at one point. “You have to validate what I do.”

Consider it done.

Lee took time on her own to answer some more of WAG’s questions, which we share excerpts of here. For the full Q&A, visit wagmag.com.

CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN CATERING? “I started cooking traditional Thai cuisine at the age of 7 to help my family after immigrating from Thailand at the age of

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5. Living in New York City as an adult and experiencing a wide array of cuisines at restaurants really broadened my palate and love for food. I used to love finding a great dish at a restaurant then recreating that dish at home with a few improvements to make it my own. I love the challenge and excitement of developing my own recipes now using exotic and unique ingredients from around the world combined with fresh local ingredients to balance the variety of flavors and textures.

“I started catering 13 years ago, in the fall of 2002, shortly after I put together a milestone birthday celebration for my husband and our closest friends. Everyone raved about the food and décor, and it felt easy and very natural for me.”

THIS PAST YEAR HAS SEEN YOUR BUSINESS EXPAND. CAN YOU SHARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS? “My focus is primarily all about life’s celebrations — weddings, bar/ bat mitzvahs, milestone birthday celebrations, ‘celebration of life’ receptions but also corporate branding and product launches and memorable moments in general.

“My business has grown and evolved almost entirely by word of mouth and personal recommendations from my clients, our newsletter and more recently through social media. Editorial features in great food and lifestyle publications like WAG have also been very helpful. Other than a couple of early experiments, we have not relied much on advertising.

“Building relationships with my clients is very important to me. Not just for business, but I have forged very close relationships with some of my clients over the years. And some of the most rewarding moments for me personally come when my clients from the past, especially from my early years, call me to plan, create and produce their daughter’s or son’s wedding. Then they have children and I get to help plan their baby shower, bar mitzvah and sweet sixteen.

The cycle of life is so beautiful.”

TELL US A BIT MORE ABOUT YOUR NEWEST COLLABORATION, WORKING WITH THE HAMMOND MUSEUM & JAPANESE STROLL GARDEN IN NORTH SALEM. “What I love about the Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden is its natural beauty and setting in addition to the beautiful art and crafts inside the museum.

When it comes to events, the Hammond is like a blank canvas for me to create and design almost anything!

“For example, we are currently planning a wide range of events, including a Country BBQ, multicultural wedding receptions, Tuscany Candlelight Dining, a Masquerade Sweet Sixteen and a Broadway-themed bar mitzvah. … The possibilities are endless.

“I get to have these wonderful opportunities to create and produce my clients’ ideas and turn them into a vision and a reality. So much fun.”

YOUR CLIENTELE IS FILLED WITH POWERFUL PEOPLE, NOTABLES FROM MANY FIELDS. WHAT’S IT LIKE WORKING WITH PEOPLE WHO MAY ALWAYS BE IN THE SPOTLIGHT? “I feel grateful to have worked with many distinguished clients — celebrities, dignitaries, presidents and CEOs of companies. I have found that most are genuine, personable and so much fun to work with. I think most of my clients are drawn to my company because they sense those same traits in me and how we do our events.”

DO YOU HAVE A SIGNATURE DISH AND IF SO, WHAT IS IT? ARE FOOD TRENDS A BIG INFLUENCE ON YOUR MENUS? WHAT’S TRENDING NOW? “Signature dishes include Steamed Red Thai Sea Bass with Israeli Pearl Couscous, 36

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Nisa Lee at the Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden.

Mediterranean Chicken, Garden Zucchini and Carrot Ribbons with Mint Yogurt Sauce; or Hibiscus-dusted Wild Salmon, Grilled Corn Sugar Snaps and Farro.

“My biggest influence in the menus is using fresh sustainable ingredients, exotic spices and herbs.

“The trendiest food and styles are ethnic hors d’oeuvres, craft beer and food pairings, gluten-free cuisines and artisanal ice cream.”

DO YOU ENJOY COOKING FOR YOUR OWN FAMILY? ARE THEY ALSO FOOD ENTHUSIASTS? DO YOU LIKE TO ENTERTAIN AT HOME? “Love, love cooking with my family when I can. I have four children and when summertime comes, we came up with an idea that for each week, each child gets to create a menu for the family. It can be one of their favorite dishes or they can look online for ideas. We shop together for the ingredients and make it together. This way, I get to have one-on-one time with each of them, they get to learn to shop, cook, and everyone gets to try something different. Such a fun and memorable time for me and for them.

“Yes, they all love to try new things and are always open to the various cuisines and flavors.

“I do love to entertain at home for my family and friends when I have the time.

Even I get to create culinary themes when we host our friends.”

FINALLY, WHAT DO YOU HOPE GUESTS REMEMBER AFTER ATTENDING A NISA LEE EVENT? “What is important to me for any event is that my clients and their guests have a unique experience that ignites all of their senses — taste, touch, smell, vision. I want them to feel as if they had escaped to a faraway place in both the culinary and design elements of an event. It’s that one moment and the very first impressions that make a difference. Therefore, every detail and style is met with my personal attention from start to finish from the moment they walk in the door to the moment they bid farewell.”

For more, visit nisalee.com.

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BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

ON A RECENT MORNING IN BRONXVILLE, BEHIND PAPERED WINDOWS SPORTING BUILDING PERMITS, KATE BREWSTER-DUFFY FINDS HERSELF SURROUNDED BY CONSTRUCTION WORKERS, TOOLS AND PLENTY OF PAPERWORK.

The tall, striking woman is again taking stock of what will soon become the home of Stillmeadow Gourmet.

“I want to be your one-stop shop for lunch — or dinner,” she says of the business she plans to open this month on Pondfield Road at Garden Avenue.

“This was always what I wanted to do. If you grew up in a suburb, there was always one of these in your town.”

Brewster-Duffy, who lives in Manhattan, has spent the last few months working on the venture. Its name, she shares, is a nod to her parents’ Stillmeadow Farm in Stonington, Conn., where she grew up.

After a few post-college years in marketing — not the best fit — Brewster-Duffy shifted gears.

“I decided to move to Paris for a year.”

There, she explored her love of food and cooking with studies at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, eventually returning to New York City where she spent the last few years as a sous chef and line cook.

Now, she’s about to step out on her own.

Prohibitive rents in Manhattan and the outer boroughs led to her looking beyond.

“We kind of drew a circle, and this was the first place I looked.”

With friends in the village, Brewster-Duffy knew Bronxville, loved the corner spot — and the spacious 2,000-square-foot interior that will house retail, seating and a most generous prep area.

“I’m going to do pirouettes in my kitchen,” she says, playfully acknowledging the luxury.

In Bronxville, Brewster-Duffy says there is “a need to be filled” — and thinks her offerings will connect.

“Everyone has a pretty sophisticated palate.”

The front of the shop will have retail goods, such as specialty olive oils, with “graband-go” selections to include salads, sandwiches and yogurt parfaits. She wants customers to feel at ease with the “design-your-own” salads, quinoa bowls and sandwiches, while having more hearty options for evenings.

Rotisserie chickens may end up becoming the shop’s signature offering.

“My rotisserie chicken program when I was in New York was really popular,” she says, noting this was something learned in Europe.

“I trained in France so my style leans toward southern France, northern Italy.”

She hesitates to call herself a French chef, though, saying she shies away from

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Kate BrewsterDuffy plans to open Stillmeadow Gourmet in Bronxville soon.

creams and heavy sauces.

“I have a lot of clean, bright flavors.”

Throughout, Brewster-Duffy says she will approach her ingredients thoughtfully.

“All my meat is hormone, antibiotic-free,” she says by example.

She has created a solid network of purveyors aided by her New York connections.

“My fish guy suggested a fish guy up here.”

While she will also offer coffees, teas, pastries and desserts, Brewster-Duffy says the focus will be “more food-oriented.”

Zoned for 12 seats, Brewster-Duffy says she’ll open with bar-style seating that may transform into small tables to accommodate patrons with small children.

Plans are to open daily, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and closing a bit earlier on weekends.

Brewster-Duffy hopes word will spread. In addition to her website, she will be posting menu updates on both Facebook and Instagram to keep customers in the loop.

She says the quiet summer months will give her time to make any adjustments and is already looking beyond the start.

“As we get our feet under us, I do want to roll out catering,” she says. “We’d love to make your Thanksgivings, Christmases, Hanukkahs and Rosh Hashanahs easier.”

Throughout, her slogan reflects her straightforward approach — “Honest Provisions… Because Honestly, Who has Time?”

And these days, that slogan mirrors Brewster-Duffy’s life as she puts the finishing touches on the décor, working in collaboration with friend and local artist/photographer Taylor Dunn.

As Brewster-Duffy says, “I kind of want it to be very chic, ‘country kitchen’ … to look like the kitchen everybody wants.”

Finalizing the specials menus, hiring the staff and all the other little “wheels you don’t think about,” Brewster-Duffy is certainly wearing many hats.

“I am chef. I am manager. I am owner. Yes,” she says with a wry smile.

But it’s also a confident smile, one that lets you know she’s definitely up to the task.

For more, visit stillmeadowgourmet.com.

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A GROWING TREND IN RESTAURANTS OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS HAS BEEN THE FARM-TO-TABLE MODEL, but for

some of the most seasoned chefs in Fairfield and Westchester counties the term is a catchphrase for what they have been doing all along — caring about the food they serve and the people who produce it.

“Although ‘farm to table’ is a relatively new trend, I know no other way,” Robert Ubaldo, chef and owner of Farmer’s Table, writes on his menu.

Ubaldo opened his first Farmer’s Table restau-

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LEVERAGING THE FARM-TO-TABLE LABEL STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY REECE ALVAREZ

Restaurant North chef Gabrynowicz’s garam masala beet salad with beets from Blooming Hill Farm in Monroe, N.Y.

rant in New Canaan in 2010 with the idea that he would sell the produce he grows on his property in Pound Ridge as well as the ethically grown pork and poultry products from his brother John’s farm in Cambridge, N.Y. “I originally started doing this, because it was the quality of the food I was having a hard time with,” he says. “When we opened that place we didn’t call it a farm to table, other people did.”

In a few years, several other restaurants with a focus on locally sourced and ethically grown food cropped up in New Canaan and, in May 2014, Ubaldo moved his business down the street to a larger location to meet demand.

From regional food purveyors increasing their stocks of small-scale and sustainable food to corporations such as Taco Bell and McDonalds taking steps to remove additives and antibiotics from their products, Ubaldo sees not a suburban trend

but a new standard for the future of food — albeit one that is not always easy to maintain in the Northeast.

“During the winter, it is really hard, but you can mitigate,” Ubaldo says. “There are hothouses in upstate New York that sell everything from tomatoes to lettuce year-round.”

Still, he adds, farm to table is here to stay.

“I think it may get even more prevalent. It is just going to be the norm.”

The words “farm to table” or the like do not appear on any of the menus in Bill Taibe’s Westport restaurants, Le Farm, The Whelk and the soon-toopen Kawa Ni. “Farm to table was cool before anyone used those words,” he says. “It just seems natural to use the best product from someone who got it out of the ground or quickest after slaughter. That is naturally as a chef how I found myself creating a

relationship with those people.”

Enter the next phase of the sustainable food evolution, transforming what began as a business trend into a movement of community building.

“Ten years ago, farmer-chef relationships were hard, hard to cultivate,” said chef Eric Gabrynowicz, co-owner of Restaurant North in Armonk.

“Now it is a completely different ball game, because we realize how much we need each other and how alike we are. We care about the same things.”

When one of Gabrynowicz and co-owner Stephen Mancini’s main farmers, Mimi Edelman of I & Me Farms in Bedford Hills, was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, they struck a deal to pay her in advance to help support her the next season.

“You have to have a relationship with your farmers,” Gabrynowicz says. “They put the integrity into the product. I just cook it.”

Taibe, Gabrynowicz and Mancini opened their restaurants in 2009 and 2010 and since then all have expanded the values of clean and sustain-

able food that drive their relationships with their farmers and guests to the broader community.

In addition to co-founding CropUp, an online marketplace that works to centralize and streamline the buying process between restaurants and farmers, Taibe serves on the board of the Westport Farmers’ Market, for which he does fundraising and operates an internship program for Weston High School students through his restaurants.

Gabrynowicz and Mancini have expanded their civic focus nationally, recently lobbying in Washington, D.C., for the No Kid Hungry campaign to end child hunger and participating in a nutritional education program for inner-city children in New York.

This fall the pair have plans to incorporate their own nonprofit, which will commit a portion of the proceeds from their restaurants to fight child hunger.

“It’s not about how much money we can make, it’s about how can we change things and make better systems, better entertain people and be

Co-owner Stephen Mancini and chef Eric Gabrynowicz of Restaurant North in Armonk are part of the new evolution in farm-to-table movement.

better in our community,” Taibe says. “It’s still a weak and very tender and fragile system, but it is going in the right direction and my hope is we eliminate the tag ‘farm to fork’ and it just becomes the way we cook.”

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PRINCE WILLIAM HAS PRINCE HARRY, SNOOPY HAS SPIKE – YOU KNOW, THE BAD-BOY BABY BRO WHO’S A CHUNK OF CHARM AND A TON OF TROUBLE. That’s what WAG Weekly is to WAG. In our e-newsletter, we let down our hair (and occasionally, our grammar) to take you behind behind-the-scenes of the hottest parties and events, offer our thoughts on the most controversial issues of the day, share what couldn’t be contained in our glossy pages and tell you what to do and where to go this weekend – all while whetting your appetite for the next issue.

If you can’t get enough of WAG — or you just want to get WAG unplugged — then you won’t want to miss WAG Weekly, coming to your tablet.

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WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

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BLACK, BEAUTIFUL AND BOUNTIFUL STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

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GET BULLISH ABOUT RENOVATING.

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Fresh leeks from the farm.

RIVING DOWN PULASKI HIGHWAY IS SOMETHING EVERYONE NEEDS TO DO TO RESET HIS MORAL COMPASS. IT’S NOT THE HIGHWAY THAT DOES IT, BUT THE VIEW. IT’S A SEA OF SOME OF THE BLACKEST EARTH MANY OF US WILL EVER SEE IN OUR LIFETIMES.

For a true Zen moment, park your car on the side of the road, sit on a guardrail and just gaze out at the scene.

Take in the green tops of onions, the region’s mainstay, along with lettuce greens, carrots, leeks, you-name-it, poking up through the nutrient-rich ground.

It’s a sea of serenity.

Pine Island is the heart of the Black Dirt region in Orange County.

It’s like that fertile crescent we read about in geography books in grammar school.

The ultraplush soil was once the bottom of a glacial lake. Over the years, farmers have dug up the skeletal remains of a mastodon or two as well as elk, moose and other prehistoric items.

The Black Dirt region’s bounty can be found from farmers’ markets in New York City to throughout the Hudson Valley. For the past five years, the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce has featured the produce at its annual Black Dirt Feast. Proceeds from the event have gone to food pantries as well as a scholarship that is awarded to a town of Warwick graduating senior who will be pursuing college studies in agriculture, hospitality or culinary arts.

This year’s Aug. 4 feast, which will include award-winning chefs preparing meals using the farms’ produce, is already sold out. However, you can contact the chamber at 845-258-7008 to be placed on a waiting list.

The one signature event that you’ll be crying for is the annual onion eating contest. It will be held Sept. 6 at the Polish Legion of American Veterans pavilion near the intersection of Pulaski Highway and Pine Island Turnpike.

It’s part of the annual onion festival and the winner will receive a check for $100 from the Orange County Vegetable Growers Association and a plaque from the county Farm Bureau. Maybe some tissues should be included to dab away those tears.

If you’re interested in a good cry, call Janet Zimmerman at the same number as above.

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HAIL THE HUMBLE BEAN

BY AUDREY RONNING TOPPING

COULD IT BE THAT THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH IS HIDING IN THE HUMBLE BEAN? Since 221 B.C., when the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang, commanded his wisest Taoist monks to sail the China Sea in search of the Elixir of Long Life, mankind has been searching for the Fountain of Youth. The Taoists never found the magical potion and the emperor died at the age of 49.

But the good news is that a recent scientific study has found the common element in every longevity diet — the humble bean. It’s the same beans that cowboys cooked over an open fire and that became the staple food of our forefathers, who pioneered the Wild West and entertained their children with stories of the Giant in “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

But this is not a fairy tale. This was the conclusion of a comprehensive study by Dan Buettner — a National Geographic fellow and author of an enlightening book, “The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People” — along with Michel Poulain, a Belgian demographer; Paolo Francalacci, an Italian evolutionary geneticist; and Gianni Pes, an Italian physician and researcher. For the past 11 years, they have been studying what they call “the blue zones” around the world to discover where people live the longest with the lowest rates of chronic disease.

One study, involving the U.S., Okinawa, Greece and Costa Rica showed that beans were the only

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food that actually predicated a longer life. For each 20-gram serving (about two tablespoons) eaten a day, the chance of early death dropped by 8 percent. Apparently the good bacteria that prosper in our tummies adore beans, too. The high fiber content in beans serves as a gut compost of sorts, enabling healthy bacteria to thrive. Dollar for dollar, most beans deliver more protein than beef.

According to Buettner, writing in a Wall Street Journal article, “Seventh-day Adventists, America’s longest-lived subculture, eat all kinds of beans, taking their cue from God’s guidance in Genesis to eat the fruit of ‘seed-bearing plants.’” There is a wide variety of beans with equal nutritious value.

Fava beans are the favorite choice in Sardinia, black beans on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, lentils in Ikaria, Japan, and soybeans on Okinawa.

More than 65 percent of what people in the blue zones eat comes from complex carbohydrates — sweet potatoes in Okinawa, wild greens in Japan, squash in Greece and corn in Costa Rica. In addition to beans, the diets of these countries consist mainly of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The people there eat meat but only small amounts, about five times a month, usually on special occasions.

A decade ago, when Buettner first studied 14 mountain villages on the Italian island of Sardinia — home to one of the world’s most genetically homogenous populations, second only to Iceland — scientists theorized that genes played an important role in their extraordinary longevity. But since then, the notion of a genetic advantage has been questioned and further studies revealed the importance of diet.

Studies showed that the genetic markers of the centenarians — including markers associated with cardiovascular mortality, cancer and inflammation — didn’t diverge significantly from those of the general population.

In other words, “man cannot live by bread alone.”

There is another important factor in acquiring the full benefit of beans. The true longevity recipe transcends food to encompass a web of social and cultural factors. Food should be enjoyed in the company of friends. The life of the centenarians in the mountain villages showed that even the healthiest diet isn’t enough by itself to promote long life. The support of a community is significant. Life in these villages is vigorous. People are never alone. They gather together every morning for coffee and savor each other’s company. They rarely suffer from dementia or loss of memory. They talk to each other without cell phones. For entertainment they count on one another, not television. They play dominoes and drink homemade Cannonau wine. If a shepherd loses his flock, other shepherds donate sheep.

Preparing food is also a social occasion. While most bread metabolizes almost immediately into sugar, spiking insulin levels, Sardinian sourdough bread actually lowers a meal’s glycemic load. After spending a couple of hours with Sardinian women, Buettner realized that bread was only one ingredient in a larger group of benefits. While joking and gossiping, the women chopped wood, stoked the oven and vigorously kneaded the bread for 45 minutes (more exercise than going to the gym).

In the U.S. you’re likely to die eight years earlier if you’re lonely compared with people who have strong social networks. There are no retirement homes in the blue zones. A love for family is customary and grandparents know their children will care for them.

Buettner’s team found that people in blue zones are nudged into physical activity every 20 minutes. They burn 500 to 1,000 calories a day, which keeps their metabolism humming at a higher rate.

I have always loved baked beans and after reading this study I have decided to do my friends a good turn and serve humble but healthy baked beans at black-tie dinners.

Ethel Barone of Red Hook Farm in Red Hook.

Martin Stosiek of 46 Farm Markristo in WAGMAG.COM Hillsdale.

Ken Kleinpeter of Glynwood Farm in Cold Spring.

JULY 2015

Miriam Latzer of Good Flavor Farm in Clermont.

O T O R ED

IN THE HUDSON VALLEY BOOK AND PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT SPOTLIGHT REGION’S FARMERS, CHEFS

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS BY AND COURTESY OF FRANCESCO MASTALIA

THERE’S A BEAUTIFULLY NOSTALGIC FEEL TO “ORGANIC: FARMERS AND CHEFS OF THE HUDSON VALLEY.” And it’s created not only by what you see in the book, but also by what you don’t.

Evocative photography by Francesco Mastalia is an ode to dozens of farmers and chefs working in the region today, accompanied by the subjects’ own words about what they do and why they do it.

But Mastalia’s dramatic images — created with a 19th-century technique that gives the effect of Civil War photography — also sparks further conversation about the word organic and its interpretations, something that fuels many a discussion about food.

As Gail Buckland, author, educator, curator and authority on photography, says in the introduction, “‘Organic: Farmers and Chefs of the Hudson Valley’ is focused on the idea of integrity in the production and preparation of food. The individuals (and they are individuals!) encountered in this collection are less concerned with USDA certification and government issued labels than in knowing they are creating healthy food, grown and prepared in traditional ways, food that is wholesome, sustainable, and chemical-free.”

Mastalia’s effort, published by powerHouse Books, also includes

a foreword by actor-activist and longtime Sullivan County resident Mark Ruffalo, as well as a preface by Joan Dye Gussow, the Rockland County-based trailblazer in the field of healthy eating.

A NATURAL PROGRESSION

The project, Mastalia shares during a recent chat, was quite … organic in origin.

“For me, I’ve always been an advocate of eating well,” says the man who was born in Italy and grew up in New Jersey.

Since landing in the Hudson Valley — first in Warwick and now living in Rhinebeck — he noticed something special was going on, from the region’s farmers all the way through to the chefs who put their products on the table.

“They are very proud of the way they’re producing their food,” Mastalia says.

The veteran photographer saw right away there was a wealth of material to draw from and he was determined to “bring attention to what a great agricultural region the Hudson Valley is.”

He approached the project, he says, without “any angle” and assured the participants, “It’s your story.”

And it was one so many wanted to tell.

WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

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The project saw Mastalia complete a three-year journey covering some 17,000 miles crisscrossing the Hudson Valley, eventually including more than 130 farmers and chefs in the book.

Since its release late last year, the book has garnered much attention with Mastalia participating in book signings, panel discussions and exhibitions.

“My goal from the beginning was to move the exhibit throughout the Hudson Valley.”

And he’s been pleased with the response: “There is definitely something there that resonates with people.”

Next month, Mastalia will showcase some three dozen of the photographs at Gallery 66 NY in Cold Spring, which will also feature “Farm Art,” sculpture by Wilfredo Morel.

Mastalia insists that text be included with each exhibition.

“I want it to be educational for people.”

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL Those who spend time with the book itself will also learn much as it takes readers on a tour of sorts through the region to meet Liz Taggart of Amba Farms in Bedford Hills; Craig Haney and Jack Algiere of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills; Mimi Edelman of I & Me Farm in Bedford; and Ken Kleinpeter of Glynwood Farm in Cold Spring, among others.

The farm-to-table story continues as Mastalia spotlights chefs ranging from Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills — which garnered national recognition when named Outstanding Restaurant at the 2015 James Beard Awards — to Eric Gabrynowicz of Restaurant North in Armonk and Peter X. Kelly of Xaviars Restaurant Group, which includes Xaviars X20 on the Hudson in Yonkers.

Each, Mastalia says, was integral to creating this well-rounded exploration.

“It’s not so much about me,” he says. “It’s more about the people in the book.”

THE PROCESS And it wasn’t a quick snap and be on his way. Mastalia would spend an hour or two at each session, which produced four or five photographs in total, each one taking some 10 minutes from start to finish.

The process — called “wet plate collodion” and dating from the 1850s — allowed Mastalia to create a singular effect.

A large-format wooden camera, an 1870s brass lens, glass plates and a portable darkroom were all necessary to create the series of one-of-akind images.

While rewarding, the sessions were always a bit of a gamble, as Mastalia had to rely on factors ranging from light to humidity in this process — one free of today’s digital wizardry.

He quickly realized, “There’s only so much I can control.”

It’s a sentiment one imagines that farmers, so intimate with the whims of nature, know well.

For more, visit francescomastalia.com.

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TRY A LITTLE KIND-NESS SWEET, TASTY AND WITH A HEAPING HELPING OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

BY BOB ROZYCKI

How

MANY MULTIMILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMEN THROW AN ARM AROUND YOU AND GREET YOU WITH A HUG? And ask about you and your family?

And actually pay attention and ask follow-up questions?

Only one that I personally know of — Daniel Lubetzky, founder and CEO of KIND Healthy Snacks.

We met for a talk just prior to him taking the stage for a Q&A with billionaire businessman Edgar Bronfman Jr. before 300 international entrepreneurs at the Endeavor retreat at Doral Arrowwood in Purchase.

Lubetzky apparently lives by what he writes, as in his new book, “Do the KIND Thing,” with a subtitle “Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately.” (Ballantine Books) Before creating KIND Healthy Snacks, the self-effacing, Mexican-born businessman — who describes his voice and idiom-skewing language as similar to that of Desi Arnaz’s character, Ricky Ricardo — took the much stepped-on “Think locally, act globally” slogan to a new plateau.

After earning his law degree in 1993 from Stanford University, Lubetzky received a Haas Koshland Fellowship to address legislative ways of creating joint ventures among Arabs and Israelis. His research culminated in “Incentives for Peace and Profits: Federal Legislation to Encourage U.S. Enterprises to Invest in Arab-Israeli Joint Ventures.”

While holed up in his apartment in Tel Aviv doing the research for the paper, hunger got the best of him so he headed down to the grocery story and bought a jar of sundried tomato spread — an item not known to American consumers back then. He spread it on pita bread, wolfed it down and wanted more. But alas the

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Daniel Lubetzky. Photograph courtesy KIND.

manufacturer went bankrupt and there was no more to be found. Undeterred, Lubetzky tracked down the Israeli manufacturer who had imported the tomatoes from Italy and the glass jars from Portugal and convinced the man to create a new manufacturing paradigm that not just created new business partners but shattered geopolitical walls.

Jars would soon be coming from Egypt, sundried tomatoes from Turkey and olive oil from Palestinian farmers.

Seeking economic cooperation across tense, ethnically charged borders provided a foundation in 1994 for PeaceWorks Inc., what Lubetzky calls a “not-onlyfor-profit” business corporation that seeks peace as well as profit.

Lubetzky more than ably proved his thesis, turning the theory into real-life practice. He returned to the United States, abandoned his nascent law career and dove headfirst into marketing the spread, named “Moshe & Ali’s.” However, mistakes and miscues followed — leaky jars and poor price points. But he overcame the lows to reach the highs the company he created in 2003 is now experiencing.

DRIVE TO SUCCEED Offstage, as his young son plays, we talk about the book. About midway he writes about how his company tries to let food keep its soul. But, I say, the book is also about Lubetzky baring his soul.

“I really wanted to make sure the book was very transparent and very authentic and it highlighted my failures even more than my successes, because I think

you have better chances to learn from those than from just the successes. The failures highlight what you should do differently so it helps you point out those lessons,” he says.

The Harvard School of Medicine shows that people who eat nuts extend their lives, he says. “The more nuts you eat, the more you live,” he smiles.

“There’s a lot of evidence nuts help with cardiovascular function.”

When he asks about my family, I mention that my 92-year-old dad has been eating all kinds of nuts his entire life. Lubetzky nods his head in agreement with his company’s own pursuits.

It has to do with “wholesome ingredients you can see and pronounce,” he says.

“In terms of consumer preferences, the stuff we’ve done over the last five years is far better performing than some of the originals. But some of the originals are really magical, too. The fruit and nut bar I think is just excellent. A really good example of how the sum of the parts is greater than the individual components.”

Lubetzky tells me what drives him, his people and the company.

“We take inspiration from seeing what products and ingredients are both nutritional but also tasty and inspiring. But primarily we think creatively ourselves.

We have a phenomenal team that is very, very creative and artistic. Part of our success is that we’re more artistic and creative than data-driven or scientific. We try not to drive our innovation based on what the data tells us or what the people are doing. I think it’s a mistake… it leads to you being a copycat. You end up

relying on the past rather than the future … You cannot create something new if you’re just looking at what’s succeeding in the marketplace, because what’s succeeding in the marketplace by the finish then already exists. So how much value can you create for society when you’re just copying?”

In staying true to his customers that he calls fans, does he tweak the bars at all?

“To some degree we’re always optimizing. …We don’t use any artificial ingredients. …When we use fruit some of the products are sticky… We’re constantly trying to optimize to make them less sticky without sacrificing our values. So we’ve reduced sugar content in some of our items over the years, but nothing radical. We really try to keep the brand promise of once people have experienced a product there’s gonna be a very high bar for us to change the product because that’s what people like.”

LUCK AND TIMING With success comes scrutiny. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took exception to KIND using the word “healthy” on its labels.

“The FDA didn’t complain about us using the term ‘healthy.’ They complained about us using the term healthy as what they call a ‘nutrient claim.’ We don’t really know that we used that as a nutrient claim. But we wanted to be respectful … we wanted to hold ourselves

to a higher standard and not be dismissive. We’re making all the changes they asked us to do … They’re not going to change our performance,” Lubetzky says.

“The core thing that we learned from this and I think is important for society is we need to update those regulatory standards, because as you stated in your conversation about your father, whole ingredients are good for you. Nuts are good for you. And we should not discourage consumption of them under the current standards that would make a nut-based snack not qualify as a healthy snack. But a product that’s made with ‘frankenfood’ that you could not recognize and with artificial compounds can be defined as healthy. It makes no sense.”

When the FDA issue came to light, he remained transparent, addressing it for his customers on his website in “A note to our KIND community.”

Remaining true to himself has helped Lubetzky in all his dealings.

“When somebody is being tough, it’s very hard for me to not try to win them over. I don’t know if it’s connected to my father’s survival from the Holocaust. Truly, the more I think about myself, this need to be liked and to win people over has a connection to the stories I heard of what my father went through and wanting to build bonds. I hate being hated and I don’t like having enemies. And I think part of it is connected to my

heritage as a son of person who was in a concentration camp and whose family was exterminated. But that does help me be resilient and not give up.”

In reading his book, it seems luck didn’t come into play for him. Did it?

“Absolutely it did. I don’t have false humility. I am very self-confident. I don’t think I have a big ego; I have a very healthy ego. I know that I’m successful. I know that I’m smart. I know that I work hard. But luck absolutely comes into play. Timing is so much. Yes, I saw people’s desire for (a healthy natural ingredient bar) 10, 20 years before others. That helped me a ton.”

“But there are so many pieces related to luck. …You can call it luck, fortune, you make your own luck. A hard work ethic, not giving up, being introspective and self-critical — those things matter a ton.”

He says he still has a jar of sundried tomato spread on his desk to “remember my mistakes and keep me humble and to remember my journey.”

Perhaps if Lubetzky has any more encounters with a federal agency he should drop the name of a big fan he has in his corner — President Barack Obama.

Meeting with the president in mid-May at the White House, the president told Lubetzky that he brings KIND bars when traveling on Air Force One and Marine One. How’s that for an endorsement?

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Farm-fresh cheese, yes please FAIRFIELD CHEESE EXPERT CURATES AND EDUCATES

BY DANIELLE BRODY

ples. Cheese is cut to order from a wheel at the counter and wrapped in flavor-protecting French cheese paper.

“It’s the old-fashioned way of shopping that has sort of been lost,” she says.

Downey, who has a background in retail, saw a need for a cheese shop when she moved from Boston to Fairfield. She had a love of fine food and cheese but decided she needed to become an expert.

She attended cheese boot camp at Murray’s Cheese in Greenwich Village, tasted cheese at any opportunity and read every cheese book she could find. A few years ago, she was in the first group of people to take the American Cheese Society’s exam and become a certified cheese professional. It’s the equivalent of a sommelier, she says.

In 2009 Downey and a partner opened the Fairfield Cheese Company. Later, a different partner, Chris Palumbo, stepped in.

The two opened the Cos Cob location in December to generate enough income for both owners. Greenwich hadn’t had a cheese shop for about 25 years, she says, and residents are excited about the new one.

Downey says the stores stock only one of each type of cheese, so she curates the best. The smaller the farm it’s produced on and the more traditionally made, the better. She sells a selection of farmstead cheese made on farms that both milk their own cows and goats and make the cheese on the property.

“It’s like the farm has 45 goats,” Downey says, compared to commercial farms with thousands. “You just get a really delicious handcrafted product from it.”

Cheese complements like crackers, jams, and pickles are also sourced from small, local producers.

Photograph courtesy Fairfield & Greenwich Cheese Co. Downey says she sees customers are picking up on the natLAURA DOWNEY IS A CERTIFIED CHEESE ural food trend, too. Early on, most people came in to the cheese shops for speEXPERT, BUT SHE DOESN’T MAKE A BIG cial occasions. In the past couple of years, customers have been buying cheese STINK ABOUT IT. SHE SAYS SHE AND to eat regularly or for cooking, she says.

OTHER “CHEESE-MONGERS” AT HER “They know if they use a really tasty, well-made cheese, their dish is going to FAIRFIELD & GREENWICH CHEESE CO. be better,” she says.

STORES SHARE THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND Business often slows down in the summer, Downey says, so the shops introAIM TO MAKE CUSTOMERS FEEL COMFORTABLE. duced picnic baskets with cheese, sliced meat and fruits and nuts, along with “Historically, cheese shops can be a little bit stuffy,” Downey says. “People biodegradable plates and silverware, around Memorial Day weekend. The big don’t want to go in them if the people behind the counter aren’t approachable.” size serves four and the small size serves two.

She says her staff is knowledgeable — not snobby — about the stores’ nearly Downey and Palumbo also run a cheese school in both shops. Classes like 100 artisanal cheeses, about half from Europe and half from the U.S., the latter “Cheese 101” and “Perfect Pairings” are popular for couples and groups of girlcoming mainly from the Northeast. friends and almost always sell out, she says. The classes allow customers to get The purchasing experience at her Greenwich and Fairfield shops is comto know the owners and the cheeses they sell. pletely different than at supermarkets where shoppers and employees have “I think a lot of people are really intimidated by artisan cheese,” she says. “It’s little interaction. Larger stores slice a wheel of cheese, package it in plastic wrap just cheese. It’s supposed to be enjoyed and not stressed out over.” and put it out on display, she says.

The Fairfield shop is at 2090 Post Road. The Greenwich shop is at 154 E. At her shops, customers can talk to the staff about the cheese and taste samPutnam Ave. For more, visit fairfieldcheese.com.

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Ruth

THE BOOKS OF

‘Food star’ Reichl’s incandescent second act

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN RIZZO

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What’s Ruth Reichl cooking up? Another memoir, about her decade at Gourmet, and novel.

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In 2009, Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, was in a Seattle restaurant while on tour with “The Gourmet Cookbook” — the one with the green cover, foodies, not the yellow-covered one, which is from 2004 — when the manager came over to say that there was a phone call for her.

“I froze,” she remembers. “I thought something happened to my family.”

It turned out the call was from the office. But relief soon gave way to uneasiness: Ruth had to return immediately to New York for a staff meeting the next morning.

The news from the meeting was worse than her being fired. Not only was she gone, but so was the close-knit, creative staff. Gourmet — the 68-year-old magazine that she had nurtured for 10 years and that was as much a way of life as a publication — had folded. Just like that. “‘This can’t be true. This can’t be true,’” she recalls thinking. “I felt the magazine belonged to the readers. It was a kind of death.”

Ruth is sitting downstairs at The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges on a lovely warm day, discussing the gain in loss — a theme that’s not only explored in her debut novel “Delicious” and forthcoming cookbook “My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Changed My Life” (both Random House) but exemplified by their very presence. She’s just finished two days of lunches at The Inn to promote “Delicious” — now in paperback — the first events in the Literary Luncheon Series there established by actor-ceramicist (and former WAG cover subject) Carey Lowell and Holly Parmelee.

“It’s fitting that the first guest is Ruth Reichl, who is such a food star,” Carey tells the sold-out gathering on the second day.

Part of what makes Ruth a star is that authoritative palate, honed during her tenure as restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times and then The New York Times.

“Yesterday’s lunch was great,” she says to the ladies, and gentlemen, who lunch.

“But today’s is even better. We had halibut yesterday, too, but we did not have it in this saffron sauce. Jean-Georges (Vongerichten) grows the saffron on his (Waccabuc) property and takes it out with a tweezer after it’s dried in the sun.”

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The palate is accompanied by the storyteller’s gift — on the page, at the table and in front of an audience. She opens up the question-and-answer period with a funny story from her acclaimed memoir, “Tender at the Bone,” about how she became a restaurant critic while living with her first husband, the sculptor Douglas Hollis, in Berkeley, Calif., in the early 1970s. It’s a story enhanced by it being easy to imagine the young woman she was, her still striking long dark hair casually pulled back in a profusion of curls.

She had already established herself as a chef-restaurateur (the Swallow restaurant-collective) and cookbook prodigy (“Mmmmm: A Feastiary”) when she auditioned for restaurant critic of New West magazine. The second assignment to secure the post — review a fancy San Francisco restaurant. So her friends gussied themselves up in outfits from Value Village and together with Ruth, in vintage lavender, boarded Doug’s artsy van, which Ruth says was like “a rolling camera obscura.”

“It took a long time to park,” she recalls.

“When we got out of the van it was like clowns piling out.”

Over dinner, her pals kept lobbing observations — which, as any self-respecting critic knows, you’re not supposed to heed, Ruth says.

She turned in a “cute” piece, then later thought the better of it. But it was the ’70s, when fresh meals required a fresh journalistic approach.

That she nailed the job is a foregone conclusion.

“The lesson for me… that I took to the L.A. Times and The New York Times… is I dared to do something out of the ordinary. The mantra for the rest of my life has been ‘Take a chance.’”

Ruth has been taking chances since her youth in Greenwich Village, where she grew up the daughter of a book designer, poring over the pages of “a big brown leather-covered tome with ‘The Gourmet Cookbook’ stamped in gold on the front.”

“It was the doorway to a magic land where sophisticated men sipped drinks with names like angel’s dream (brandy topped with cream) while beautiful women nibbled on truffled chicken,” she writes in the introduction to the 2004 edition of “the Book.” “I liked knowing that such things were out in the world and that people were eating them. It gave me hope that one day I too would have a chance to taste such exotic dishes.”

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Ruth Reichl and Carey Lowell

take her around the world to savor fabulous meals — like the one she had in Italy with son Nick Singer, now a filmmaker — but back in time to ancient Roman and Renaissance feasts and then to the high altar of gastronomy, the editorship of Gourmet.

When the ax fell — with luxury advertising drying up during the worst recession this side of the Great Depression even as circulation was at its peak — Ruth was still not done with Gourmet. She was back on the road with the 2009 “Gourmet Cookbook” and in her office to clear it out.

Instead, an encounter with the “disappointing” complaint letters and recipe requests filed in the windowless Gourmet library led her to sit down at her office desk and imagine a series of letters from 12-year-old Lulu Swan, who seeks cooking advice during World War II from a real-life Gourmet staffer — legendary chef James Beard.

Those letters would be the roux for “Delicious,” about a food magazine editor, Billie Breslin, and how her search for Lulu leads to a deeper understanding of herself. It’s no roman à clef. For one thing, Ruth never conjures the responses from Beard, whom

she knew. (The book is dedicated to the memory of Marion Cunningham, his assistant.) For another, the library at Delicious magazine is a lot nicer — a warm, Victorian affair.

It’s a tale of what’s lost, professionally and personally, and found.

“What I learned about loss is that help comes in unexpected ways. … It’s about these people finding each other and saving each other in space and time.”

The loss of Gourmet also sent Ruth back to the kitchen at the Columbia County home she shares with husband, Michael Singer, to whip up daily tweets — the ace deadline writer likes the discipline of 140 characters — and dishes like shirred eggs, potato puree and chicken liver mousse.

She imagined the resulting “My Kitchen Year” as a small, meditative book with no pictures. Not so Random House, which will release it Sept. 29.

Enter photographer Mikkel Vang, who clicked away while Ruth cooked. But don’t expect the production values of Gourmet.

Says Ruth, “It’s cooking unplugged.”

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A

AFTER DEREK DIGUGLIELMO SPENT A YEAR WORKING IN A LARGELY IMPOVERISHED WASHINGTON, D.C., PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL, HE KNEW IT WASN’T THE LAST TIME HE WOULD ENGAGE THE COUNTRY’S YOUTH.

A recent graduate of Georgetown University at the time, the Dobbs Ferry native says he wanted to keep that giving spirit alive after he returned to New York in 2010.

The following year, with some help and guidance from friends and family, he founded Eat Local NY, a Dobbs Ferry-based nonprofit with a mission to provide area children access to freshly grown food.

The organization expanded last September to an online marketplace of food, drink and other kitchen essentials that would not only promote local small businesses but also help area children combat educational struggles and hunger through community programs and a portion of its profits.

Through a mainly word-of-mouth strategy, the site has been able to gain traction and is offering

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FEEDING YOUNG ONES’ BODIES AND SOULS

BY EVAN FALLOR PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

nearly 200 products, everything from pear lemon jam to tomato and spinach seeds to ginger ale syrup, all grown or produced within New York state’s borders. The eclectic product choices are often a bit pricier than those of brick and mortar markets but offer intangibles that DiGuglielmo says don’t come along with a trip to a conventional grocery store.

“What we’re trying to do is eliminate upfront inventory and create a direct producer-to-consumer relationship,” DiGuglielmo says. “People get a chance to get all their goods shipped directly from the source.”

Eat Local NY currently has products from nearly 30 New York-based companies, most of which are independently owned and operate out of the greater New York City area. The site is chock-full of niche products, including those of Brooklyn-based Salamander Sauce Co. Inc., Hudson Valley Skin Care and Schenectady-based Gatherer’s Granola.

His customers come predominantly from New York, but he has also received orders from Chicago, California and even parts of Europe. Westchester chefs and restaurants frequently place specialty bulk orders, DiGuglielmo says.

A portion of Eat Local NY’s profits goes to the site’s partner nonprofits, which include the Community Food Pantry of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown, the Food Bank for Westchester, City Growers, Harlem Grown and Slow Food Metro North. The

company also holds collaborative nutrition education programs with its partners and organizes food-centric field trips for area at-risk youth, including one last fall in which a group of middle school students learned the ins and outs of a Long Island organic farm.

Doug DeCandia, food growing project coordinator at the Food Bank for Westchester, says DiGuglielmo has worked with the organization before to help with its farm growing program, which provides vocational training for at-risk residents.

“Derek’s always helped me out on our farm,” DeCandia says. “He’s even helped me quite a bit as a volunteer himself.”

Last September, Eat Local NY, in collaboration with Elmsford-based Captain Lawrence Brewing Co., hosted the first Bike to Beer Benefit. The 55mile charity cycling event benefits City Growers, the Queens-based partner of Eat Local NY that connects urban communities with agriculture.

The ability to reach the area’s disadvantaged youth, DiGuglielmo says, is the best aspect of running his nonprofit.

“You really see the excitement and the youthfulness of a child when they pick a carrot out of the ground for the first time,” DiGuglielmo says, “or when they taste a great leaf that really doesn’t taste bland.”

For more, visit eatlocalny.com.

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A

WWOOF-ING KEEPS THEM DOWN ON THE FARM STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY COLLEEN WILSON

ABOUT FOUR YEARS AGO, NEIGHBORS CALLED ALEXANDRA BONTHRON AND MARK ZION CRAZY FOR TRYING TO BREATHE LIFE INTO A 1940S DAIRY FARM THAT HAD BECOME A “JUMANJI”-LIKE PROPERTY IN GRANITE SPRINGS, A HAMLET IN THE TOWN OF SOMERS.

The land, which was owned by Zion’s father and where the two used to garden on weekends when they weren’t in the Bronx, was overgrown and vine-infested. There were old tractors, including one “sitting in the mud sunk up to its axles,” Bonthron says, adding that she and Zion recovered 17 rusted jalopies abandoned in the area.

After about a year of restoring the structures and clearing 62 acres, the couple is now in their third growing season as organic farmers.

With the help of WWOOFers, or volunteers with the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, Bonthron and Zion have been able to cultivate 1,500 fruits, vegetables, herbs and the like. Last year they added a “Hyatt Regency for chickens,” Bonthron says jokingly of the new chicken coop.

“It’s really a fledgling farm,” she says. “Farming’s not just about the plants, it’s about how do you keep your buildings, how do you take care of the infrastructure.”

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“We’re learning,” Zion says, and Bonthron quickly adds, “We’re not farmers by training.”

Bonthron and Zion, who both have backgrounds in business and finance, have hosted WWOOFers from all around the world and have used their assistance to plant and maintain crops while fixing up the place — including a 1946 Ford tractor they found on the property that is now used on a regular basis.

Julie Metral, who is originally from Paris, started her first WWOOFing experience in late May. “I’m trying to make a switch in my career from office stuff, finance stuff, really useless stuff where I get bored and I’m really trying to do something really different and closer to nature,” she says, adding that she hopes to land a job working in environmental protection eventually.

As she waits for authorization to work in this country, Metral, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband, says she wanted to be “useful” and “work with (her) hands.”

While every farm registered with WWOOF is different, the volunteers who come to Granite Springs work about six-hour days, six days a week. They plant and weed the crops that start in the greenhouse and replant them outside while also maintaining the garden set aside for the WWOOFers, where they cultivate food for meals.

When the WWOOFers are not working the land, they are doing odd jobs around the property, delivering food to local shops and restaurants or selling

Alexandra Bonthron and Mark Zion

crops at farmers’ markets.

Every day is a little different at the farm, and that’s what Bonthron and Zion seem to like about it — from new WWOOFers showing up each week to new plants and changing flavors to abundant restoration projects, including an outdoor pool that can hold 60,000 gallons of water they hope to bring back into operation.

The attraction to farming, however, is what helped transform a dilapidated and tumbledown area into functional acreage for cultivating food.

“We think there’s a consciousness in the city, too, of people wanting to (have) the experience of putting your hands in the dirt,” Bonthron said. “It’s only 45 minutes from the city, but it’s still in the middle of real earth.”

For more, visit wwoof.net.

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SUMMER’S BIG

SANDALS, SUNGLASSES and SUNHATS

BY DANIELLE RENDA

Escaping to the beach, a luxurious getaway or simply a quiet brunch?

Neiman Marcus Westchester gives WAG the scoop on some of the hottest summer accessories to complement our wardrobes this season.

1

SANDALS STUDDED PYTHON HUARACHE SANDAL (1) Saint Laurent brings a modern twist to the huarache sandal, a shoe with Mexican roots that grew popular during the 1960s. Featuring adjustable ankle straps, a subtle half-inch heel and stud embellishments, this python-print sandal in chrome adds flair to any basic ensemble ($1,895).

2

RIVETED PLATFORM CLOG SANDAL (2) With a nearly five-inch cork heel, Prada evokes the 1970s with a super-high platform in a super-chic look ($690). For those seeking added pizzazz, Prada’s clog collection also includes bold colors with floral-patterned platforms.

4

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CATSBROOK CRISSCROSS TUMBLED LEATHER WEDGE (3) Any summer shoe collection isn’t complete without a classic braided wedge heel. Available in blush, Burberry creates the perfect blend of femininity and style, with its crisscross straps and four-inch heel ($875).

5

ILLUSION FRINGE ANKLE-WRAP THONG SANDAL (4) A staple of the flapper days, fringe has since come to adorn everything from purses to jackets, jewelry, skirts, blouses and, of course, shoes. Valentino reinvigorates fringe with this ankle-wrap, thong sandal in light cuir (a kind of leather), complete with pale golden hardware and a leather sole ($806).

SUNGLASSES DIOR (5) What’s a sunglass collection without a pair from Dior? These optyl-frame, graphic-square, two-tone mirrored glasses with 100 percent UVA/UVB protection are one of the newest retro accessories from the respected French House of Dior ($385).

RAY BANS (6) Few accessories can be considered American icons, but Ran Bans are one of them. Created in the 1930s as eye protection for Air Force pilots, the eyewear is now worn by celebrities, political figures and everyone in-between. These pink mirror lens aviator sunglasses with a golden metal frame provides 100 percent UVA/UVB protection for both style and comfort. Available in various shades of pink, red, purple, green, blue and brown ($170).

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ROBERTO CAVALLI (7) Roberto Cavalli created these lust-worthy frames for the true fashionista. The curvaceous snake-accented frames with crystal-embellished temples offer 100 percent UVA/UVB protection for the wearer.

These exotic cat-eye sunglasses are available in rose gold ($450).

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Photographs courtesy Neiman Marcus Westchester.

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SUNHATS EMMANUELLE WIDE-BRIM FEDORA (8) Eugenia Kim, a designer who launched her line after creating a hat to hide a bad haircut, offers her take on the classic fedora with this wide, floppy brim decorated with a grosgrain band and dot appliqué.

Available in camel ($365).

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STRIPE DIP BRIM HAT (9) Eric Javits’ avant-garde hats have been worn by nearly every female celebrity, from Angelina Jolie to Nicole Kidman, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, with his designs earning him a spot in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. As one of Javits’ more contemporary designs, this sunhat, available in silver/white, blocks 95 percent of UVA/UVB rays with its wide, malleable eight-inch brim ($450).

For more, visit neimanmarcus.com.

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Westchester

Philharmonic

JAIME LAREDO, PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR • TED SPERLING, PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR

Looking for… a great place to dine

October 18 at 3 pm Jaime Laredo, conducing Sharon Robinson, cello

a great place to shop

Theofanidis, Shostakovich and Beethoven.

a great place to play

December 20 at 3 pm Winter Pops! with Ted Sperling Ashley Brown, vocals Joe Mohan, piano

a great place to stay

February 7 at 3 pm Ted Sperling, conducting Dawn Upshaw, soprano

Norwalk Connecticut. It’s a great place.

Mozart, Golijov and Mendelssohn.

April 17 at 3 pm Jaime Laredo, conductor & violin

If you’ve already experienced some of the fun, food, shopping and cultural amenities of our lovely town, we invite you to keep coming back.

And, if you haven’t yet experienced the joys of Norwalk, we invite you to start by visiting our website at www.visitsono.com.

Mozart, John Corigliano and Stravinsky.

June 19 at 3 pm Kazem Abdullah, conducting Alon Goldstein, piano Falla, Mozart and Brahms.

Subscriptions and Tickets: (914) 682-3707 or westchesterphil.org

Dawn Upshaw

Concerts are presented at: Performing Arts Center, Purchase College 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY. Programs, artists, dates and times subject to change. ©2015 Westchester Philharmonic, Inc.

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CITY OF NORWALK • 125 EAST AVENUE • NORWALK, CT 06856

Le Farm

An inspirational property- a sought after address!

• Tasteful Luxury • 5 Bedrooms, 5.1 Baths • 2 Bedroom Cottage • Manicured Grounds • Tennis Court • Pool- Pool House

• Abundant Privacy • 24.68 Acres • 5 Stall King Barn • Large Grass Paddocks • Outdoor Arena Price Upon Request

For more information, contact (914)234-3642, or Info@vinwhit.com.

ONTHEGREEN•BEDFORD•NEWYORK•914.234.3642•VINWHIT.COM

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A BOUQUET OF BADGLEY MISCHKA

BY DANIELLE RENDA

NEIMAN MARCUS WESTCHESTER IS SPOTLIGHTING SOME OF THE SEASON’S FINEST DRESSES BY COUTURE BRAND BADGLEY MISCHKA. Designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka use feminine silhouettes, elaborate embroidery and imaginative necklines to create a timeless collection for the modern, sophisticated client.

Whether attending a gala or sitting pretty at a garden party, these fashions own any gathering.

SLEEVELESS EMBROIDERED LACE PARTY DRESS This shorter dress is a flirty alternative to the more ornamental pieces.

The scoop neckline elongates the neck and flatters the shoulders while the flared godet skirt gives this number a youthful kick. Available in coral ($595).

SLEEVELESS CROCHET-TRIM PRINTED FLOWY GOWN This gown’s upper embroidery and crochet trim create the appearance of two separate pieces. The sleeveless, racer-back style accentuates the arms while the ruffled skirt adds a playful touch to the daisy palette.

Available in yellow ($990).

HALTER CHIFFON GOWN This pleated, chiffon gown accentuates the arms and shoulders with its halter neckline. The banded waist suggests a smaller midriff, while the sheer, lightweight material accommodates the summer temperatures.

Available in cobalt ($550).

Badgley Mischka also offers sophisticated daywear, sportswear and lingerie, as well as a bridal collection. For more, visit neimanmarcus.com or badgleymischka.com.

Congratulations to Fairfield’s

40 under 40!

Gifts and new products ideal for any occasion COMPILED BY MARY SHUSTACK

PRETTY AS A PITCHER (1) Add a seasonal touch to the summer table with the graceful Summer Bounty Pitcher, part of a collection of Fair Trade products offered by Ten Thousand Villages. Handcrafted in Vietnam using time-honored techniques and a traditional blue-and-white design, the dishwasher-safe ceramic piece ($39) is both pretty and practical.

For more, visit tenthousandvillages.com.

Photograph courtesy Ten Thousand Villages.

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SPIRIT-UAL AWAKENING (2) The NEAT (Naturally Engineered Aroma Technology) Glass features a shape designed to optimize a spirit’s true flavor profile. It must work, since it was recently selected as the official judging glass of the Spirits International Prestige Awards in California – the latest of such honors. Ideal for spirits with more than 22 percent alcohol by volume, the patented glass is available to connoisseurs individually ($14.95) or in on-the-go sets complete with monogrammed tote ($199).

For more, visit theneatglass.com.

Photograph courtesy The NEAT Glass.

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RISING TO THE OCCASION (3) There’s nothing like the smell of fresh-baked bread. Bring that to your own home any morning with the Actibread from T-fal. Easy-to-operate buttons allow you to make 15 different types, from gluten-free to French. Adjustable for loaf sizes and crusts, the machine comes with a recipe book to spark your imagination. It’s $179.99 on Amazon.

For more, visit t-falusa.com.

Photograph courtesy T-fal.

SUMMERY SIPS (4) There’s something about a Rosé that seems synonymous with summer. A few have caught our attention of late. Domaine du Tariquet Rosé de Pressée, featuring a bouquet of wild raspberries and flower petals, is made from a combination of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. The DMZ Cabernet Rosé 2013, Stellenbosch, South Africa, a 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, is a fruit-forward choice with hints of strawberry and watermelon. And for those becoming more familiar with pairing the bubbly with food, a lively option is the Krone Rosé Cuvée Brut MCC 2012 Tulbagh, South Africa. At less than $20 each, you can keep quite a few on hand for the most casual entertaining.

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For more, visit westchesterwine.com.

Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

FOR THE PERFECT POUR

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(5) Billed as “The Wine Lover’s Dream,” the Krups 2-Bottle Wine Aerator and Dispenser stores and preserves two varieties of wine at once with stateof-the-art elegance. Wine lovers will delight in its features, which allow the customization of the chilling chambers, advancement of the “breathing” process and a seamless way to vacuum-pressure the contents to delay oxidation. It’s $499.99 at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

For more, visit krupsusa.com.

Photograph courtesy Krups.

JUICED UP (6) The Omega NC900HDC Nutrition Center Juicer ($379.75) takes juicing to the next level. Masticating juices at low speeds minimizes heat build-up and oxidation. An auger system forces produce into a tight chamber, grinding and pressing the food to squeeze out the juice from items as fine as wheatgrass and leafy vegetables. And you can even make all-natural nut butters, baby food, soy and almond milk and a variety of other healthy snacks. What’s not to love?

For more, visit omegajuicers.com.

Photograph courtesy Omega Juicers.

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YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO THAT FAR TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL! Escape the hustle and bustle with WAG’s select list of alfresco dining and ultimate summer getaways.

Eateries BARTACO 1 Willett Ave., Port Chester 914-937-8226 • bartaco.com Tapas BISTRO ROLLIN 142 Fifth Ave., Pelham 914-633-0780 • bistrorollin.com French cuisine THE BOATHOUSE RESTAURANT 46 Westerly Road, Ossining 914-923-6466 • ossiningboathouse.com American cuisine CAPRICCIO CAFÉ 189 Bedford St., Stamford 203-356-9819 • capriccio-cafe.com Italian café • castlehotelandspa.com CRAB SHELL 46 Southfield Ave., Stamford 203-967-7229 • crabshell.com Seafood CREW RESTAURANT 280 Railroad Ave., Greenwich 203-230-9433 • crew280.com American cuisine DOLCE CUBANA WATERFRONT RESTAURANT & WINE BAR 78 Southfield Ave., Stamford 203-817-0700 • dolcecubano.com Seafood DOLPHIN RESTAURANT, BAR & LOUNGE 1 Van Der Donck St., Yonkers 914-751-8170 • dolphinrbi.com Seafood EQUUS DINING Castle Hotel and Spa 400 Benedict Ave., Tarrytown 914-631-1980 • castlehotelandspa.com French cuisine HALF MOON 1 High St., Dobbs Ferry 914-693-3646 • halfmoonhudson.com American cuisine

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HARVEST ON HUDSON 1 River St., Hastings-on-Hudson 914-478-2800 • harvesthudson.com Italian cuisine J HOUSE GREENWICH 1114 E. Putnam Ave., Greenwich 203-698-6980 • jhousegreenwich.com American cuisine MEDITERRANEAO RESTAURANT 366 Greenwich Ave., Greenwich 203-629-4747 • zhospitalitygroup.com Seafood RED HAT ON THE RIVER 1 Bridge St., Irvington 914-591-5888 • redhatontheriver.com French-American bistro RIDGE HILL SHOPPING PLAZA 1 Ridge Hill Blvd., Yonkers 914-207-2900 • westchesterridgehill.com Restaurants include Angelo’s Family Style Italian, The Cheesecake Factory, Elevation Burger, Frannie’s Goodie Shop, Havana Centra, Lefteris Gyro, Little Buddha, Studio 3, Texas de Brazil and Yard House RIVE BISTRO 299 Riverside Ave., Westport 203-557-8049 • rivebistro.com French cuisine SEASIDE JOHNNIES 94 Dearborn Ave., Rye 914-921-6104 • NA Seafood SONO SEAPORT SEAFOOD 100 Water St., Norwalk 203-854-9483 • sonoseaportseafood.com Seafood SUNSET COVE AL PONTE 238 Green St., Tarrytown 914-366-7889 • sunsetcove.net Continental THE WATERS EDGE AT GIOVANNI’S 2748 Boston Post Road, Darien 203-325-9979 • watersedgeatgiovannis.com Italian cuisine

XAVIARS X20 ON THE HUDSON 71 Water Grant St., Yonkers 914-965-1111 • xaviars.com American cuisine

Getaways ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City 609-317-1000 • theborgata.com The Chelsea 111 S. Chelsea Ave., Atlantic City 800-548-3030 • thechelsea-ac.com Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club 401 S. New York Road, Galloway 855-894-8698 • stocktonseaview.com BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. The 1661 Inn and Hotel Manisses 5 Spring St., New Shoreham 401-466-2421 • blockislandresorts.com The Atlantic Inn High St., New Shoreham 800-224-7422 • atlanticinn.com National Hotel 36 Water St., New Shoreham 401-466-2901 • blockislandhotels.com Spring House Hotel 52 Spring St., New Shoreham 401-466-5844 • springhousehotel.com CAPE MAY, N.J. Ocean Club Hotel 1035 Beach Ave., Cape May 609-884-7000 capemayoceanclubhotel.com FIRE ISLAND, N.Y. The Palms Hotel Fire Island 168 Cottage Walk, Ocean Beach 631-583-8870 • palmshotelfireisland.com HOBOKEN, N.J. W Hoboken 225 River St., Hoboken 201-253-2400 • whobokencom LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. Fort William Henry Hotel and Conference Center 48 Canada St., Lake George 800-234-0267 • fortwilliamhenry.com

LENOX, MASS. Lenox – Canyon Ranch 165 Kemble St., Lenox 413-637-4100 • canyonranch.com LITCHFIELD, CONN. Winvian Farms 155 Alain White Road, Morris 860-567-9600 • winvian.com LONG BRANCH, N.J. Ocean Place Resort & Spa 1 Ocean Blvd., Long Branch 732-571-4000 • oceanplace.com MONTAUK, N.Y. Montauk Yacht Resort & Marina 32 Star Island Road, Montauk 888-692-8668 • montaukyachtclub.com MYSTIC, CONN. Inn at Mystic 3 Williams Ave., Mystic 860-536-9604 • innatmystic.com The Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa 625 North Road, Groton 860-446-2600 • marriott.com NEWPORT, R.I. Castle Hill Inn 590 Ocean Ave., Newport 888-466-1355 • castlehillinn.com Ocean House 1 Bluff Ave., Watch Hill 401-584-7000 • oceanhouseri.com OLD SAYBROOK, CONN. Saybrook Point Inn and Spa 2 Bridge St., Old Saybrook 860-395-2000 • saybrook.com POCONOS, P.A. The Lodge at Woodloch 109 River Birch Lane, Hawley 570-685-8500 • thelodgeatwoodloch.com TARRYTOWN Castle Hotel and Spa 400 Benedict Ave., Tarrytown 914-631-1980 • castlehotelandspa.com

“Best Pizza in America!”

PepesPizza.com

When Frank Pepe opened his pizzeria in New Haven in 1925, he knew that only the finest ingredients could make the best pizza, and that only a coal-fired oven would yield a perfectly crisp, chewy crust.

Now 90 years later and in seven familyowned locations, generations of loyal pizza-lovers still know that Frank Pepe pizza is what a perfect pizza is all about.

CLIENT: ITEM: PLACEMENT: FILE NAME: FILE FORMAT:

1955 Central Park Avenue . Yonkers Takeout (914) 961-8284

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Contemporary Seafood Restaurant Causal Fine Dining Atmosphere Metro Chic Bar/Lounge Alla Fresco Dining Overlooking The Hudson River Private Parties from 15 to 200 Guests 1 Van Der Donck Street ] Yonkers, NY 10701 914.751.8170 ] www.dolphinrbl.com

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WANDERS

Dining with Conrad, Satchmo and Mick

BY JEREMY WAYNE

TRAVEL, THEY SAY, BROADENS THE MIND AND, IN MY CASE, UNFORTUNATELY, IT ALSO BROADENS THE WAISTLINE. Oh well, you take the rough with the smooth. I envy the kind of traveler for whom arrival in a foreign city means a run ’round the local park to blow out the cobwebs, or a workout in the hotel gym to restore the circadian rhythms, but that’s never going to be my way. No sirree. For me it’s a quick shower and a change of clothes, then a cry of “Taxi!” as I head for the nearest temple of gastronomy, with any luck in time for a serious, full-blown lunch.

Of course, if there’s a decent watering hole on the premises, so Le Normandie, Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.

Photographs by George Apostilidis.

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“

The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok is no ordinary hotel. Its history is palpable.

much the better. Saves time for one thing. Which is why it was always going to be love at first bite between me and the Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok’s legendary grande dame hotel on the banks of the Chao Phraya river. It has eight of them — restaurants that is — and that’s not counting the legendary Bamboo Bar, where Louis Armstrong and Mick Jagger have both hung out in their time, or the Verandah terrace, where I’m reliably told all of Bangkok’s really big deals are struck — usually on a handshake.

The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok is no ordinary hotel. Its history is palpable. Nijinsky danced here, Fabergé found inspiration for those famous eggs here, and Tennessee Williams, Noel Coward and just about everybody else who wrote, wrote here.

“

Sala Rim Naam, Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.

Lord Jim’s, Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.

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Next year, the Oriental (as everybody in Bangkok still calls it) will celebrate its 140th birthday, but, until recently, a visit to this venerable hostelry was one of the great gaps of my traveling life.

A couple of months back, I was privileged enough to put that right. What was on the menu when I got there? What wasn’t! At Lord Jim’s — the hotel’s seafood restaurant, named of course, for the great maritime novel of redemption by Joseph Conrad, another devotee of the place — they do an iced shellfish tower with scallops, crab claws, tiger prawns and oysters, so pingingly fresh it makes anything you may have eaten in or around Boston look rather dreary by comparison. And their lobster thermidor cuts the mustard, too. The hotel, by the way, gets through 350 pounds of rock lobster — to say nothing of a ton of freshly squeezed orange juice every day.

Statistics come thick and fast at the Oriental. In the hotel’s Le Normandie restaurant (currently closed for refurbishment but due to reopen later this year), with its achingly lovely views of the “River of King”’ and often touted as the finest French restaurant in Asia, they fly in 700 kilos (or 1,543 pounds) of duck every year from France. That may not be ecologically sound, but as Chef Arnaud Dunand Sauthier is on record saying, “If you don’t have French products, you can’t make French cuisine.” That’s one argument I won’t be getting into — at least not here. All I will say is save a confit de canard for me, along with a Grand Marnier soufflé, because although, like Dolly Levi, I’ve stayed away too long, somehow, when Le Normandie reopens, I know I’ll be back.

A three-minute ferryboat ride across the river, housed in a sumptuous pavilion, the hotel’s Sala Rim Naam restaurant is where you come for exquisite Thai food — lavish lunches and exquisite dinners against a backdrop of classical Thai dance. True, crossing a continent and then an ocean for a green curry with Siamese eggplant, no matter how superlative, might be deemed aberrant behavior, but if so, I’m guilty as charged. I’m guilty, too, of overindulgence at the China House, another of the hotel’s restaurants, this one inspired by Shanghai’s Art Deco period.

But of all Mandarin Oriental Bangkok’s myriad eateries, the one I lost my heart to was its most emblematic — the Riverside Terrace, with its famous “international buffet,” so unpromising a name but so extraordinary an adventure, with its Chinese woks and Indian tandoori ovens going full tilt, its Lebanese mezze, Thai curries, Japanese sushi and teppanyaki, salads, seafood, steaks, chops and desserts — ah, those desserts — all served up to the rhythm of a live jazz band, with a big heart and that most vital of ingredients, passion.

Of course, there are many hotels in the world with a slew of restaurants to call their own, situated on divine terraces and with illustrious guest lists as long as your arm. But few can claim to have been doing it quite as long as the Oriental, or with such pizzazz. Yes, belts will be worn a little slacker this summer, to misquote a line from “The Philadelphia Story,” but the memory of the Oriental and the joy of its cooking will stay long in my heart.

MODERN LIVING IN AN ENCHANTING, HISTORIC SETTING

N

Nestled on Warwick Road within the prestigious Lawrence Park West estate enclave of Bronxville is one of the area’s finest historical structures.

The most-admired home, a rarity on the market, is now offered by only the second owner in its storied history.

The 1919 Tudor Revival, designed by renowned architect William Bates for one of Bronxville’s pioneers William Frederick

Kraft, is a perfect example of a well-maintained property.

The landmarked three-story, stone-and-timber building with a slate roof is a design masterpiece set within more than half an acre of private property landscaped to perfection with mature trees and plantings and complemented by an artistically handcrafted gazebo and a detached two-car garage.

After entering through an arched portico you are surrounded by an elegant dining room and living room with a marble fireplace. French doors lead to a four-season, light-filled and stonewalled sunroom/porch. The dining room leads you to a stonewalled breakfast room, where an abundance of windows allow a

light and bright setting that virtually brings the outside in.

The home’s interior exemplifies architect Bates’ enthusiasm for designing spaces ideal for entertaining. All were created with the thought to provide ample light throughout, with grouped windows in varying sizes creating the ideal environment for gatherings. Spaces flow from room to room and seemingly right into the outdoors.

As it has since its creation nearly a century ago, this oneof-a-kind home promises to provide the setting for an exceptional life for whoever is lucky enough to become its third owner.

• • • • • •

List price: $1,995,000 3,905 square feet 5 bedroom, 4.5 baths Over half an acre Finished/walk-out basement Less than 1 mile to the village of Bronxville and train station • 28 minutes to Grand Central Station MLS # 4508202 FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT LIA GRASSO OF DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE AT 914-584-8440, 914-232-3700 OR LIA.GRASSO@ELLIMAN.COM

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Tipsy Cones Truck.

Photograph courtesy Brooke Santagata Albers.

Spiking a classic treat

BY DANIELLE BRODY

BROOKE SANTAGATA-ALBERS, A FORMER BARTENDER, HAS TRADED THE BAR FOR A TRUCK AND CUPS FOR CONES. The self-proclaimed “insane ice cream lady” creates original handcrafted flavors like Strawberry Wine Sorbet and Maple Stout with an intoxicating main ingredient — alcohol — and serves them from a truck.

At first glance, some people might raise an eyebrow at the “nerdy” ice cream truck, Santagata-Albers says. Its blue accents, wood panel-

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ing and colorful handwritten signs seem pretty innocuous in a park full of thematic food trucks, until you notice the Tipsy Cones signs and selection of boozy flavors.

“Whenever people see it they have this skepticism, but when they taste it their eyes get so wide,” Santagata-Albers says. “It’s the biggest compliment.”

She started Tipsy Cones two years ago and began selling the product last fall, mostly via delivery. The custom truck rolls into its first summer

almost completely booked at festivals, farmers markets and private events.

Santagata-Albers wasn’t a creative ice cream chef until a few years ago. The idea for Tipsy Cones came to her when she and husband Jon Albers were watching a TV segment about a West Coast brewery and an ice cream shop working together.

Even though, thinking back, she says she has always been a terrible baker and had never made ice cream before, “all of the sudden this business

plan kind of shot out at my face.”

“I literally said to my husband, ‘If in five years from now I see someone else doing this, I’ll be so upset,’” Santagata-Albers remembers. “I can’t just let an opportunity like this go by. Sometimes you’ve just got to jump.”

The nearly lifelong bartender and waitress bought an ice cream machine and began experimenting on recipes with cordials, beer and wine. Because the alcohol burns off during production, the liquor in the ice cream can’t actually get you tipsy, but it does enhance the flavor of the dessert, Santagata-Albers says.

Even so, if a child comes to the truck without a parent and asks for a boozy flavor, he or she probably won’t get served.

“We don’t want them to think they’re getting one over on their parents,” Santagata-Albers says with a laugh. “Kids probably shouldn’t know how delicious alcohol is until they’re 21.”

Her first flavor, Whiskey Bean, was a hit with her parents who aren’t big drinkers but enjoy whiskey from time to time. (Whiskey Bean made

it to the truck with the tagline, “like vanilla, but better.”) More of Santagata-Albers’ recipes went over well with friends.

Husband Albers, a high school physics teacher, designed the exterior of the ice cream truck and helped create a kitchen on the inside. Santagata-Albers says they also built a commercial kitchen in their Stratford home, where she makes all the ice cream herself. It takes three or four days of ice cream-making to prepare for an event.

“I’m literally dancing with the ice cream machine listening to (hip-hop group) Wu-Tang,” she says. “It makes me happy.”

The truck carries about 14 flavors — eight boozy, four booze-free and two or three boozy and vegan. Some alcoholic flavors include Strawberry Short Shot — amaretto, Nilla wafers and strawberries; Mississippi Mudslide – Kahlúa with nuts, cookies and chocolate; and Mint Chocolate Nip — a spin on the classic made with schnapps.

For an upcoming private memorial party, Santagata-Albers is creating a creamsicle flavor based on the screwdriver, the favorite cocktail of

the hosts’ late father. A customer-suggested piña colada flavor is in development. Her father, who liked Whisky Bean, is now requesting a cannoli flavor.

“I’m always thinking food, you know I’m just a girl who likes to eat,” Santagata-Albers says. “I’m always watching the Food Network. I think, ‘Let me put blueberry and Limoncello together,’ and I make a test batch.”

At the truck, chatty interactions and the long line — a “total flashback” — bring the Tipsy Cones founder the same satisfaction she had as a bartender. She says it’s also sweet to be surrounded by the friendly food truck community — and still work with alcohol.

“It’s like if I owned the bar now,” Santagata-Albers says. “There’s some kind of joy from owning your business that kind of shoots out of you.”

Find Tipsy Cones ice cream at the Bridgeport Arts Fest July 11, the Downtown Sounds concert series in Shelton July 17 and 24 and the Norwalk Food Truck Festival Aug. 22.

For more, visit tipsycones.com.

PRIVATE ROOM Parties and Meetings for up to 90 DINE IN COUPON

BUY-1 GET-1

Ask About FREE Lunch and Dinner Delivery EXPIRES AUGUST 21, 2015

FREE

WITH PURCHASE OF TWO BEVERAGES

Buy two á la carte beverages AND any sandwich or entrée at regular price in Ben’s dining room and get a second sandwich or entrée of equal or lesser value for FREE. 4576

Please present original coupon to cashier. NO copies. Valid for dine in ONLY. NO takeout. NOT valid for lunch OR dinner specials. May NOT be combined with any coupon, discount or offer including Ben’s Friends rewards. LIMIT: One FREE item per guest check. NO cash value. Valid at Ben’s SCARSDALE location only.

HURRY! EXPIRES ON AUGUST 21, 2015 © 2015 Ronald M. Dragoon

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

GLOBETROTTING CHEF NOW WITH DAVID’S SOUNDVIEW CATERING

C

BY DANIELLE BRODY

CHEF FRANÇOIS KWAKU-DONGO HAS MADE HIS WAY AROUND THE GLOBE, INCLUDING THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY RESTAURANT SCENE.

WAG last spoke with Kwaku-Dongo for its August 2012 issue when he joined Greenwich’s J House hotel as the executive chef of its eleven14 Kitchen. Three years later, he is bringing his worldwide experience to David’s Soundview Catering in Stamford.

Originally from West Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire, the James Beard-nominated chef has cooked at l’escale, the Provençale-style restaurant in the Delamar Greenwich Harbor hotel, as well as at eateries in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. He was also trained by Wolfgang Puck, who thought so highly of his protégé that he made Kwaku-Dongo a partner at Spago in Chicago and called on him to expand his catering and events company.

Earlier this year, Kwaku-Dongo left J House to work on his chocolate business, Omanhene Cocoa Bean Co., which he started while at the hotel. The chocolate is made with cocoa beans from Ghana and produced on site, giving it the intense, robust flavor of the soil, he says. (He incorporated the chocolate into desserts at J House and plans to do the same at David’s Catering.)

But after having a leading role at Wolfgang Puck Catering, he was again seeking the free rein of the catering world. At David’s Catering, Kwaku-Dongo and his chefs are cooking Indian food for a private event one day; Tex Mex or Asian-inspired dishes the next.

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Chef François Kwaku-Dongo. Photograph by Thomas McGovern Photography.

“Restaurants don’t usually offer that, such variety,” he says.

The 17-year old catering space attracted the chef because of its strong reputation in the community. Kwaku-Dongo says he and chef/ owner David Cingari also share a commitment to bringing hospitality to catering and making sure customers have a good experience.

Guests have enjoyed Kwaku-Dongo’s French-inspired tuna tacos with wonton crisps and avocado mousse, his original Moroccan lamb sausage and his bacon-duck spring rolls with orange ginger mustard, a twist on duck à l’orange.

The chef also specializes in simple, seasonal three-ingredient dishes combined with spices from around the world. This method preserves

the natural flavors of the food, he says. The chef maintains that asparagus soup should taste like asparagus. His recipe calls for the vegetable, oil and stock (plus salt and pepper, if you’re counting).

Kwaku-Dongo looks forward to making menus for The Landing, an event space overlooking the Stamford harbor recently acquired by David’s Soundview Catering.

“I’m excited about it, because it gives me a chance to create a menu that is very Mediterranean, or North African,” he says. “Because of the sea and water, the food becomes really, really healthy. It’s an excitement when you have a great space that you can work with.”

For more, visit davidscatering.com.

JULY 2015 AT THE CENTER

NYO-USA

FRIDAY, JULY 10

Witness the premiere performance of the 2015 National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. 122 extraordinarily talented young people, the great conductor Charles Dutoit and China’s superstar pianist YUNDI. $55/ $45 / $30

YUNDI, PIANO CHARLES DUTOIT, CONDUCTOR

TAN DUN New work commissioned by Carnegie Hall BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, “Emperor” BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique NYO-USA is a project of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.

Direct from the Lincoln Center Festival, for the first time in Purchase, the National Ballet of China. Excerpts from pieces of Western ballet juxtaposed with those of works that encapsulate the Chinese spirit and experience. $55 / $40 / $30

Don Quixote Giselle Close Your Eyes When It Is Getting Dark Guangling Verse Yellow River The Red Detachment of Women

NATIONAL BALLET

OF CHINA

SATURDAY, JULY 18

914-251-6200 WWW.ARTSCENTER.ORG

PAC_WAG_July2015.indd 1

6/15/2015 2:32:32 PM

WHETTING THE APPETITE

BELLO

orangecello!

Jackie Ruby’s Orangecello photographed with Waterford Lismore Collection crystal and Chilewich tabletop accents courtesy Bloomingdale’s White Plains.

Photograph by Bob Rozycki

BY JACKIE RUBY

ORANGECELLO July is high summer and thus a great time to make orangecello, particularly with the Fourth around the corner. This is really simple to make and once you do, you will never buy it from a store again. Enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

® 9 large organic oranges

1.

® 1 bottle of Tito’s Vodka (750 ml) ® 3½ cups Poland Spring water ® 2½ cups sugar

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from the oranges in strips.

Make sure you do not get any white pith on the peels.

2. Put peels in a 2-3 quart pitcher.

3. Pour vodka over peels and cover with plastic wrap.

4. Store in a dry place at room temperature for 7 days.

5. After 7 days, place the water and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves – about 5 minutes or so.

6. Pour the syrup over the vodka mixture.

7. Cover and store another 24 hours at room temperature.

8. Strain the orangecello through a mesh strainer and discard the peels.

9. Transfer orangecello to bottles.

10. Seal and refrigerate. It will last up to a month.

11. Serve over crushed ice. You can add a dash of cream as well.

For more, contact the Saucy Realtor at jacquelineruby@hotmail.com.

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THERE’S STILL TIME TO SIGN UP FOR 2015-2016 TOURS

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— Suzanne Adams, Director Foreign Press Association, New York

“Being a student of John Rizzo has been one of the greatest learning experiences in my life. I am glad I got to learn from John as the quality of my work has grown leaps and bounds because of his guidance.”

— Allen French, New England School of Photography

John Rizzo Photography | 10 Cedar St., Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522 | (646) 221-6186 worldwide mobile | www.johnrizzophoto.com

WINE & DINE

O

Pairings can go far beyond classic wine and cheese. Photograph by dreamstime.com

A HEARTY WELCOME TO UNUSUAL FOOD AND WINE PAIRINGS

ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL RITUALS FOUND IN VIRTUALLY ALL CULTURES IS THE HOUSEHOLD WELCOME. Around the world,

when a guest is invited into someone’s home, food and drink are offered. Some cultures are casual, providing visitors with tea or a cheese plate with a beer or a glass of wine. Other cultures take it to the extreme, as in the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest, where a potlatch feast can last many days and nights and take weeks or even months to prepare for it. This offering, regardless of the degree of difficulty or the effort involved, is designed to create an oasis, a mini utopia away from the bustle of everyday living to allow for personal connection, forging community alliances, sharing, catching up or just plain fun.

Regardless of the culture, the food/drink pairings are all-important. It was easy in the America of the 1950s and ’60s. All the adults I knew drank their never-changing cocktail of choice before, during and after dinner. And it was typically the same cocktail year-round.

The beer was usually a generic Budweiser or Schlitz. Now there are inspired beer, ale and lager producers all over the world, making boutique-style beverages loaded with every imaginable malt and hops-borne flavor. These craft beers

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BY DOUG PAULDING

can be served as afternoon refreshers or as meal enhancers, with a beer pairing for each course.

There are even fruit lambic (spontaneously fermented) beers — flavored with strawberry, peach or raspberry, reminiscent of a sparkling wine — that can pair beautifully with a dessert course.

So how precise and technical is this food and beverage pairing? Should food and wine flavors be complementary? Or is contrast, as in pairing a sharp, acidic wine with fatty sauces, better? In my world there are no absolutes. I am a pescatarian, having giving up the consumption of land animals decades ago. I often go to wine dinners where meat entrées are always served with big hearty reds. I am usually offered a fish option and I taste the wine that was “specifically paired with this meat dish.”

Well, almost without exception, it works just fine with my very different entrée as well.

A couple of years ago I was invited to a Rutini wine luncheon at Daniel, Daniel Boulud’s restaurant in Manhattan. Rutini, a large Argentine company on a world tour to promote its wines, had engaged Michelin-starred chef Mauro Colagreco to travel for a year, collaborating with some of the great chefs. I was the only wine-focused journalist at this event. All the others at the extended table were food-book authors and food journalists.

Each course was paired typically and perfectly, but when the main course and pairing arrived the entire table went silent for a minute. A big hearty Rutini Malbec was being paired with Chef Colagreco’s Dover Sole. Everyone snapped a phone picture or two and looked at one another like confused kids. But with a bite and a sip everyone was smiling and happy, exclaiming it to be a bold concept that worked wonderfully.

I had another luncheon at Le Cirque at about the same time. As each course and wine was presented, the wine maker would hold his plate of food in his left hand and his wine in his right and deeply take in the aromas of each right beside each other. For him, if the smells synchronized and worked well together, it was a proper pairing.

So go easy on yourself. There is no real science and no magic here. If you like the food and you like the wine and, if in your opinion, they go well together, you have a perfect pairing. Experiment. Explore culinary and oenological options. Try wines from all over, some made from grape varieties you cannot pronounce grown in countries you can’t point out on a world map. Taste wines from all over the dry/sweet continuum. And that’s all there is to it. We’re all experts here.

Write me at doug@dougpaulding.com.

We’re there for the moments that matter most.

E X C E P T I O N A L C A T E R E D E V E N T S Serving Fairfield, New Haven and Westchester Counties

Events@DavidsCatering.com

203.324.5724

DavidsCatering.com WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

85

WELL

GOOD EATS, GOOD LIFE

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

“PEOPLE HERE ARE VERY NUTRITION-SAVVY,” JACQUI JUSTICE, DIRECTOR OF NUTRITION AT NY HEALTH & WELLNESS WESTCHESTER IN HARRISON, SAYS OF WAG COUNTRY. “THEY COME TO ME WHEN THEY HAVE OTHER THINGS THAT ARE NOT WORKING.” And after a complete blood workup and food sensitivity tests, Justice comes up with a customized plan to improve their nutrition and health.

But even those who are healthy can do with a nutrition refresher.

“One of the biggest mistakes people make is the calorie mindset,” she says at her office, over green juices from Lilli Pilli Health Bar in White Plains. Forget the numbers game: Get rid of the scale, Justice says, and pay attention instead to how your clothes fit. “More important than calories is the quality of the food you eat and your hormonal response to it.”

A sweet like a brownie will trigger fat-storing hormones while lean protein spurs fat burning. Justice begins her day with water to cleanse the inside just as you wash the outside.

“Water fills me up and jump-starts me in the morning,” she says.

“One of the biggest issues is that people don’t drink enough water.”

You need a half-ounce per pound of body weight, more if you’re obese, highly active or caffeine loving. (One cup of a caffeinated beverage requires 1½ cups of water to counteract dehydration.)

“Eight glasses a day is a good start,” says Justice, who recommends room temperature, filtered water from a glass or glass bottle. Feel free to substitute broth, herbal and decaffeinated green teas, green drinks and mineral water for some of your hydration.

Another concern: “People skip breakfast and don’t have enough lean, clean protein.” Justice recommends eggs; egg whites; protein shakes; healthy smoothies, which unlike juices use all of the fiber of the fruit and/or vegetable; and, perhaps, grilled salmon left over from the previous night’s dinner to put your day on a firm footing.

But it won’t stay that way if you wait too long between meals. “By the time you eat, you’ll be starving.”

Healthy options for when you get the munchies include hard-boiled eggs, roast turkey off the bone and unsalted nuts.

Though nuts get a bad rap, because they contain fat, Justice says it’s healthy fat, making them a good snack and even sweet treat. One of the latest trends in nutrition is sprouting raw almonds: Soak them overnight in sea salt, then drain them. Place the nuts on a lined cookie sheet, sprinkle with sea salt and cinnamon and roast them at 200 degrees for about four hours.

“Sprout nuts are healthier and more flavorful,” Justice says.

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Jacqui Justice

Other snack options include pistachios, which have the least amount of calories among nuts; pumpkin seeds, which are full of zinc; and, yes, dark chocolate (at least 70 percent cocoa). Justice likes to cut up a piece of chocolate and add pistachios, cinnamon, dried cherries and orange, lemon or lime zest for a healthy snack that satisfies the sweet tooth.

She’s not one for depriving the body of its nutritional pleasures.

That’s just self-defeating, she says. But do it sensibly.

So have a starchy vegetable to go with your lean protein and green veggies at dinner — a sweet potato, squash or beans. On the popular gluten-free diet? Stick to your whole grains — quinoa, amaranth, teff and millet.

“The big key to eating gluten-free is just eliminate the gluten,” she says. “A lot of gluten-free products are high in fat and sugar.”

Dining out? Have some protein and an apple before you leave the house. At the restaurant or party, eat something before having a drink.

After dinner, try to allow 10 to 12 hours before your next meal. Snacking all night is a Justice no-no. And if you eat before bed, she adds, you won’t metabolize your food properly and your sleep will be restless.

“What people really want is more energy,” Justice says. “If you don’t have energy, how are you going to do all you want to do? You’re eating right to keep your blood sugar stable and have more energy.”

For more, visit nyhealthandwellness.com

WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

87

PET OF THE MONTH

R RITCHIE RICH

TALK ABOUT THE LUCK OF THE IRISH: Ritchie, an Irish Terrier mix, was wandering a rural road in North Carolina, all alone, when one of the SPCA’s rescue friends spotted him. The minute she opened the door to her car, he jumped right in.

This compact, active fellow — fully grown at 30 pounds — loves everyone and enjoys running and playing with his toys. The 2-year-old is ideal for a home with a big yard and a family that savors the great outdoors as much as he does.

To meet Ritchie, visit the SPCA of Westchester at 590 N. State Road in Briarcliff Manor.

Founded in 1883, the SPCA is a no-kill shelter and is not affiliated with the ASPCA. The SPCA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. To learn more, call 914- 9412896 or visit spca914.org.

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JULY 2015

Eager Beaver Tree Service INTELLIGENT TREE CARE ARTISTIC DESIGN DETAIL ORIENTED LONG TERM PLANNING-IMMEDIATE RESULTS SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!

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203-966-6767

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Mega Summer at Stepping Stones Museum for Children

NOW THROUGH LABOR DAY Mega Making Special Exhibit An exhibit where you use real materials and real tools.

SATURDAY, JULY 18 • 2:00 pm Around the World: Performance Series Reader’s Theater: Declaring Our Independence THURSDAY, JULY 23 • 6:00 – 8:30 pm Hulapalooza Luau Take part in luau-themed games and activities.

Registration required. Members $10/person, non-members $15/person.

After July 21: Members $12/person, non-members $17/person.

MONDAY, AUGUST 10 • 10:30 am Mini-Musicians Series: Meet the Cello SATURDAY, AUGUST 15 • 2:00 pm Around the World: Performance Series Anne Pasquale: Living History MONDAY, AUGUST 17 • 10:30 am Mini-Musicians Series: Meet the Violin FRIDAY, AUGUST 28 • 6:00 – 8:30 pm Storybook Pajama Party with Raggedy Ann Listen to a bedtime story in your PJs, meet Raggedy Ann, enjoy story-related activities throughout the museum and have your face painted like Raggedy Ann or Andy.

Registration required. Members $10/person, non-members $15/person.

After August 26: Members $12/person, non-members $17/person.

PROGRAMMING TO COMPLEMENT YOUR VISIT Zelda the Zany Owl

best for ages 0 – 36 months

Zumba Kids

best for ages 3 and older

Mutt-i-grees

best for ages 3 and older

Junior Gadgeteers

best for ages 6 and older

Music Time

best for all ages

and more!

Host an Event to Remember We know about inspiration. We know how to dazzle the senses. And with just a little bit of Stepping Stones magic, we’ll take your vision and make it a reality. Call for more information.

Book your event today! steppingstonesmuseum.org 203 899 0606

Mathews Park, 303 West Avenue • Norwalk, Connecticut

THROUGH JULY 26 “iCreate” – The Bruce Museum show-

house, 80 E. Ridge Road; 203-4385795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org

WHEN & WHERE

cases the work of 44 up-and-coming high school artists who were selected from more than 500 submissions. Bruce

JULY 8

Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich;

An Evening of Italian Folk Dancing with

203-869-0376, brucemusuem.org

Allesandra Belloni and I Giullari di Piazza.

Take a journey to southern Italy by way of

THROUGH AUGUST 30

the tarantella and other types of Italian folk dancing at Caramoor. 5 p.m., 149 Gir-

A Retrospective of Alexander Rutsch,

dle Ridge Road, Katonah; 914-232-1252,

Austrian painter and sculptor. 9 a.m.-6

caramoor.org

p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Satur-

❖❖❖

JULY 10

days. TransFORM Gallery, 20 Jones St.,

“The Met Opera: Live in HD” re-simul-

The Slide Brothers perform blues, rock

New Rochelle; 914-500-1000, trans-

cast of “La Traviata.” Natalie Dessay

and soul in the Hudson River Museum

formgallery.com

stars as the tragic courtesan Violetta,

Amphitheater. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.,

with Matthew Polenzani as the lovesick

Hudson River Museum, 511 Warburton

Alfredo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as his

Ave., Yonkers; 914-963-4550, hrm.org

JULY 2

disapproving father, Germont. 7 p.m.,

Ossining’s Independence Day Celebra-

Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield Uni-

tion – Kick off the July 4th holiday with live

versity, 1073 N. Benson Road, Fairfield;

JULY 11

music and fireworks. Enjoy multiple bands

203-254-4010, quickcenter.com. (For

The season at Caramoor continues with

as well as food and fireworks. Concert-

more venues, visit metoperafamily.org.)

an opera by Donizetti, “La Favorite,” with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. A sordid love

goers are encouraged to bring seating.

Picnics welcome. 7:30 p.m., Engel Water-

JULY 9

front Park, 160 Westerly Road, Ossining; 914-941-3189, villageofossining.org

“SEVEN DEADLY SINS” –

The Fairfield Westchester Museum Alliance has joined forces for a rolling group of unprecedented shows on the famed vices – one per museum – featuring thought-provoking classical and contemporary works. The shows are “LUST,” through July 26 at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill; “WRATH – Force of Nature,” through Sept. 7 at Wave Hill in the Riverdale section of the Bronx; “ENVY, an installation by Adrien Broom,” through Sept. 26 at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers; “PRIDE,” through Oct. 18 at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich; “Emilie Clark: The Delicacy of Decomposition” (GLUTTONY), July 12 through Sept. 6 at the Katonah Museum of Art; “GOLD” (GREED), July 12 through Oct. 11 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College; and “SLOTH,” July 19 through Oct. 18 at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield.

triangle set against the enchanting backdrop of 14th century Spain. 8 p.m., Venetian

Join the “Fun, Fun, Fun” at The Ridgefield

Theater, Caramoor, 149 Girdle Ridge Road,

❖❖❖

Playhouse with a Beach Boys perfor-

Katonah; 914-232-1252, caramoor.org

Blues legend Buddy Guy, listed as one

mance. Get your summer groove on with

❖❖❖

of the 100 greatest guitarists by Rolling

hits like “Surfin’,” “I Get Around,” “Help

Pleasantville Music Festival, featuring 16

Stone, returns to the area. The six-time

Me Rhonda,” “California Girls,” “Good Vi-

bands, nine hours and three stages. Enjoy

Grammy Award winner and 2012 Ken-

brations” and “Kokomo.” Cocktails, wine

food, friends and fun — and the Captain

nedy Center honoree has enjoyed a ca-

tasting and tropical tastes from local

Lawrence Beer Garden, too. This annual

reer that has spanned nearly 50 years

restaurants. Reception and auction start

festival, now in its 11th year, includes Mar-

with more than 50 albums released. 8

at 6 p.m. with the concert immediately

shall Crenshaw, Gin Blossoms and many

p.m., Tarrytown Music Hall, 13 Main St.;

following. Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 E.

more. Gates open at 11 a.m., Parkway

877-840-0457, tarrytownmusichall.org

Ridge Road; 203-438-5795, ridgefield-

Field, 48 Marble Ave.; pleasantvillemu-

playhouse.org

sicfestival.com

JULY 4 Celebrate the nation’s birthday with the “Pops, Patriots and Fireworks July 4th Spectacular” at Caramoor. Featuring music from the American Songbook, classical favorites, jazz and fireworks after the concert. 8 p.m., Caramoor, 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah; 914-2321252, caramoor.org

JULY 5 Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo — The four-time

Grammy

Award

winner,

who helped define the music of the 1980s, performs such hits as “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” “Love is a Battlefield,” “We Belong,” “Heartbreaker” and “Shadows of the Night” with her rocker hubby. 8 p.m., Ridgefield Play-

iCREATE - THROUGH JULY 26 WAGMAG.COM JULY 2015

91

JULY 16

JULY 19

JULY 23

Westchester

“Animal Crackers” — With nonstop

New Music Documentaries 2015 —

5k — An after-work, company-based

one-liners, visual gags and some of

“Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.” In 2011,

running/walking event to benefit Bly-

the Marx Brothers’ most quotable

after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s

thedale Children’s Hospital features a

quips,” Animal Crackers” is an undis-

disease, country legend Glen Camp-

post-race party and awards ceremony

puted comedy classic. The story finds

bell was told to hang up his guitar. In-

honoring the top individual and team

Groucho playing the intrepid explorer

stead, he went on tour across America,

racers. 6:30 p.m., Performing Arts Cen-

Capt. Spaulding, who turns everything

performing 151 sold-out shows over

ter at Purchase College, 735 Anderson

upside down at a stuffy party in his hon-

a triumphant year and a half. The film

Hill Road, Purchase; 347-844-9687, cor-

or. Noon, Jacob Burns Film Center, 364

documents his touching journey. 7:30

poratefunrun.com

Manville Road, Pleasantville; 914-773-

p.m., Jacob Burns Film Center, 364 Man-

7663, burnsfilmcenter.org

ville Road, Pleasantville; 914-773-7663,

Corporate

Fun

Run

JULY 17

burnsfilmcenter.org

York Times’ best-selling author, comes to

JULY 21 THROUGH AUGUST 8

JULY 24

the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater. 8

World premiere of A. R. Gurney’s “Love

Jon Batiste and Stay Human Jazz —

p.m., 1008 Brown St., Peekskill; 914-739-

& Money,” which pointedly explores the

A new crossover talent on the music

0039, paramounthudsonvalley.com

trials of class, family, legacy and race, di-

scene, Batiste lights up the night at the

❖❖❖

rected by Mark Lamos. 7 p.m., Westport

Caramoor Festival with soul music and

Neil Young comes to Bethel Woods

Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court;

blues as well as New Orleans-style and

Center for the Arts for a show featuring

203-227-4177, westportplayhouse.org

hip-hop infused jazz. 8 p.m., 149 Girdle

James Van Praagh, a medium and New

Promise of the Real and Puss in Boots

CARAMOOR JAZZ FESTIVAL - JULY 18

Ridge Road, Katonah; 914-232-1252,

bands. Young has been inducted twice

caramoor.org

spell,” as well as music from the film

into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and is

JULY 22

known for writing and recording such

“Dancing at Dusk: Turkish Music and

time-transcending songs as “Old Man,”

Belly Dancing”

“Harvest Moon,” “Hey Hey, My My (Into

Friends. Enjoy melodies played on the oud

Arriving from Sweden — “The Music of

ately following at Amore Restaurant. 4

the Black),” “The Needle and the Dam-

(lute) violin, doumbek (drum) and riq (folk

ABBA,” featuring a tribute band that

p.m., Whippoorwill Hall Theatre, North

age Done,” “Rockin’ in the Free World”

tambourine). 5 p.m. Caramoor, 149 Girdle

has sold out arenas and venues all over

Castle Public Library, Kent Place, Ar-

and “Heart of Gold.” 8 p.m., 200 Hurd

Ridge Road, Katonah; 914-232-1252, cara-

the world for the past 10 years. Sing and

monk; 914-271-2811, hudsonstage.com

Road, Bethel; 866-781-2922, bethel-

moor.org

dance along with your favorite ABBA

woodscenter.org

JULY 18

with

Carmine

scores for “Enchanted,” “Pocahontas”

JULY 25

and

and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres immedi-

❖❖❖

hits like “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma

They’re back — ”Australia’s Thunder

Mia,” “Does Your Mother Know,” “Take A

JULY 29

From Down Under,” the internationally

Chance,” “SOS” and many more. 8 p.m.,

“Dancing at Dusk: Greek Dancing,”

acclaimed male revue, is a sizzling hit and

Paramount Hudson Valley Theater, 1008

featuring the band Ethos with Kostas

Caramoor Jazz Festival, presented in

has become one of the hottest tickets in

Brown St., Peekskill; 914-739-0039, para-

Psarros. Explore rebetiko (Greek blues)

collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center,

town. The saucy Aussie imports crackle

mounthudsonvalley.com

and regional genres of Greek music from

is a daylong festival for jazz enthusiasts

with high energy as they show off their

❖❖❖

the islands to the mountains. 5 p.m., Car-

of all ages and includes performances set

buffed bodies to adoring fans who can’t

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga — In cel-

amoor, 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah;

throughout the arts center’s gardens and

seem to get enough of them. 8 p.m.,

ebration of their new collaborative jazz

914-232-1252, caramoor.org

grounds, activities for children, tours of

Paramount Hudson Valley Theater, 1008

album “Cheek To Cheek,” the pair of

❖❖❖

the historic Rosen House, extensive food

Brown St., Peekskill; 914-739-0039, para-

icons will join forces for a special eve-

“The Met Opera: Live in HD” re-simul-

and beverage options and more. 149 Gir-

mounthudsonvalley.com

ning at Bethel Woods Center for the

cast of “Aida” revisits the Verdi classic,

dle Ridge Road, Katonah; 914-232-1252,

Arts. Both artists will be accompanied

a love triangle set against the backdrop

caramoor.org

by a full orchestra along with each art-

of ancient Egypt. Starring Ukrainian so-

ist’s jazz ensemble, whose members

prano Liudmyla Monastyrska and tenor

will also serve as special guests for the

Roberto Alagna. Met principal conduc-

evening. 8 p.m., 200 Hurd Road, Bethel;

tor Fabio Luisi is at the podium. 7 p.m.,

866-781-2922, bethelwoodscenter.org

Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 E. Ridge Road; 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org

JULY 26

PLEASANTVILLE MUSIC FESTIVAL - JULY 11 92

WAGMAG.COM

JULY 2015

Hudson Stage Company Benefit Sum-

JULY 31

mer Gala — “Stephen Schwartz and

Hélène Grimaud, pianist and Caramoor

Friends.”

A 2015 Tony Award win-

artist-in-residence, brings a program of

ner, Schwartz offers a concert of his

water-themed favorites to the arts center

music, including songs from Broad-

and festival. 8 p.m., 149 Girdle Ridge Road,

way’s “Wicked,” “Pippin” and “God-

Katonah; 914-232-1252, caramoor.org

THE RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE

Sizzling Summer Shows!

for movies and the performing arts

Non-profit 501 (c) (3)

Eric Hutchinson

Boz Scaggs

Wed, July 15 @ 8PM

Sun, August 9 @ 8PM

Fresh from his tour

Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle” and more!

with Kelly Clarkson!

A night of hits – “Rock & Roll,” “Ok, It’s Alright With Me” and more!

Steve Earle & The Dukes

Donavon Frankenreiter

Grammy Award Winning Artist known for hits “Copperhead Road” and more!

Surfer, songwriter and life-long collaborator with Jack Johnson returns to the Playhouse!

Thurs, July 16 @ 8PM

Wed, August 5 @ 8PM

A Night of Comedy Headliners

Nick Di Paolo

Starring Rich Vos, Bonnie McFarlane and Jim Florentine

Sat, July 18 @ 8PM

Nick DiPaolo returns to the Playhouse with a brand new show! Don’t miss a night of his razor sharp comedy!

Sat, August 8 @ 8PM

Sam Bush

Rickie Lee Jones

3 top comedians bring one night of hilarious comedy to the Playhouse!

Sun, July 19 @ 8PM

Wed, August 12 @ 8PM

The English Beat

Festival Cubano Featuring Chuchito Valdés Quartet

Grammy winning bluegrass mandolin player and “Newgrass King!”

Wed, July 29 @ 8PM

“Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Save it for Later,” “I Confess,” – You just can’t stop The Beat!

The Grammy Winning singer with “Chuck E’s in Love,” “We Belong Together” and more!

FESTIVAL CUBANO

Sat, August 15 @ 5:30PM

· Cuban Food! · Specialty Rum Cocktails! · Cigars and more!

Tickets on sale now! (203) 438-5795 • RIDGEFIELDPLAYHOUSE.ORG 80 East Ridge • Ridgefield, Connecticut 06877

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TOPS IN THEIR FIELD, BAR NONE Pace Law School hosted the ninth annual Above the Bar Awards June 4 at its White Plains campus. The event honored Westchester attorneys who were judged by their peers as outstanding members of the bar in five categories. This year’s winners were Jerold Ruderman, Pace Setter Award; Natanya Briendel, Most Socially Conscious Attorney; Gary Sastow, Leading Health Care Attorney; Frank McCullough Jr., Leading Real Estate Attorney; Leigh Ellis, Most Promising Law School Student; and Alfred DelBello, Special Recognition for a Distinguished Career in Government and Law. The awards were co-founded by the Westchester County Business Journal, Citrin Cooperman and Pace Law School.

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Photographs by Bob Rozycki.

1. Dahniel, Gary, Elisa and Eliana Sastow 2. Rajeev Chennattu, Lew Tischler and Ajay Shah 3. Charles Wood, Mary Smith and Ed Sheeran 4. Leigh Ellis and Jill Gross 5. Deborah Scalise 6. Damon DelBello and Stephen J Friedman 7. Angie D’Agostino 8. Kelly M. Welch and Jerold R. Ruderman 9. Frank S. McCullough Jr. and Geoff Thompson 10. Mark Fang and Helen Blackwood 11. Bruce E. Tolbert and Barbara Lerman 12. Steven Wrabel and Corky McCullough 13. Anthony Enea and Ana Morais 14. Flore Blaise Williams and Janet Malone 15. Maria Genio, Tracey Alter and Natanya Breindel 16. Paul Marx and Frank A. Nicolai

All photograph identifications in Watch are from left.

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GREEN LIGHT ON YELLOW LIGHT Grand Prix New York recently hosted its third annual 90-minute endurance race to raise money for Project Yellow Light, an organization that promotes awareness of the dangers of distracted driving. Greenwich teen Ben Albano, along with his brothers Addison and Austen, organized the race and signed up participants from seven schools throughout Fairfield and Westchester counties, raising $4,600 this year.

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1. Kyle Bronzo, Justin Tompkins, Angelo Curro and Austen Albano 2. Joe Armentano and Addison Albano 3. Linda Rey and Kelly Albano 2

IN VINO VERITAS

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Harrison Wine Vault recently held two special events — “An Evening in Friuli with Marco Fantinel” at Emilio Ristorante in Harrison and “Dinner and Wine With Nick Goldschmidt” at Rye Bar Grill in Rye. Both evenings featured informative talks with winemakers Fantinel and Goldschmidt.

Photographs by Carly D’Arpino.

HAVING IT ALL? The Westchester Women’s Philanthropy sector of the UJA-Federation of New York heard from Susie Orman Schnall, author of “On Grace and The Balance Project,” recently at Congregation Emanu-El in Rye. More than 50 women came to hear Schnall, who lives in Purchase, discuss work/life balance and the reality of “having it all.”

4. Allison Wohl, Susie Orman Schnall, Staci Friedwald and Karen Sobel

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5. Paul Fede and Frank Amodio 6. Michael Knipp, Carmine Scala and Marco Fantinel

Photograph by Jeffrey Graybiel.

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7. Gerry Nastasi, Nick Goldschmidt and Anthony D’Arpino

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YANKEE DOODLE DANDY Family Services of Westchester was thrilled to have New York Yankee Dellin Betances join the organization recently to mark the beginning of operations at The Lanza Family Center for All Ages in White Plains. The center, modeled after My Second Home, brings children, teens and seniors together at one site to participate in programs, share experiences and benefit from one another, just as they would in a family setting.

Swiss Re from Armonk was the exclusive sponsor of the event.

Photographs by Jo Bryan Photography.

1. Lisa Wolfson Copeland and her son 2. Brandon Steiner, Dellin Betances and Susan Wayne 3. Employees from Swiss Re

‘LEADING THE WAY’ TO END ABUSE Supporters gathered recently at The Grand Hyatt in New York City for the 20th annual “Champion Awards: Leading the Way,” benefiting Safe Horizon. The dinner celebrated the largest victim services agency in the United States, which provides support, prevents violence and promotes justice for victims of crime and abuse, their families and communities. The evening raised $1 million to support Safe Horizon’s programs.

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IT’S IN THE GENES The Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) a nonprofit dedicated exclusively to cell and gene therapies for cancer, held its inaugural Innovative Leadership Award Gala recently at The Harvard Club in New York City. The gala, which honored the contributions of Dr. Savio L.C. Woo, raised $750,000 to fund cell and gene therapy research, which aims to make cancer a manageable and treatable disease.

4. Dr. Joseph Glorioso, Dr. Carl June, Emily Whitehead and Bob Levis.

5. Barbara Netter and Dr. Savio L.C.Woo

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Photographs by ©patrickmcmullan.com.

6. Ariel Zwang, Cy Vance and Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev 7. Joann and Todd Lang 8. Danielle Froelich and Evan Siegel 9. Pamela, Stephen and Julie Hootkin

Photograph by Mike Divito.

10. Linda Fairstein and Alan Cumming

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CHIC KIDS 2

Jeune Arbre recently celebrated the grand opening of its stylish new children’s boutique in Greenwich, at 89 Greenwich Ave. Jeune Arbre offers classic, preppy clothing that’s designed and manufactured in New York City from cotton, linen and scuba.

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Photographs by Chi Chi Ubina.

1. Stacy Feli and Ruth Baum 2. Rikki Berger and Kevin Rosenberg 3. Shaindy and Malky Lax 4. Ruth Baum, Leah Rosenberg, Shaindy Lax and Kerry Greeff 5. Chaya and Yossi Goldman 6. Erica Zaky Bryniczka and Kerry Greeff 7. Ricki Rosenberg

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HAILING THE UJA More than 350 guests joined UJA-Federation of New York’s Westchester Region recently at Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase as the UJA honored the Beckman family of Scarsdale and the Rieger family of Bedford. Guests came together as a community to applaud the achievements of the honorees for their committed leadership in the Westchester Jewish community and to support UJA-Federation and its network of nearly 100 local and global nonprofits.

8. Tina Price, Caryl Orlando and Nina Ross 9. Lois Kohn-Claar, Tracey Bilski and Anita Greenwald 10. Richard and Heidi Rieger, Yoav Cohen and Shari and Joel Beckman

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ALL IS FARE More than 650 supporters attended the 16th annual Spring Luncheon presented by Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) recently at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan. The event raised more than $967,000, with proceeds benefiting FARE, a national nonprofit whose mission is to improve the quality of life and health of individuals with food allergies and to provide them hope through the promise of new treatments.

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Photographs by Špatrickmcmullan.com.

1. Arthur Backal, Liana Silverstein Backal, Amanda Backal and Rob Silverstein 2. Mary Jane Marchisotto, Dr. Jim Baker and Donna McKelvey 3. John Stone, Camille Edwards, Lori Stokes and Peggy King Jorde 4. Kip, Talia, Josh, Lianne and Karen Mandelbaum 5. Marissa Leighton, Alyssa Lipton, Natalie Chizak, Stacey Saiontz and Jeanne Feldman 6. Claudia Warner, Harriette Rose Katz, Melissa and Lexi Rosenbloom 7. Amie Rappoport McKenna and Laura Tisch Broumand 8. Julie Menin, Helen and Roslyn Jaffe and Anne Sampson 9. Julie Cohen, Kelly Sacks and Cathy Pierorazio 10. Carolyn Siden, Jessica Barkoff and Karyn Kornfeld Kobre 11. Julia, Steven and Abbey Braverman 12. Ellen Cohen, Stacey Bronfman and Christine Mack

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WORLDLY VINTAGES

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The Dominican Sisters Family Health Services Inc. recently held its seventh annual “Wines around the World” fundraiser at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. With 130 people in attendance, the event featured wine tastings by Pernod Ricard USA and a gourmet buffet. “Wines Around the World” is one of five annual fundraisers the nonprofit certified home health agency holds each year to benefit its services to the community.

Photographs by John Vecchiolla.

1. Kathleen M. Gregory, Judith and Michael Sullivan and Mary Zagajeski 2. Frank Callanan, Matt Murphy, Daniel Lansen and Joe Armentano 3. Jeff, Joanna, Ann and Dr. William Smith 4. Sharon Niman, Diane Law, Susan Cohen, Celeste Meneses and Pattie Empson

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A STARRY NIGHT FOR UJA Recently, the UJA-Federation of New York’s Northern Westchester Community held an event to raise funds to help support the needs of kids at risk. The “Reach for the Stars” evening was held at Life, The Place to Be in Ardsley, where guests purchased “stars” representing funds in support of the UJA-Federation’s agencies.

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THE CHILDREN’S HOUR Advocates, educators, parents and supporters of Westchester’s children were in attendance recently at the Advocacy Breakfast for the Westchester Children’s Association, held at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown.

Guests gathered to hear Karen Pittman deliver the Karen Wasserman Davis Child Advocacy Lecture keynote address.

Photographs by Joan Grangenois-Thomas.

5. Terry Kirchner, Catherine Marsh, Joanne Amoros and Lisa Kahn 6. Linda Heyward and John Savage 7. Adrienne Weiss-Harrison and Susan Lenseth 8. Annie Huang, Cora Greenberg, Karen Pittman, Sarah Yergeau, Allison Lake, Susan Schefflein and Cheryl Hunter-Grant

9. Mindy Bass, Michele Gregson, Sharon Djaha, Randi Kreisler and Caryl Orlando

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SCHOOL OF DISTINCTION The Post Road School in White Plains, designed by KG&D Architects of Mount Kisco, was recently honored with the Excelsior Award of Distinction in Public Architecture by the American Institute of Architects New York State. The award ceremony took place at the annual Excelsior Awards Presentation Reception at the Sixty State Place in Albany.

1. Russell A. Davidson and Amy R. Paulin 2. Timothy G. Boyland, Paul McDonnell and Georgi Ann Bailey

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FORE!!!!!

The rain held off long enough at the Ardsley Country Club recently so that participants in Andrus’ annual ‘Golf Fore Kids’ outing were able to play 18 holes in support of the nonprofit’s work with children and families throughout the New York metro area.

The event raised more than $ 155,000 to benefit the organization.

Photographs by Andrus.

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3. Laurie Campbell, KC Gies, Jenny Dobell and Angela Walsh 4. Rich Murray, James Black, Doug and Kyle Glickert and Chris Gross

SALUTING CNR GRADUATES The College of New Rochelle (CNR) awarded more than 600 bachelor’s degrees and more than 200 master’s degrees to graduates of its four schools during commencement exercises at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan. Special honors were given to Ellen Mooney Hancock, a CNR graduate and nationally recognized technology leader, and Lillian Roberts, the recently retired executive director of the District Council 37 union.

5. Elizabeth Bell LeVaca, Lillian Roberts, Ellen Mooney Hancock and Judith Huntington

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GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS

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1.Allison Calvert, Dayana Abanto and Brian Pastore 2. Sara James, Maura Daroczy and Theresa Todman 3. Chris Jones and Jennifer Flowers 4. Stewart Strauss and Anne Jordan 5. Dean Bender, Elizabeth BrakenThompson and Jerry McKinstry 6. Christopher O’Callaghan and Robert Weinberg 7. John Ravitz, Tony Justice, Marsha Gordon, Robert Astorino and Robert Weisz 8. Sol Scolnick, Eon Nichols, Naomi Giges-Downey, Maria Bronzi and John Angelo

A FULL ‘PLATE’

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The Business Council of Westchester recently held the grand opening of its new offices in Rye Brook. The Business Council also unveiled a new logo and strategic initiatives aimed at helping members to the more than 250 guests.

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Community Plates held its signature fundraiser, “Food for All,” recently to support its fight against hunger. The evening featured Fairfield County’s newest restaurants and artisans as the nonprofit highlighted its goals for the coming year, celebrated its accomplishments and paid tribute to its many volunteers and supporters. (See related story on Page 28) 9. Chris Palumbo 10. Alison Sherman, Celia Meadow and Andrew Phorzheimer 11. Melanie McGlad and Jenifer Millones 12. Jeff Schacher and Kevin Mullins 13. Jes Bengtson, Dana Noorily and Julie Levitt

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SALUTING SUPERHEROES At its annual Superhero Gala at Tappan Hill Mansion in Tarrytown, St. Christopher’s Inc. recently honored six individuals who help the organization serve teens with emotional, behavioral and educational challenges. This year’s honorees were Michael Aisner of the Torch Foundation; Jessica Manfro and Christine Wexler of Mind Ur Body & Soul; John Dimling, St. Christopher’s board member and former chairman and CEO of Nielsen Media Research; and John and Diane Durante of Durante Rentals.

1. Linda Linton and Christopher Doss 2. John and Diane Durante 3. Michael and Erica Aisner 4. Jayne and Joe Rutigliano, and Rose and Kevin Hoey 5. Jessica Manfro and Scott Seals 6. Sylvester Williams and Juanita Jones 7. Robert Maher, David J. Lipson and Marshall Asche 8. Tucker, Christine and Josh Wexler 9. Tara Rosenblum and Kurt Kannemeyer 10. Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson and Geoff Thompson

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HSS HONORS The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) recently held its 32nd annual tribute dinner at Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. The event honored Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast Corp., for his accomplishments. The hospital also presented David L. Heifet, director of orthopedic trauma service, with the Lifetime Achievements Award.

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Photographs by Don Pollard.

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1. Louis A. Shapiro, Brian L. Roberts and David Helfet 2. Kat and Joshua Dines 3. Jennifer Rentas, Lisa Ipp and Kurt Voellmicke 4. John Brisson, Jo Hannafin and David Helfet 5. Cecily Strong

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NOW PITCHING…

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The College of New Rochelle recently welcomed legendary New York Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera to a special event that was hosted at the home of Lesley and John Nicholson in Greenwich.

6. Paul Romita, Jane Scully Reichle, Carla Romita Eccleston and Patrick Carney 7. Judith Huntington, Lesley Nicholson and Elizabeth Bell LeVaca 8. Rev. Leo O’Donovan and Mariano Rivera 9. Brenna Mayer, Mary Sommer Sandak, Jay Sandak, Dorothy Escribano and Joan Fiori Blanchfield

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WIT WONDERS:

WHAT’S YOUR GUILTY FOOD PLEASURE?*

Millie Bass

Daniella Bernd

Carolyn Carp

Stacey Cowen

Connie Cullen

Stacy Geisinger

Tori Geter

Daniella Hernandez

Peter X. Kelly

Azline Kemp

Carl Samuels

Alexis Sbarra

“OOH, I WOULD SAY EVERYTHING. I WAS BORN IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. I LOVE ANY GOOD DOMINICAN FOOD, LIKE PLANTAINS. I LOVE EATING.” – Millie Bass,

office manager, Euro Laser Spa Services, North Salem resident

“LAYS POTATO CHIPS, PLASTIC YELLOW BAG.”

“I LOVE CHOCOLATE AND CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM. WHY DO I LOVE IT? IT’S CHOCOLATE. I’M A CHOCOHOLIC.” – Stacey Cowen,

senior designer, transFORM, Harrison resident

“ANYTHING CHOCOLATE. I JUST ADORE IT. IT’S THE FOOD OF THE SOUL, THE MIND AND THE HEART.” – Connie Cullen,

– Daniella Bernd,

lifestyle coach, New Rochelle resident

“BACON CHEESEBURGER. I LIKE THEM WHEN THEY’RE JUICY AND RARE.” – Carolyn Carp,

public relations, Manhattan resident

internal communications, New York Power Authority, Eastchester resident

“ALMOND BUTTER ON ANYTHING – ON AN APPLE, ON YOGURT….”

– Stacy Geisinger,

blogger, Stacy Knows, Bedford resident

“I WOULD HAVE TO SAY PIZZA – REGULAR MARGHERITA PIZZA WITH A GLASS OF RED WINE.” – Daniella Hernandez,

processing department, Zachys Wine and Liquor Inc., White Plains resident

“ICE CREAM – BLACKBERRY CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM. MY OTHER GUILTY PLEASURE IS PIE – APPLE, PEACH, CHERRY, BLUEBERRY….

– Tori Geter,

occupational therapist, Yonkers resident

“I GUESS IT’S CHOCOLATE, PARTICULARLY THE HEATH BAR. ” – Peter X. Kelly,

“SHRIMP. I’M FROM MISSISSIPPI. I LIKE ’EM STEAMED.” – Azline Kemp,

flight attendant, Delta Airlines, Biloxi, Miss., resident

“CHOCOLATE. DARK CHOCOLATE.” – Carl Samuels, security officer, Bronx resident

“MY GUILTY FOOD PLEASURE IS CHOCOLATE. NOW I’M TRYING TO CHANGE THAT. I’M TRYING TO EAT CHICKEN AND SALADS. BUT I LOVE (CHOCOLATE).

– Alexis Sbarra,

sales associate, Hartsdale resident

chef-owner, Xaviars Restaurant Group, Blauvelt resident

*Asked at Bloomingdale’s White Plains 104

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