BYLINES BY SCOTT
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 3 NYC CHEFS PREPARE A MEAL ON THE BEACH
Three legendary NYC chefs venture out east to Sammy’s Beach for a day filled with food, friends, wine, and cigars.
Summers on the East End have always been an ideal backdrop for the ultimate dinner parties and A-list gatherings featuring a picture-perfect table, flowers, place cards, and appropriate place settings. But I thought, why not turn the tables and create a unique experience to celebrate the season and enjoy the last days of summer with the boys. I envisioned old-school Hamptons photos, when Montauk was still “the end of the island” and far enough out that most didn’t venture there. Even rock royalty like the Rolling Stones headed out East to get away from the craziness of the city in the mid-’70s. They secluded themselves with icons like Andy Warhol and Peter Beard, with Montauk eventually becoming their hideaway, where they created “Black and Blue.”
Sammy’s Beach in East Hampton set the stage for a modern-day “boys night out,” so to speak. It was nothing fancy, just a few guys cooking on the beach, drinking some great wine, and enjoying the surroundings. It is the Hamptons, and we needed to at least hold up to standards.
I invited three of the bad boys of culinary (as in “badass” at what they do) to join me. It didn’t take much getting this group together for some fun, conversation, and great food overlooking Gardiners Bay. It’s always hard to maneuver schedules, but not much arm-twisting was necessary.
“Boys night out at the beach, us three? I’ll move around my schedule to be there,” said Geoffrey Zakarian. So the renowned chef and TV personality was the first in. It was sort of the ideal juxtaposition to the day, as he is known for his perfectly tailored appearance and upscale fare at his restaurants: The Lambs Club, The National, and the upcoming relaunch of food at The Plaza Hotel.
Then it was our resident “guys’ guy”; spending as much time at Ditch Plains surfing as he does running his restaurant empire of Landmarc and Ditch Plains in Manhattan—Marc Murphy was a natural fit. Last to join was Scott Conant, an old friend and incredible chef, who bridges the “bad boy” image with the elegance and grace of his food at Scarpetta and his own sense of style.
The table was set: We would each do a course, and, in the process, I would get some free cooking lessons from some masters. These days I seldom get nervous anymore, having been around so many of the world’s best in the kitchen. And then it hit me: These guys are all judges on Chopped for the Food Network. What have I done? Will they judge me? Will I get “chopped”?
After some thought, I figured for a boys’ night, we need something more than just great chefs, incredible food, and wine, so, as a distraction from my lack of cooking prowess, I brought cigars. It had been a thought all along to pair each dish with the appropriate smoke to enhance the experience, so I invited the only one fit for the task: Michael Herklots. A good friend and great colleague of all the chefs, Herklots is the “chef” of sorts at Nat Sherman Cigars and Cigarettes in NYC, steering the brand and curating its premium selections.
Everyone arrived around noon, and after getting somewhat settled (groceries and bags everywhere), it all started. “Do we have a bottle of rosé ready?” yelled Conant. It seemed all of them were ready for an extended day of camaraderie, cooking, and drinking. So we cracked a magnum of Wölffer rosé and, yes, lit our first cigar. Herklots had primed us for a smoke-filled afternoon, but he wanted to get our mouths warmed up as he lit each of us a Joel Sherman, 75th Celebration.
“Boys night out at the beach, us three? I’ll move around my schedule to be there,” said Geoffrey Zakarian. So the renowned chef and TV personality was the first in. It was sort of the ideal juxtaposition to the day, as he is known for his perfectly tailored appearance and upscale fare at his restaurants: The Lambs Club, The National, and the upcoming relaunch of food at The Plaza Hotel.
Then it was our resident “guys’ guy”; spending as much time at Ditch Plains surfing as he does running his restaurant empire of Landmarc and Ditch Plains in Manhattan—Marc Murphy was a natural fit. Last to join was Scott Conant, an old friend and incredible chef, who bridges the “bad boy” image with the elegance and grace of his food at Scarpetta and his own sense of style.
The table was set: We would each do a course, and, in the process, I would get some free cooking lessons from some masters. These days I seldom get nervous anymore, having been around so many of the world’s best in the kitchen. And then it hit me: These guys are all judges on Chopped for the Food Network. What have I done? Will they judge me? Will I get “chopped”?
After some thought, I figured for a boys’ night, we need something more than just great chefs, incredible food, and wine, so, as a distraction from my lack of cooking prowess, I brought cigars. It had been a thought all along to pair each dish with the appropriate smoke to enhance the experience, so I invited the only one fit for the task: Michael Herklots. A good friend and great colleague of all the chefs, Herklots is the “chef” of sorts at Nat Sherman Cigars and Cigarettes in NYC, steering the brand and curating its premium selections.
Everyone arrived around noon, and after getting somewhat settled (groceries and bags everywhere), it all started. “Do we have a bottle of rosé ready?” yelled Conant. It seemed all of them were ready for an extended day of camaraderie, cooking, and drinking. So we cracked a magnum of Wölffer rosé and, yes, lit our first cigar. Herklots had primed us for a smoke-filled afternoon, but he wanted to get our mouths warmed up as he lit each of us a Joel Sherman, 75th Celebration.
Next, it was my turn to prep the chicken for the heat. I thought I should first take a sip of the Montauk Brewing Company’s Driftwood Ale—except I did not realize that, per the recipe, Murphy had stuffed two cloves of garlic into the can to season the chicken. Yikes, did that taste bad! After seasoning it, the cans went into the chicken, and it was on the grill for two hours. Adding a little smoke seemed like a fun impromptu addition, so after some puffs of our Nat Sherman Timeless Especiales, onto the coals went the remaining nubs.
Next up was Conant with his shrimp and bottarga risotto with arugula. This seemed to be one of the more technical and preparation-heavy dishes of the three, but he made it a fun, interactive experience. While the flow of the day was progressing, it seemed we were waiting quite a bit for Conant’s components to get to temperature. However, it finally all came together, and he had me add the homemade shellfish stock and fresh shrimp from The Seafood Shop in Wainscott to make this luscious dish complete.
After some more rosé, more cigars, and some time out on the water paddling, we reassembled at the table to prep Zakarian’s vibrant heirloom tomato, lobster with peaches, and burrata dish. While it was seemingly simple, Zakarian showed us how basic ingredients plus technique can create a rich, complex dish. After stuffing the lobster cavity with herbs and arugula, Zakarian placed the crustaceans from Citarella on the grill and cut the skin off the tomatoes and peaches, professing that no skin and no lobster claw tips in the dish make it perfect.
At this point, it was my turn to go solo. After some gestures from the professionals, they let me do my thing. Charred shishito peppers and radishes from Balsam Farms are go-to summer starters for me. So simple, and, frankly, the key is a hot pan and letting them get perfectly charred.
As the sun started to set, we made our way down to the beach, each with dishes in hand. Through the sea grass and onto the beach overlooking Gardiners Island, it seemed like a perfect setting for a boys’ night, as the island itself is known for its history of bad boys, including bootleggers, rum runners, pirates, and even Captain Kidd.
Keeping it casual, we set our platters onto makeshift tables using our paddleboards and started an epic meal, laughing uncontrollably; the comical fodder that happens when this group gets together—unfiltered! Before we got into the food, Herklots paired each dish with a cigar, gave us a lesson on what we were smoking and explained the technical precision that goes into making a cigar and how it is like creating a perfectly balanced dish.
As dusk set in, we toasted with some Averna Amaro and a 1930 Super Lancero to good friends and great times. It was like we had ended the summer on a perfect note from one of the East End’s legendary bad boys, Billy Joel: “We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday / And left this morning from the bell in Gardiners Bay.”
Read the Article at Hamptons-Magazine.com HERE.
