| Issue #27, September 29, 2006 |
Where’s Fred Overton?
Perfecting the Traditional Bonac Clam Chowder in Amagansett
By Skye Hilton
East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton’s “Bonac” (referring to Accabonac Creek) clam chowder is the type of thing legends are made of. I imagine before there was proper medicine, hot and fresh clam chowder like Mr. Overton’s (with its delicate hint of thyme) could cure the common cold or even the flu. His name had been mentioned in almost every conversation I heard and seemed to drift through the air with the smell of potatoes and onions. But as I floated about the Town of East Hampton’s 16th annual Largest Clam Contest, Mr. Overton, the Hendrix of chowder, had proven to be a difficult man to find.
It neared 1:15 p.m. on the gusty afternoon of Sunday September 24th when a crowd gathered on the lawn in front of the Trustee Building on Bluff Road in Amagansett. The tasting table for the annual clam chowder contest was set up and we were ready to begin. Town Supervisor William McGintee, Rusty Drum and Mary Fallon, the chowder judges, skeptically eyed ten quarts of soup that stood before them and discussed what I assumed were their tasting techniques. Before Mr. Drum was handed his first sample, I asked him what qualifications one would need to be an official chowder judge.
“Hungry,” he muttered almost instantaneously from beneath his large gray mustache, adding, “Actually there is one qualification. You must have the trustee chowder first because it sets the standard very high. It is seldom that the homemade chowder is better than the trustee’s. It is a classic ‘Bonac’ chowder.”
With chopped clams, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and clam juice from the clams themselves, the trustee’s chowder was the definition of “Bonac.”
“Is that the trustee’s chowder, Fred Overton’s?” I asked.
“Yes. Fred Overton is a genius.” Mr. Drum noted before the eager mob separated us with the commencement of the tasting.
The contest got off with a bang as Ms. Fallon choked on her first gulp of New England style chowder, but assured everyone she had swallowed a large chunk of clam and it was not the taste that caused her distress. Someone gave her a spoon and the tasting continued.
“Bonac,” Mr. Drum said of the second chowder.
“Very Bonac,” Mr. McGintee commented after having the fourth chowder.
Enjoyment purred from the judges as they confidently went to their score sheets after tasting number six, seemingly pleased after several near misses. I asked Mr. McGintee how he felt after tasting six different chowders and he jokingly remarked, “Do you remember the pie eating contest scene in Stand By Me?”
Nevertheless, he and the other judges were very eager to continue the tasting as container number seven was presented with a bag of croutons; a true wild card.
“Is that legal?” bellowed the crowd.
“It is considered an ingredient so it’s legal,” the server sternly replied.
Thrown off by the croutons, the judges dismissed number seven and moved on to number eight which was presented, surprisingly, in a ceramic bowl shaped like a fish; yet another wild card! How could this be legal? I thought to myself. If there was ever a time for Mr. Overton to appear and make an executive decision, it was now. But much to my dismay, there was no Fred Overton. Mr. McGintee concluded his tasting of number eight with a simple, “That’s good stuff.” A rare example of emotion from the judges.
The last two chowders were finished and the leftovers were served to the public as the judge’s scores were tallied. The score sheets were simple, rating the chowders on a scale of of one to ten.
Everyone seemed to be a critic when it came to chowder. Seven-year-old Dylan Camacho said one particular chowder was “too salty,” but “still better than Grandpa’s.”
Waiting for the final scores, Mr. McGintee told me he preferred “spicy rather than something meaty,” and Ms. Fallon felt that the croutons provided “great presentation value but took away from the focus of the chowder.”
There was a silence in the crowd as Trustee Bill Mott announced the winners. Second place went to Mary Anne and Robert Semple’s sherry-infused chowder, number six, while the first place honors went to Gale Webb’s controversially-presented, yet unanimously enjoyed chowder, number eight.
Kathy Fromm won the largest clam contest with a 2.4 lb. clam from Napeague, as last year’s winner Sue Ceslow claimed that she would have won this year if Ms. Fromm hadn’t held her underwater.
The festivities concluded with Margaret Frompt guessing the exact number of baby clams in the jar, but she left before the counting had concluded, so her son accepted on her behalf, claiming her win was, “ pure luck.”
Gladly, the weather held up for what turned out to be a festive day in Amagansett. Leaving, I thought, if only Fred Overton were there to witness such a slugfest between such heavyweight chowder slingers, but realized that all he ever needed to do was continue making his “Bonac” chowder; not only for the sake of chowder connoisseurs across the East End, but for the sake of something much more important. Tradition.
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