PopHampton: Get to Know Your Hamptons Foodie Icons
New York (and beyond) foodies know that the East End is a culinary paradise, and that includes our local celebrities. Numerous food personalities have a significant presence in the Hamptons. How much do you know about them?
Martha Stewart, one of the grand dames of cooking and DIY home improvement shows, has a house in East Hampton. Stewart is known for her show Martha Stewart Living (also a popular magazine), which ran from 1993–2005, as well as Martha. Stewart currently co-hosts Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party, a humorous show on VH1 with Snoop Dogg, and she’s also a recurring judge on Food Network’s TV cooking competition Chopped. Her latest book, The Martha Manual: How to Do (Almost) Anything, is now available wherever books are sold.
A consummate New Yorker and Amagansett resident Bobby Flay is one of the most recognizable faces on the Food Network. Some of his more popular shows include Boy Meets Grill, Beat Bobby Flay, Throwdown! with Bobby Flay and BBQ with Bobby Flay. He’s the owner and executive chef of Mesa Grill, Bar Americain, Bobby Flay Steak, Gato and Bobby’s Burger Palace, which has a location right here in Suffolk County at Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove. Get the Crunch Burger with a frozen margarita—you won’t regret it! His new Shark at the Palms Latin seafood restaurant is also set to open in Las Vegas this year. Of course, we are pretty proud to note that Flay hosted Dan’s Taste of Two Forks in 2013.
Another Dan’s Taste of Two Forks alum, Alex Guarnaschelli of Bridgehampton, hosted the Dan’s Taste of Summer event in 2016 and 2017. The daughter of famed cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli, Alex has published two cookbooks, starred in and hosted Food Network shows like Alex’s Day Off, and has been a judge on Bravo’s Top Chef. She is the executive chef/owner of Butter restaurant in Manhattan.
The “Barefoot Contessa” herself, Ina Garten lives in East Hampton. Garten is known for the Barefoot Contessa cooking show on Food Network, where she cooks and entertains for her friends and family, including husband Jeffrey (a fan favorite). Garten is the author of several cookbooks, and her latest, Cook Like a Pro, was released in October 2018. In 1978, she bought The Barefoot Contessa specialty food market in Westhampton, moved it to East Hampton in 1985 and then sold the store in 1996. It finally closed in 2004, but by then Garten had a well established name and brand, and a place in the pantheon of foodie legends.
Iconic food critic Gael Greene is a longtime Hamptonite. This pioneering, no-nonsense foodie is credited with legitimizing food criticism in the 1960s and has gone on to write a memoir, erotic novels and of course, countless articles for New York magazine. Greene was also a judge on Top Chef Masters. She continues to write a weekly newsletter, FORK PLAY, runs a website, insatiable-critic.com, and Greene co-founded the nonprofit Citymeals on Wheels in 1981 with James Beard.
These are just a few of the Hamptons’ famous chefs. Let’s not forget other Food Network celebs like Michael Symon, Katie Lee, Marc Murphy and Geoffrey Zakarian. Come to Dan’s Taste of Summer events this summer to get a taste of the Hamptons and the North Fork, and meet a foodie star or two!
Get the latest Dan’s Taste of Summer news and ticket info at DansTaste.com.
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