Schaudel & Payard to Season Chefs of the North Fork with Star Power

Celebrity chefs Tom Schaudel and François Payard will spice up the Chefs of the North Fork when the second event in the Dan’s Taste Summer Series presented by Yieldstreet arrives in Riverhead on Saturday.

Schaudel, who is widely considered the most well-known chef on Long Island, currently has a hand in two restaurants: Tuscan-style aMano in Mattituck and seafood-focused A Lure in Southold. Payard, one of the few James Beard-award winning chefs on the East End, will be joining the festivities after having recently opened his new bistro, Southold Social.

“It showcases the bounty of Long Island and the North Fork,” Schaudel says of the event. “There’s a lot of camaraderie to cook with those guys. To me it shows that we have a special place, food- and wine-wise. We have a lot of foodies out there and it’s nice to see the foodies supporting Long Island.”

Celebrating the region’s fresh, farm- and sea-to-table ingredients, Chefs of the North Fork will be held from 6:30–10 p.m. on Saturday, June 25 at Atlantis Banquets & Events in Riverhead. The lineup also includes chefs and winemakers from aMano, Latin Fuzion Restaurant, Chef Frank’s Market, Main Road Biscuit Co., McCall Wines, Rugged Jack’s, The Halyard at Sound View Greenport, The Chequit, Southold General, Claudio’s, Jamesport Vineyards, Borghese Vineyard & Winery, Ellen’s on Front, The Preston House & Hotel, RGNY, Pindar Vineyards, Insatiable Eats, Peconic Bay Vineyards and Raphael Wine. 

As for Chef Payard, a third-generation chef who honed his skills by his family’s side and at La Tour d’Argent in Paris, his new locale Southold Social, which debuted in mid-June, offers approachable, local-origin dishes with a focus on seasonality and provenance. Its menu boasts house-made cavatelli with veal ragu, brine-cured pork chop, Montauk black sea bass, summer truffle polenta, a lobster roll with piment d’espelette, a burger au poivre served with a mountain of pommes frites and line-caught crudo. 

“The idea was to make an American bistro,” says Payard, who lives next to the restaurant. “The menu is pretty much for everyone. You can find a lot of choices. The menu is easy to read and easy for everybody.”

The recently renovated bi-level restaurant, which displays original wooden beams and beautiful teak flooring, features four distinct environments: a classic dining room; an energetic, buzzing bar area; an extensive tented outdoor patio; and a top floor 38-seat private dining space — perfect for a rehearsal dinner or special event. A grand fire pit for oyster roasts is slated to open on the outdoor patio by mid-summer. 

“Our goal is to try to make a very neighborhood place,” he adds. “We’re not trying to be fancy and uptight. The whole idea is to make a great restaurant people love. My goal is to have people come back three times a week. It can be like their own place.”

He noted that the restaurant will be open year round and not just for the summer. But most importantly, he emphasized the dessert menu. In addition to being James Beard award-winning pastry chef, he has also won the “Ordre du Mérite Agricole” by the French government, and the Dom Perignon Award of Excellence, and he was named “Pastry Chef of the Year” by Bon Appétit. 

“You cannot leave Southold Social without dessert because the dessert menu would be exactly like if you go to a fancy restaurant in the city,” he says. 

As for Schaudel, his two restaurants on the North Fork each offer something unique. aMano is a Tuscan-style restaurant with a little bit of a country feel to it.

“There’s a couple of the usual suspects, but we like to make the menu more like Italy and a little less like Little Italy,” Schaudel said.

A Lure, on the other hand, is overlooking the Peconic Bay with a seafood-heavy menu.

His appearance at Chefs of the North Fork comes as Schaudel is putting the finishing touches on his second book, A Second Helping, which is a follow up to Playing With Fire: Whining & Dining on the Gold Coast about his 100 wildest behind-the-scenes restaurant stories. He looks forward to breaking bread with his fans.

“It’s a hoot,” he says. “It’s going to be a great night. Here’s to Long Island!”

The Dan’s Taste Summer Series presented by Yieldstreet is hosted by Schneps Events, a division of Dan’s Papers parent company Schneps Media.

Visit DansTaste.com for tickets and more information.