The East End Food Institute’s Food Lab conference, featuring panel discussions with chefs and local farmers, wine and food tastings, and cooking classes, will be held on Friday, Sept. 13, and Sept. 14 at Stony Brook Southampton.
The conference will begin with cocktails and a buffet sourced from local farms at 6 p.m. on Sept. 13. After opening remarks from Kate Fullam, the executive director of the food institute, and Geoffrey Drummond, the executive director of the university’s Food Lab, there will be a discussion between Patty Gentry, the owner of Bellport’s Early Girl Farm, and Dorothy Kalins, the founding editor of Saveur magazine. A short film on Ms. Gentry and her farm will be shown.
At 11 a.m. on Sept. 14, Lidia Bastianich, the celebrity chef and restaurateur, will discuss the benefits of eating locally-sourced food with Adam Gopnik, a New Yorker magazine writer Cooking demonstrations of easy-to-make, healthy recipes will follow, and a buffet lunch will be served.
Speakers and panelists that day will include Roman Roth, winemaker and partner at Wolffer Estate Vineyard; Carissa Waechter, the owner of Carissa’s Bakery in East Hampton; David Falkowski, a hemp and mushroom farmer in Bridgehampton; Katie Baldwin and Amanda Merrow, the founders of Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett, and Laura Donnelly, The Star’s food writer.
Panel discussions will be held on topics such as taste memory and mindful eating, coastal cuisine, hemp farming and CBD, baking, and the local wine, beer, and spirits industry. Tickets are $150, and an additional $50 for Mr. Poulmentis’s cooking class. They are available at thefoodlab.org.