Twenty years ago, on the fourth of July, Breadzilla opened its doors. Well, it was about to open its doors, but the owners realized 20 minutes before that they forgot to get screen door handles. So Brad Thompson, co-owner, co-chef, and friendly ex-husband of Nancy Hollister, co-owner, co-chef, and friendly ex-wife, grabbed a drill and some nails and some forks and spoons he found in the basement and .created some bent utensil door handles. They remain in place today as just another quirky and charming element to this bakery and takeout shop.

Twenty years is an impressively long time for a food business to survive out here, and if it weren’t for the kindness of the previous owners of the building, Ms. Hollister doubts they would be here today. Henry and DorothyWalker of Walker’s Upholstery had faith in Nancy and Brad and waited patiently for them to secure financing to buy the building in Wainscott, tucked a few hundred feet off Route 27.

A first-time visitor to Breadzilla may be taken aback by the bustle, the clutter, the oft-crabby signage, but a closer look reveals a true knowledge of food, a curated selection of drinks, cheeses, sausage, obscure potato chips. The most impressive items are, naturally, the baked goods, the breads, sandwiches, pies, bagels, cakes, salads, soups, muffins, cookies, and more. The volume that comes out of the somewhat large but extremely cramped kitchen is remarkable. There is a smoker in one corner where Brad tends to fresh hams and turkey breasts. On a recent day, an industrial Hobart mixer was whipping up a raspberry mousse to fill a late-order graduation cake. Nancy was perched on a tiny stool by a “desk,” painstakingly filling out the handwritten menu that changes daily and must be finished and up online by 11:30 a.m.

In the time I spent with them in the kitchen on a busy weekend morning, I was given samples of the crispy chicken with “awesome sauce,” a pineapple, jalapeño, shallot, orange juice, garlic, and cilantro smooth salsa that is about to go on pineapple-marinated roast luau pork, some cake scraps with chocolate ganache, that aforementioned raspberry mousse, and some mulligatawny soup. All of it was insanely good.

When Breadzilla first opened it started with breads, muffins, scones, doughnuts, and coffee cake, later expanding to soups and stews and clam pies and sandwiches. Both Nancy and Brad have worked as fishermen and are marine biologists. Nancy had been at the long-defunct Plain and Fancy bakery in East Hampton before opening Breadzilla, and this is where she invented Breadzilla’s iconic Gruyere bread.

It is impossible to get a firm answer from either of them when you ask what their own favorite sandwiches are. “That’s the best thing about what we do,” said Brad. “We don’t have a set menu. If I had to do the exact same thing every day, I’d shoot myself!” He credits their mutual science background for their interest in experimentation. A great deal of research went into the formulas for the spice mixtures for chai, curries, bread batters, and blackening fish. All of the spices and rubs are made in house and fiddled with constantly.

They do concede that the Hippy Dippy sandwich is a favorite. This one is toasted honey wheat bread with cheddar, avocado, tomato, carrots, and sprouts with mustard-mayo sauce. (It was created and named on the day George Carlin died, after his Hippy Dippy Weatherman comedy routine.) The Spicy Tuna Jack (eight-grain bread with tuna salad, melted Monterey Jack cheese, and pickled jalapeños) is another favorite.

Like everyone in the restaurant and baking business, they work long, long days on their feet. For 13 years they would go into work at 2 a.m. together; now they swap the early shift on a weekly basis. Nancy credits their ability to get along with Brad’s daily yoga and her midmorning miles-long runs with her dingo dogs.

As much of the produce as possible is sourced locally: apples from the Milk Pail, tomatoes from Pike’s for their midsummer, spectacularly simple tomato with mayo, salt, and pepper on toasted white bread sandwich. The fish comes from Braun Seafood and the kielbasa from Cromer’s Market. Most of their breads are sourdough-based, coming from a “mother” named Penelope who has been kept alive since their opening. And where does the name “squishy bread” come from? Nancy mischievously replied that she just likes to hear the occasional, somewhat stuffy client say the word “squishy” when placing an order.

Breadzilla is definitely a family affair. There are beautiful, rustic wooden cutting boards with leather handles made by Nancy’s sister out on one front counter, and a glass case with silver and stone jewelry made by Brad’s brother. The wooden Breadzilla monster outside the entrance was carved by a friend, and the staff working for Brad and Nancy have been there almost as long as they have. 

Their clientele are loyal, both local and from afar, and they have their celebrity fans as well. Jimmy Fallon and his wife, Nancy, are frequent visitors, as is Julie Kavner of “The Simpsons.” And this being the Hamptons, of course they have baked the keys to a brand-new Porsche into a cake for some lucky guy or gal.

It would be nice to imagine that Nancy Hollister and Brad Thompson will be toasting their success this coming Fourth of July with a bottle of champagne and perhaps a slice of that glorious Gruyere bread. But they will instead be sitting in a lawyer’s office, working on a defense against a Japanese company called Toho Co. Ltd., creators of Godzilla. Apparently, the litigious lawyers of Toho do not like anyone using the letters “zilla,” and they seem to have just discovered recently that a charming little bakery in a small town is doing just that. The Breadzilla name is trademarked, but the situation is a time and money-consuming headache they could do without. After all, there are black-and-white cookies to be frosted, crazy sandwiches to be invented, and fresh cod to be blackened. 

Here’s hoping we get to enjoy Breadzilla’s amazing and quirky, fresh and original creations for another 20 years!

Click for recipes

Sam Gelin was enjoying a nice piece of fish that had come from Montauk one day not long ago in New York when he thought it would be really interesting to use salt that derived from the same waters. He had recently traveled on the West Coast, where he had seen a sea salt company, and it “kind of lodged in my mind,” he said in a recent interview. And so the Montauk Salt Company was born.

Mr. Gelin’s company is one of many food companies started by millennials, who are said to be obsessed with food. Though the definition of millennial varies based on whom you ask, many publications, including The New York Times, have defined the generation as those born between 1978 and 1998. 

Mr. Gelin is among other millennial entrepreneurs, including Matthew Corrin, who started Freshii, a healthy fast-food chain, when he was 23, and three college students who launched Sweetgreen, a salad chain. And his company isn’t the only one owned by millennials in Montauk: Sea Bean Natural Foods, a catering company and food truck, is operated by Shawn Christman who is 34 years old.

Mr. Gelin, who had frequently visited Montauk, began researching and collecting ocean water from Ditch Plain last October. He said it took a couple of months of experimenting to get to a point where he produced a viable sea salt. In January, he drew curious looks while collecting water barefoot at Ditch Plain for what would become his first commercial batch.

“It was freezing. Nothing about it felt good. But I wanted to do that,” he said, explaining that “the benefit of collecting cold water is it speeds up the filtration process.” 

Since then, Mr. Gelin has made the trek from his East Village apartment to Montauk about every two weeks to wade waist deep into the water and harvest bucket after bucket of water, regardless of the season, but only after he checks water quality reports from the eastern Long Island chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Twenty buckets at a time, holding five gallons each, get loaded into his Jeep.

Then, working in a rented commercial kitchen, Mr. Gelin boils the water to kill any bacteria and to begin the evaporation process, which eventually yields what he describes as a crisp, fresh product best used as a finishing salt. 

“We boil it down into a brine, and then through regulating the temperature at which the salt cools, we can create these really nice, resilient flakes,” Mr. Gelin said. “As we’re harvesting the salt from a really briny water, the salt will come dance along the top and we’ll scoop it out and put it on the side and let it cool off. Once it’s cooled off, we put it in the dehydrator, where it will dry out. There’s a bit of an art to it.”

From start to finish, the Montauk Salt Company process takes about three days. His method differs in technique and the salt differs from that made by the Amagansett Sea Salt Company, which was founded in 2009. It uses solar evaporation and flavors its salt with lemon zest, herbs, and merlot, or other savories.

“Because there are so many variables on how you produce it and finish it, there are so many different ways it can turn out,” Mr. Gelin said.

He recommends his company’s salt with eggs, steak, or kale salad. “The salt that we produce doesn’t dissipate as quickly as table salt. It tends to last longer, so you do get a little bit of texture when you go to enjoy your dish.”

Mr. Gelin has a background in the food and hospitality industries. He is the founder of Craft Hospitality, which produces the New York City Craft Distillers Festival and Craft Coffee Festival. He calls sea salt “a fun marriage of my culture growing up, with a mother who was a chemical engineer, and my appreciation for source-of-origin foods.”

With the Montauk Salt Company, he has help from his girlfriend, Jess Smoak, and from Danielle Gingerich, a Sag Harbor resident and partner in the business. Provisions in Sag Harbor and Left Hand Coffee in Montauk sell the salt and Duryea’s and Swallow East,  Montauk restaurants, are making it available for diners.

“I’m excited about it and want to share it with as many people as possible. I think our generation wants to know where their food is coming from. I think that’s why the Montauk Salt Company story is compelling.”

Happy Anniversary!

East Hampton Point is marking its 25th anniversary this season, and is offering weekly specials to celebrate, as well as a happy hour Thursdays through Sundays with half-price sangria, $5 draft beer, and special prices on bar snacks.

Specials at Bay Bar

Bay Kitchen Bar on Three Mile Harbor has a $34 four-course chef’s tasting menu Mondays through Thursdays, from 4 to 6 p.m. There are specials on oysters and rosé wine, daily from 4 to 6 and again after 9 p.m. till closing, and “happy hour sours,” cocktails made with the restaurant’s handcrafted sour mix.

Bridgehampton Inn

The Bridgehampton Inn offers a prix fixe Wednesdays and Thursdays until 7. Dinner is served at the inn, including outdoors, Wednesdays through Sundays. There is no corkage fee on Sunday.

Bostwick’s Every Day

Bostwick’s, the seafood spot on Pantigo Road in East Hampton, is now open seven days for lunch and dinner, beginning at 11:30 a.m. 

For Seafood Lovers

Seafood lovers might want to put the Bell and Anchor in Noyac in their sights. It is now featuring raw bar specials on Montauk Pearl oysters and littleneck clams, for $2.50 each, all night Sundays through Thursdays, and on Fridays and Saturdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. On Sundays, the oysters are an even better deal, at $1 each. Wednesday is lobster night, and Thursday is bouillabaisse night.

There are certain plants that any gardener interested in eating well will want to have, and among them, strawberries top my list. Unlike most vegetables, which can take all summer to grow and need to be replanted each year, strawberries ripen from late spring through midsummer. Once established, they need minimal care. And they are particularly good plants for the casual or weekend gardener, since a well-planted strawberry bed will produce generously for years without much fuss. Strawberries are easy, happy plants, well adapted to our climate, thriving in full sun and free-draining soil — and we have plenty of both out here on the East End.

Fresh home-grown strawberries have a fragrance and delicacy far superior to any in supermarkets, because all strawberries need to be picked ripe; unripened berries will travel and keep well, but they lack the sweetness, juiciness, and fragrance of a sweet, ripened berry. When you grow your own strawberries, you can be sure of picking them at just this right moment. What is more important, you can be sure they carry no toxins: Starting this year, according to the Department of Agriculture, commercially farmed strawberries top the list of all fruits and vegetables for highest concentration of pesticide residues.

Strawberry plants for the home garden can be ordered in fall or early spring and are shipped bare-root, in bundles. They are inexpensive: 100 plants cost about $30 from Nourse Farms in Whately, Mass. (noursefarms.com). For the complete beginner, however (or for people who simply want to experiment with growing a strawberry or two), potted strawberry plants are readily available at garden centers such as Lynch’s in Southampton for approximately $5. 

 If you read up on strawberry cultivation you might get a little intimidated by their requirements. But that would be a pity, because given half a chance, any strawberry plant will grow, flower, and fruit with few problems. You can plant up an entire bed in the fall, or else in early spring, but they also grow well in small spaces (or even pots) and look beautiful, as well, at the front of a mixed border. 

Strawberry cultivars come in two types: June bearing or everbearing/day-neutral. If you would like to have all your berries at once, want the largest berries possible, and want the most productive possible beds, then June bearing varieties are right for you. Everbearing, by comparison, tend to be smaller strawberries, but they will fruit all summer and into the fall. The tradeoff here is that the plants are a bit less productive, and will need to be replanted every three years.

For as long as I have grown strawberries, I have grown everbearing varieties, because I prefer to have them all season, and I don’t need that many of them. (June bearing varieties can make good sense for those home gardeners who enjoy making strawberry jam, but I don’t — or when I do, I don’t mind buying extra from a farm stand.) Three everbearing varieties that have worked well for me over the years are Seascape (the most productive), Tribute, and Tri-Star. This year, however, I am growing a new variety, Mara des Bois. These strawberries have the intensely fragrant flavor of fraises des bois (wild strawberries) but are as large as a regular strawberry. You can’t buy them in stores. I discovered them last May in Provence and was delighted to find them on sale, bare-root, at Nourse and Burpee. 

Preparing a good, productive strawberry bed takes a little bit of work. Site your bed in full sun and prepare your soil carefully. Several weeks before planting remove all grasses and weeds and till the bed to a depth of about a foot, incorporating some well-aged compost or manure. (You can rent a small, gas-powered cultivator for this purpose from One Source Tool Supply in Southampton for approximately $20 for half a day.) Space plants 12 to 18 inches apart, digging holes deep enough so that the roots go straight down into the ground. 

After planting and watering in, mulch the plants (traditionally using straw; hence the name strawberry). Doing so will discourage weeds, keep the plants’ roots cool, and allow ripening berries to stay dry and away from the soil. For the first month of growth, remove all flowers, fruits, and runners, thereby allowing the plants to mature. Water regularly to keep them happy. After six weeks you can also apply fertilizer. You can net the plants against birds, if you like — or else simply have fewer berries (and more happy robins and catbirds in your garden). At the end of the season, as winter comes on, cover the bed with more straw to protect these shallow-rooted plants from the winter cold.

My approach to strawberries in the kitchen is to do very little with them, since the ripe, sun-warmed berries are essentially perfect. Wash, slice, and eat them soon after picking. Tate’s Bake Shop in Southampton makes a shortbread that accompanies these berries beautifully. 

Click for recipe

For more information see: time.com/ 4289871/dirty-dozen-pesticides-fruit-vegetable/

One of the best guides to home fruit cultivation in our region comes from Cornell University.

Justin Spring is a writer whose most recent book, “Secret Historian,” was a finalist for the National Book Award. He divides his time between Bridgehampton and New York.

While the culinary world’s emphasis on locally sourced ingredients shows no sign of abating, the ingredients and techniques of global cuisine are increasingly important to the chef community, as exemplified by the presence at the Stony Brook Southampton Food Lab’s upcoming conference of Deuki Hong, a 25-year-old chef at one of New York’s hottest Korean restaurants. 

The Food Lab, launched in the fall of 2014 as a center for food-related information, education, and business development, with a particular focus on the East End’s burgeoning culinary community, will hold its second annual confab at the Southampton campus from Friday, June 3, through June 5.

The keynote speaker at the conference, titled “Future of Food — Trends, Tastes, and Directions: Who’s Shaping Them and Where They’re Heading,” will be Carla Hall, co-host of ABC-TV’s “The Chew,” former “Top Chef” and “Top Chef All-Stars” competitor, and soon-to-be proprietor of Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen, which will open in Brooklyn next month.

“Last year’s conference was predominantly about growing a food business,” said Geoffrey Drummond, executive director of the lab and producer-director of culinary programs for television for some 30 years. “This year’s is about trends and tastes — where are they going, who’s driving them, and what things are happening now and in the future.”

The conference’s seven panels will include chefs, food writers, journalists, professors, and food and beverage industry executives, among them the East End culinary luminaries Kathleen King of Tate’s Bake Shop, Brian Halweil, editor of Edible East End, Michael Cinque, owner of Amagansett Wines and Spirits, Colin Ambrose, chef/owner of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, John Liegey, founder of Greenport Harbor Brewing Co., and Laura Donnelly, food writer for The Star, who will interview Ms. Hall.

“I want to talk about some of the expectations I think were placed on me unknowingly, and what I have learned, and the importance of authenticity,” said Ms. Hall. “Sometimes you look at other people and think, I need to be like that, and you forget to look at yourself and why you are here and what you’re supposed to be doing. I’m going to talk about that, and some of the challenges I have faced matriculating through this path.”

While the conference, with participants such as Eric Ripert, Le Bernardin’s chef; Jeffrey Zurofsky, founder and C.E.O. of Witchcraft and Riverpark restaurants; Andy Arons, founder and C.E.O. of Gourmet Garage, and Susan Spungen, culinary consultant and former food editor of Martha Stewart Living, is perhaps the Food Lab’s most visible component, much more is percolating on the campus.

In partnership with the Amagansett Food Institute and its South Fork Kitchens incubator program, the Food Lab provides small-batch food production space, entrepreneurial training, and technical assistance to food businesses and food-related enterprises. 

“The kitchen facility is a tremendous asset and resource,” said Mr. Drummond. “We have this amazing, health department-certified back kitchen, which functions primarily as an incubator for new business, and we hope to bring more people in.”

The front kitchen is a food service operation for Stony Brook Southampton students and faculty. “We’d like to give it a much broader reach, to really elevate the restaurant to make it an attractive place people from off campus will want to come to for lunch.”

Another initiative, which Mr. Halweil has been pursuing, is teaching courses in basic food literacy, nutrition, and even shopping skills to different groups, such as health care workers. “What I foresee is ultimately creating a media resource,” said Mr. Drummond, “because I come from decades of doing food media. We’ve been doing stage one of the logistics of putting together ideas about how to take Food Lab and make it go beyond the conference to become a hub of communication and conversation for distributing information about food education issues.”

One of the panels in this year’s conference is titled “What’s Next? Trends in Food Tech and Service.” One panelist, Jonah Rider, is a recent graduate of Columbia University who opened a supper club in university housing, with long waiting lists for reservations. “He’s approaching food from a kind of social side, he’s almost treating it as performance.” 

Mr. Drummond also cited the increasing importance of global influences on the culinary community. Mr. Hong will be one of the chef panelists,  along with Matt Rodbard, a food journalist and co-author with Mr. Hong of “Koreatown: A Cookbook.”

“There are new ingredients, new techniques, new tastes,” said Mr. Drummond. “These things all cross over. When you go to an incubator, there’s always someone making kim chi. So, global influence is one of the big topics.”

Ms. Hall said of the conference, “Sometimes we’re really isolated in terms of the things we go through. That’s why when I do things like this conference, I try to be as honest as possible about the experiences that I’ve had, the ups as 

well as the downs. Sometimes people think it’s all roses. So, I love hearing other people’s stories. I think, ‘Oh, I’m not by myself!’ ”

Admission to the conference is $150. Students and farmers can attend for $75. Tickets to Saturday night’s dinner only, which will be prepared by Mr. Ambrose, are $75. Complete information can be found at thefoodlab.org/conference.

New Food Show

Steve Haweeli, the founder of WordHampton Public Relations and an avowed foodie, is the host of a new show on LTV, East Hampton’s local cable TV provider. In each episode, Mr. Haweeli, with two guests involved in the food industry, will discuss local food, farms, restaurants, and culinary world personalities. The pilot episode featured two representatives of Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton, Mark Smith, an owner, and Joseph Realmuto, the executive chef. The show, called foodTALK, will air on Thursdays at 12:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and on Fridays at 7:30 a.m. It may also be viewed online at ltveh.org.

Getting a Reservation

Speaking of Nick and Toni’s, where tables are at a premium during the season, the restaurant has moved to an online reservation system administered through Resy. The Resy system can be accessed through a link on the restaurant’s website, at Resy.com, or through an app.

Food Lab Conference

The second annual Food Lab conference will take place tomorrow through Sunday at Stony Brook Southampton, sponsored by Slow Food East End. The conference includes workshops and panel discussions on a variety of food business topics, along with a keynote address by Carla Hall, a host of the ABC-TV series “The Chew.”  A kick-off cocktail reception will be held tomorrow night, and a gala dinner, catered by Colin Ambrose of Estia’s Little Kitchen, is planned for Saturday.

Now at Ruschmeyer’s

Savannah Jordan, the new executive chef at Ruschmeyer’s in Montauk, has come from Virginia, an East Village bistro, to revamp the menu at the restaurant to include some of Virginia’s signature dishes.

Kid Cooks

Speaking of “The Chew,” a film crew from the show recently spent three days at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton documenting the school’s culinary arts and gardening programs. They filmed students ages 7 to 14 making bread, pesto, and mozzarella, after planning a menu and harvesting kale and salad greens. Students in the school’s filmmaking class apprenticed with the professional crew. The segment will air on “The Chew” on ABC on Tuesday at 1 p.m. 

New in Southampton

Zach Erdem, the restaurateur behind 75 Main in Southampton and a new club called AM, has opened Kozu, a restaurant that offers Japanese cuisine and sushi with Peruvian influences. The head chef, John Keller, is formerly of Nobu; the sous chef, George Nikolo­polous, worked at Le Bernardin, and the sushi chef, Joseph Kim, is formerly of Morimoto. The establishment, on Southampton’s Main Street, includes a lounge that will be open Thursdays through Saturdays and feature well-known D.J.s from around the world, and a boutique hotel. Brunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays throughout June, featuring a live D.J., and dinner will be served nightly from 5 to midnight.

Union Cantina

Also in Southampton this summer, Union Cantina will open in the Bowden Square space that was formerly the Southampton Publick House. Principals from the Southampton Social Club — its owners, Ian Duke and David Hitly, and its executive chef, Scott Kampf — have teamed up to create an “innovative, modern” Mexican eatery, according to a press release. The restaurant will be open year round for lunch and dinner and for a Saturday and Sunday “bottomless brunch.” Its 400 Rabbits Tequila Bar will carry more than 100 types of tequila. 

Summer Happy Hour

The new season brings new happy hour specials at Townline BBQ in Sagaponack, Mondays through Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m. at the bar. Besides free games of pool, the afternoon specials include deals on beer, shots, and cocktails, including margaritas, and snacks such as nachos, wings, warm pretzels, and hushpuppies.

Specials at 1770

  Specials at the 1770 House in East Hampton include a $35 three-course prix fixe offered through next Thursday, with the exception of Friday and Saturday nights. At the inn’s tiny downstairs tavern, the menu tonight and next Thursday will include $17.70 entrees, with choices including burger or meatloaf plates, chicken parmigiana, and Korean barbecue pork ribs. There will also be specials on wines by the glass and beer.

The farmers markets have opened for the season, and while many visitors associate them with the bountiful berries, corn, and tomatoes of mid to late-summer, right now is a glorious time. There are tender stalks of freshly picked asparagus, bright peonies, crisp spinach and lettuce, plants to help you to get started on your own garden, mushrooms, honey, cheese, chickens, and so much more.  

There are 14 farmers markets open between Thursdays and Sundays all over the East End and in Westhampton Beach. The market at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. has 23 vendors. You can find everything from Greg Hollmann of Sharp Hamptons ready to sharpen your Wusthofs to Abra Morawiec of Feisty Acres Farms selling game birds and quail eggs. Ms. Morawiec has trained her quail to lay eggs in buckets, which makes her the envy of many other poultry and egg producers. She is also raising bobwhites to be released back into the wild to help lessen our insanely huge deer tick population.

Everyone who patronizes farmers markets has his or her favorite. My friends Steven and Stephanie are partial to the Hayground School’s, open from 3 to 6:30 p.m., because, they say, “it’s a happening.” I like Saturdays in Sag Harbor because I can walk there, but the Friday market at Nick and Toni’s is another favorite because it has Sang Lee and Balsam Farms participating. Sang Lee has the best ginger scallion dip; I believe it’s what got my son to eat his crudités from a very young age.

One of my favorite pastimes is throwing “Lightning Round” questions (a la Jim Cramer of “Mad Money” on CNBC) at the farmers and vendors. “What should I do with these leeks? What would you do with this hot chili oil?” They are never at a loss for ideas and most often they include one another’s ingredients.

David Falkowski of Open Minded Organics is a true gourmet and always has brilliant ideas. “Cook the leeks with small shiitake caps in a hot pan, wrap them in a corn tortilla with melted mozzarella cheese.” Yes, he is now making mozzarella! One of my favorite recommendations from David are his oyster mushrooms cooked on the grill with Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and garlic. Your meat-eater friends will not miss their porterhouse steak when they taste this crisp-on-the-outside, chewy-in-the-middle treat.

Mario Pecoraro of Arlotta olive oils gave me one of the best ideas I have tried in years. He recommended a Browder’s bird, washed, dried, salted, and then rubbed with his hot pepper oil, sprinkled with herbes de Provence, and baked for an hour and 20 minutes. I combined this with spinach from Open Minded Organics, Sungold cherry tomatoes from Wickham’s Farm, and croutons made from Blue Duck Bakery bread. The hot pepper oil lost some of its heat but remained piquant, with the herbs and salt adding just enough flavor to enhance the very chicken-y chicken.

Sean O’Brien of Josephine’s Feast (Josephine is his daughter; his wife, Laura, is the chef who makes wild beach plum preserves, purple carrot relish, chocolate habanero ketchup, and more) told me the ketchup can be eaten on its own or mixed with avocado for a dip. It is sweetened with apples from Falkowski farms.

When I stopped by Maggie Mc­Donough’s Talk Treats to Me, I learned a lot. She makes dehydrated doggie treats (chicken, liver, etc.) and also dehydrates watermelon, bananas, apples, and pineapples. These are meant for dogs, but people can eat them, too. After witnessing someone at the Hampton Classic Horse Show feeding a horse Cap’n Crunch cereal on top of a cannoli (horrors!), she developed horse treats with yams and beets. Apparently, a lot of horses have become diabetic due to all the sugar cubes and peppermint Lifesavers they’ve been fed. So Ms. McDonough felt compelled to come up with a healthier alternative.

Sometimes I come up with a recipe made with one of the farmer’s or vendor’s bounty and I bring him or her a sample, like a salad dressing for Mr. Pecoraro made with his blood orange oil mixed with shallots and herbs. This occasionally gets me a discount. . . . One time I spent 20 minutes with Steven Judson of Amagansett Sea Salt trying to come up with new formulas and names for his salts. “I’m a writer! I’m clever! I cook!” I told him, “You should make a pink salt and call it ‘Sunset Beach!’ ” He gently informed me that all of his salts are inspired by personal experiences. For instance, one of the salt flavors he invented came about after a disappointing day of no surf in Montauk. The solution? Spend the day drinking mojitos!

There are plenty of new vendors at the markets, such as the Clarkson Avenue Crumb Cake Co., selling the best crumb cake I’ve ever tasted; Hillock Distillery, selling high end bourbon, rye, and single malt whiskey made in the Hudson Valley, and, best of all, Peter Ambrose, chef, caterer, restaurateur, selling very reasonably priced and delicious wasabi aioli, white clam sauce, chimichurri, grilled tomato salsa, and more from his new restaurant in Shelter Island Heights, Endless Summer Grille.

I could go on and on and I remain loyal to my favorites: Harissa, Bee’s Needs honey, Mecox Bay Dairy cheeses, Dale and Bette’s arugula, the Seafood Shop, and I am eagerly awaiting Regina Whitney’s tomato pie.

Besides getting the freshest, cleanest food imaginable and supporting farmers, the most fun is seeing what is available and brainstorming over what to make with what you find. Two weeks ago I got puffers from Alex and rolled them in Dale and Bette’s cornmeal seasoned with Old Bay. Last week was the brilliant Browder’s chicken with Arlotta hot pepper oil. Next week, who knows?

Here are some recipes to inspire you after your trip to the farmers markets.

Click for recipes

Reservations are being taken for a wine dinner at Almond in Bridgehampton on June 23 that will pair five courses with different rosé wines from the Channing Daughters Winery, also in Bridgehampton. The menu will feature products from local farms. The cost is $85 plus tax and gratuity. Service will begin at 7 p.m. 

Poetry of Cooking

John Ross, a professional chef, will discuss his cookbook, “The Poetry of Cooking,” at a program at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton at noon on Wednesday. The book features recipes from Mr. Ross’s column in The Suffolk Times and Riverhead News Review papers, along with poems. He will also have a sample of one of his dishes to share. Registration is with the library, by phone, or at myrml.org.

Farmers in Montauk

The Montauk farmers market has its 2016 debut on the Montauk green today from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sponsored by the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, the market helps to raise money for the hamlet’s food pantry; $7,388 was donated last year.  Thirty-five vendors will participate this year. New companies include Clarkson Ave. Crumb Cakes, the Hampton Chocolate Factory, Lady J. Seafood, Pete’s Endless Summer, and the Glowing Tent. 

Food Pantry Farm Gala

The Food Pantry Farm, which raises crops for local food banks on land in East Hampton, will be the beneficiary of a Farm to Fork gala at the Topping Rose House restaurant in Bridgehampton on July 9. Tickets, which are $350 for general admission and $225 for those aged 21 to 30, are on sale and can be reserved at foodpantryfarm.org. 

Chef Jacobs to Redbar

Todd Jacobs is the new executive chef at Redbar Brasserie in Southampton. His Bridgehampton restaurant, Fresh, recently closed, but Mr. Jacobs will add his stamp to the Redbar menu, including vegan dishes and more, featuring local and natural ingredients.

Italian Cooking

Rose Dunphy, a former teacher and the author of five books, will discuss the cuisine of Italy, where she was born, at the Montauk Library on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. and give a cooking demonstration.

At the ripe young age of 23, Jay Astafa is an accomplished vegan chef, owner of his own catering and event company, a consultant for Surf Lodge’s vegan menu, and will be providing the food for the Wellness Foundation’s summer benefit on June 18 at the Mulford Farm in East Hampton.

“I never thought I’d be a vegan chef. I was an aspiring actor. I’ve been a vegetarian, like my mother, for a long time. When I saw the PETA movie about how meat is processed, I became vegan,” he said.

Mr. Astafa had been working at his father’s pizzeria, Three Brothers Pizza, originally in Rockville Centre, now in Farmingdale, since he was 16. But looking at all the meat and cheese-laden pizza pies became frustrating, and he went about educating himself and experimenting with methods of making dairy-free mozzarella, ricotta, even bacon. He convinced his dad to add vegan options at the restaurant. It now has an additional, completely vegan menu, and there is now a Three Brothers Vegan Cafe.

Using chamber vacuum sealers and sous vide cooking (long slow cooking at low temperatures, the food sealed in plastic bags and immersed in water), he creates sashimi out of watermelon, “tuna” out of tomatoes, and bacon out of eggplant. His cashew milk mozzarella is a magical, mystical combination of soaked cashews, water, coconut oil, tapioca starch, kappa carrageenan, and salt, blended and cooked, though it’s actually much more complicated than that.

Another popular item that he swears customers can’t distinguish from meat is barbecued jackfruit tacos. Apparently after cooking, the jackfruit achieves a stringy texture similar to pulled pork. From there he adds the traditional spices, and nobody’s the wiser.

Now I’m pretty sure my editor assigned this story to me because I struggle with vegan recipes and vegan substitutions. I kind of feel like one should just give up on bacon and cheese (if you are so inclined, I am not) rather than eat a sad soy imitation. I have attempted cauliflower pizza crust and coconut oil piecrust, cursing the responsible websites and sweating through the recipes to achieve no more than mediocre results. Recently I made some what could have been excellent vegetarian enchiladas with homemade sauce from Hatch chilis I had grilled myself. I decided to try a soy Monterey Jack cheese substitute, thinking, “How bad can it be? I don’t need very much, just something that adds some gooey unctuousness to these enchiladas.” I kid you not, the cheese tasted like rubberized Gerber baby food vanilla pudding, it was that disgusting.

It is clear that Mr. Astafa has the experience, expertise, and equipment to create Parmesan cheese and faux piggy products and sushi from vegetables, and he told me that learning to cook vegan-style is not a matter of restriction and substitution, it is experimenting and exploring.

When I spoke with Douglas Mercer, founder and chairman of the Wellness Foundation, he told me that two things inspired him to encourage others to embrace a healthier lifestyle and eat a plant-based diet. One was personal: the long and slow death of his father at a young age after a series of strokes. The second was a cover photograph from The East Hampton Star in February  2005 of middle school students boycotting the unhealthy foods offered at the school. He said, “If these children can stand up to poor food choices, then so can I.” In the last 11 years, over 8,000 students in our community have participated in the Wellness Foundation’s Healthy Foods for Life program.

“The key focus is educating people so they can make informed decisions. They’ll know what works; then they can decide to make lifestyle changes. The kids are our main focus. The foods we eat have to be satisfying, tasty, economical, and good for us.”

Mr. Mercer is pleased with what the foundation has accomplished locally, but wishes our national health care system were more proactive in teaching prevention of chronic disease through a healthier lifestyle. “Doctors aren’t trained in lifestyle and wellness, but when they see their patients who have participated in our Wellness Challenge” — a six-week course of exercise, diet, and mindfulness — “they are amazed at the results: weight loss, lowered blood pressure and cholesterol, and less need for prescription drugs.”

Looking at Mr. Astafa’s menu for the Wellness Foundation’s benefit and the pictures on his website makes me eager to try his food. It looks whimsical, original, and colorful. At the entrance there will be a vegetable garden with pumpernickel breadcrumb and porcini dust soil. The watering cans will be filled with Green Goddess and ranch dressings. There will be strawberry rhubarb pie pops, beet burgers, melon gazpacho shooters with eggplant bacon, and those crazy sounding barbecued jackfruit tacos with lime crema.

Inspired by the kindness and caring of Mr. Mercer and the playfulness of Mr. Astafa’s cooking, I am tempted to go back to the vegan drawing board. Perhaps if I adopt the Wellness Challenge’s philosophy, “Progress, not perfection,” I’ll have more luck.

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Service Station Opens

Service Station, a new restaurant now open in East Hampton where Nichol’s used to be, is Michael Gluckman’s latest establishment. His earlier restaurants here have included the Lodge, Boathouse, Beachhouse, and Bamboo.

Service Station is open daily, serving lunch and dinner with, according to the restaurateur, “friendly service where the answer is never no.” Its hallmarks are moderate prices and fresh local ingredients. Appetizers start at $10, and entrees top out at $28. Wines by the glass begin at $8, beer at $5. The bar has been redesigned and the dining room reconfigured to become more open. 

Brunch specials are available on Saturdays and Sundays.

Time for Rosé

There will be more than 20 rosé wines to taste during a “pink party” at Domaine Franey Wines and Spirits in East Hampton on Saturday from 3 to 7 p.m. Snacks will be served and a 20-percent discount offered on rosé purchases. The shop is at 459 Pantigo Road, between East Hampton and Amagansett. 

Five rosé wines from the Channing Daughters winery in Bridgehampton will be paired with each course of a dinner at Almond next Thursday at 7 p.m. The evening will begin with hors d’oeuvres, accompanied by a special pink cocktail and followed by salad, gazpacho, pickled Montauk Pearl oysters, pork, a lamb dish with “lambchetta” (prepared like porcetta), and panna cotta for dessert, all from local farms and producers. Reservations are a must. The cost is $85 plus tax and gratuity.

More Rosé

Arbor restaurant in Montauk will also feature summer’s pink wine at its prix fixe weekend brunch. The all-inclusive brunch, served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $28.95 plus tax and gratuity, includes a cocktail (besides rosé, choices include a mimosa, Bellini, or Bloody Mary), a starter, and main course. An a la carte children’s menu will also be offered.

At Momi Ramen

Momi Ramen will celebrate its one-year anniversary in East Hampton tomorrow night from 5 to 10, with a tasting of artisanal sakes. Flights with three different sakes representing unique styles will be offered for $12. 

Pre-Theater Deal

Ticketholders heading to Guild Hall for performances of “The Underpants” can avail themselves of a $40 pre-theater, two-course prix fixe at the 1770 House, with choices from the seasonal a la carte menu that change nightly. The special will be offered on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays until June 26. Orders must be placed by 6:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. curtain time; reservations are required. 

Diners may be seated on the outdoor patio, in the main dining room, or in the inn’s downstairs tavern. Sample menu items include wild arugula and asparagus salad, chilled sweet pea soup, beets with blue cheese, fish entrees, and hand-cut fettucine with house-made local rabbit sausage.

Artistic Menu

The chef at the Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone Inn in East Hampton has crafted a dinner menu of dishes reflecting his interpretation of artwork by Jacob Fellander, an artist from Stockholm who is serving a stint as the inn’s artist-in-residence, which ends on Monday. His work is in a number of collections, including those of Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Swedish royal family.

The menu will include a seared sea scallop starter, a main course of barbecued duck leg with slow-roasted cabbage and yellow-eye beans, and a cherry-vanilla float with cotton candy garnish for dessert. 

Cooking in Bordeaux

Abigail Hitchcock, the chef and owner of Camaje in New York City, who hails from the East End, will lead a cooking adventure in Bordeaux from Sept. 4 to 10. Participants will stay in a 17th-century manor and create French feasts together from ingredients scouted at local markets. 

Bookings can be made at lush-getaways.com­