News For Foodies: Chef Is Honored
Gretchen Menser, who is not only one of the few women chefs on the East End but who has been in her job, at East Hampton's Rowdy Hall, only since last summer, will be the guest chef on Friday, Jan. 9, at the James Beard House in Manhattan.
An invitation to cook at the Beard House is a coveted honor among C.K.O.s, chief kitchen executives.
Ms. Menser will prepare a four-course lunch using many local ingredients. It will begin with wild mushrooms and caramelized sweet potatoes, rolled in red chard leaves, and grilled Long Island duck liver.
Pan-roasted New England shellfish comes next, followed by Amagansett oyster-mushroom salad with preserved goose breast. The main course will be stewed monkfish, with a dessert of cranberry spice cake with hard sauce.
The meal, which will start at noon, costs $45 for members of the James Beard Foundation, $55 for nonmembers. Tickets are available through the foundation, at 167 West 12th Street.
Back in East Hampton, Ms. Menser has added new items to both the lunch and dinner menus at Rowdy Hall.
Lunch, which is served every day, will now include omelettes of the day, a classic Reuben sandwich (corned beef with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese), and grilled knockwurst and bratwurst with sauerkraut and pototoes.
New additions to the restaurant's dinner menu include pan-seared monkfish with Little Neck clams, veal stew, grilled 16-ounce ribeye, grilled leg of lamb, and a vegetarian dish of eggplant, zucchini, dried tomatoes, and yellow squash.
Della Femina on North Main Street in East Hampton has a new, lower-priced bar menu for the winter, with items ranging from $6 to $10.
It includes a green salad, fried calamari, oysters on the half-shell, tomato risotto, spaghetti with baby clams, grilled burger and fries, and side orders of vegetables.
The bar menu will not be served Saturday nights or holidays.
The Maidstone Arms, also in East Hampton, will serve lunch seven days a week through the winter and dinner on Thursday through Sunday night.
In Southampton, 75 Main now offers a self-serve breakfast station Saturday and Sunday mornings, beginning at 9:30.