HUDSON VALLEY DINING & CAN’T MISS ART EXHIBITS THROUGHOUT THE CORRIDOR

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Anchor Business Away How Charlie Gibson on corporate his home away execs are from home helping the world

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Garden of Eating the time, but he was quietly playing a The Hudson role that would help give the region a Valley is one of new identity. the preeminent Today in the Hudson Valley, you’ll find the most prestigious cooking food regions in I pull up a wooden bar stool. We order a school in the country; a culinary and the world duck confi t terrine with dried cherries, agricultural policy center; nationally a watercress salad with a locally made celebrated artisanal cheese makers and BY LIZ JOHNSON artisanal blue cheese, grilled leeks with bread bakers; world-class distilleries PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVEN VOTE smoked tongue and local fi ngerling and wineries; organic farms that supply potato chips, and two delicious entrees: produce and meat to the best restau- isteak made from locally raised Angus rants in ; and some of the beef and duck with the fi rst-of-the- best chefs in America. spring artichokes. And, more and more, there are We drink a simple local red wine and farmers markets, local wine shops and fi nish with a plate of cheese. neighborhood places like Swoon bring- This wasn’t some fancy-pants ing delicious food to everyone. Even -chic restaurant. Nor was it early food pioneers are making changes a humble hillside café in Europe. I was to keep up with the new demand. The eating at Swoon Kitchenbar, a neighbor- Hudson Valley is no longer a region hood restaurant in the Hudson Valley known just for apples and antiques. It of upstate New York. has become a culinary destination. The owners—Jeff rey Gimmel and Nina Bachinsky-Gimmel—make it a A Long Time Coming point to use local, seasonal ingredients. It hasn’t happened overnight. Farm- On the back of the menu you’ll fi nd the ers have been working the land since provenance of everything from the beef before the American Revolution. Chefs (North Wind Farm in Tivoli) to the fl ow- have been towing the natural-organic ers on the table (Artworks in Saugerties). line since its nascent days in the hippie It’s almost a given these days that 1960s. In the ’90s, boutique farms and chefs will cite their sources. But when food artisans started setting up shop. Travel guide chef Peter X. Kelly opened his fi rst Hud- But think of a thermometer, and put to the Hudson son Valley restaurant in 1983, the only Manhattan at the bulb: The Hudson Valley at arrive magazine.com way he could get fresh local produce was Valley food scene is reaching its boiling to buy it out of the back of a farmer’s sta- point. Some would say it’s bubbling over. tion wagon. “I’m so glad that it’s fi nally percolated “They used to drive down,” he says. up,” says Janet Crawshaw, the publisher “They had apples, squashes, herbs. The of The Valley Table, a magazine that fea- fi shermen used to bring me shad roe.” tures the food, farms and restaurants By cooking locally in season, Kelly —who now owns four restaurants— began to build his reputation as a Hud- son Valley chef. He didn’t know it at

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FdAA0908_68-74_Cafe_TK.indd 68 8/13/08 2:24:39 PM Opposite page: Jessica Applestone of Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats. This page: Joshua Applestone in their modern country- inspired store.

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FdAA0908_68-74_Cafe_TK.indd 69 8/13/08 2:25:29 PM of the region. She and her partner, Jerry in Poughkeepsie. The food-obsessed Novesky, started the magazine 10 years tourist could organize a week’s worth of ago as a modest 32-page black-and- activities, from a cooking course at the white quarterly. Now they publish fi ve Culinary Institute of America in Hyde full-color issues a year, 96-plus pages Park to a tour of the region’s farms, each. “Over the past 10 years, we’ve restaurants and shops. seen [the region] grow and mature into Why not start with Fleisher’s? a food destination,” she says. Take the Hudson Valley Wine & Food The Ultimate Destination Fest, for example. It was held in a fi eld Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats, on a farm its fi rst year (2001), and barely a modern country butcher shop with 2,000 people showed up, says Jennifer outposts in Rhinebeck and Kingston, is Cristaldi, an organizer. This year, the like a microcosm of the Hudson Valley festival—Sept. 6 and 7—is taking over itself. Since it opened four years ago it the 168-acre Dutchess County Fair- has exploded in popularity because of grounds and 12,000 people are expected its great-tasting, local food.

Left to right: John Novi, chef at to attend. Gourmet magazine is a spon- Joshua and Jessica Applestone—he a Dupuy Canal House; Dupuy Canal House; Je! rey Gimmel, Swoon sor. The Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in former vegan, she a former vegetarian— Kitchenbar; fare at Swoon. Saugerties (Sept. 27 and 28), is expected opened the Kingston shop because Jessi- to draw more than 50,000 people. ca wanted to venture off her vegetarian “The food aspect really has come of diet, but the couple couldn’t fi nd a way age,” says Cristaldi. to buy raised-right meat without order- That sentiment is echoed through- ing a whole animal. out the valley—no matter what aspect “Since we couldn’t fi nd that, we of the food scene people are exploring. fi gured there must be other people like The casual gourmet might grab a picnic me in the world,” she says. lunch from Mint, the eclectic gourmet Now they source pork, beef, lamb shop in Tarrytown, and kick back on and poultry from “open pastures of the grassy hills of Brotherhood Winery small farms in New York,” including for a concert. The curious adventurer Sir William Farm in Craryville and could spend the morning foraging for Meiller Farm in Pine Plains, and sell it wild mushrooms in the forested parks of retail and to restaurants such as Mario Westchester, and the afternoon learning Batali’s Casa Mono in Manhattan, and to make cheese at Sprout Creek Farm ’s Blue Hill in Manhattan

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FdAA0908_68-74_Cafe_TK.indd 70 8/13/08 2:26:55 PM The Tavern in Garrison. Inset: Joe Seranto, sous chef at Tavern in Garrison.

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FdAA0908_68-74_Cafe_TK.indd 71 8/13/08 2:28:22 PM DINE OUT, new york! Left to right: Chef Kenneth Breiman, executive chef at X20 Xaviars; appetizer of lobster crepe with mascarpone and chives

and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Bring in this ad for priority Pocantico Hills. “People come from all over because seating and enjoy a 15% nobody does what we do,” says Jes- savings at any of the following sica. “Everything in our shop comes landmark restaurants… from no more than three hours away— cheese, eggs, milk, beef, lamb, pork. Madison Square Garden U 33rd St. & 8th Ave. People who are trying to eat local, Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse (L+D*) U 212-563-4444 organic, sustainable—we are the Voted one of the Top 10 Best Steakhouses in NYC ultimate destination.” (*Starting at 8 pm) Even four years ago, however, it was a struggle to explain the concept. Macy’s U 34th St. between Broadway & 7th Ave. “We were ahead of our time,” she Macy’s Cellar Bar & Grill (L+D) U 212-868-3001 says. “People were getting it, but they Delectable American Cuisine weren’t getting it the way they get it now. MetLife Building U 45th St. & Park Ave. [Author] Michael Pollan, the mad cow scares, [nutrition expert] Marion Nestle Café Centro (B+D) U 212-818-1222 Classic Parisian Brasserie have made a real diff erence in the way

Naples 45 (B+D) U 212-972-7001 people are thinking about their food.” Authentic Neapolitan Pizza, Pasta & Seafood When it comes to Hudson Valley Westchester. In 1989, he became the Cucina & Co. (B+L+D) U 212-682-2700 food, there are heroes, too. Certainly the chef at the Hudson River Club in lower Gourmet Café and Marketplace Manhattan chefs who have been shop- Manhattan and insisted on using Hud- ping at the Union Square Greenmarket son Valley meats and produce—a radical West 57th St. between 6th Ave. & 7th Ave. give Hudson Valley farmers a reason to move at a time when people wanted their Brasserie 8 ½ (D) U 212-829-0812 stay small. Larry Forgione, a Culinary food to come via airplane from exotic “Nouvelle” French Cuisine Institute of America graduate, sourced locations so they could have raspberries from the Hudson Valley much of his in January. East 53rd St. between Park Ave. & Lexington Ave. food for An American Place, a Manhat- In 1994, Malouf published The Brasserie (D) U 212-751-4840 Contemporary French Fare tan restaurant that celebrated regional Hudson River Valley Cookbook with cooking. He even opened his own Molly Finn. Malouf thinks he and a few chicken farm in Warwick and is said to other chefs—like Forgione, Novi, Ric have coined the phrase “free range.” Orlando of New World Home Cooking But John Novi may have planted the in Saugerties, and Peter Kelly, whose seed. When he opened his Dupuy Canal newest restaurant is X20 Xaviars on the House in the late ’60s he was turning Hudson in Yonkers—helped to create a )\GITXMSREP*SSH+IRYMRI,SWTMXEPMX] to the seasonal food of the valley for platform that has become a launching 0ERHQEVO0SGEXMSRW his inspiration. In 1970, the late Craig pad for high-quality restaurants. Claiborne gave the restaurant four stars “Now you’ll see [the Hudson Valley] re- www.patinagroup.com in The New York Times, calling it “one of ally become a world-class region,” he says. the most interesting and best suburban Expires: 11.31.2008 B=Breakfast L=Lunch D=Dinner restaurants in America.” Moving On Up Save $50 on your Birthday Dinner with Us! Chef Waldy Malouf, who has been World-class cooking is already easy to Sign up to receive your compli- around the Hudson Valley food scene fi nd. Manhattan chefs are moving up- mentary Birthday Certificate, since he graduated from the Culinary river or opening second restaurants. Neil which you can use at any one Institute of America in 1975, followed Ferguson of Allen & Delancey in Manhat- of our participating restaurants. Novi’s lead. From 1982 to 1989, he was tan, a former Gordon Ramsay protégé, To get yours, please visit: cooking with local products at La Cre- also brings his light touch with ingredi- www.dine-outny.com/signup.html maillere restaurant in rural northern ents to Monteverde at Oldstone Manor

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FdAA0908_68-74_Cafe_TK.indd 72 8/13/08 2:31:37 PM ASK LENNY

the restaurant. Both the provenance of the land and the talent of the chef have been drawing national attention since the center’s opening in 2004. A trip to explore Stone Barns led The Washington Post to call the Hudson Valley “the salad bowl of New York.” And the restaurant and farm have been featured in every glossy food and lifestyle magazine, AJ Maxwell’s proprietor Lenny Passerelli was from Martha Stewart Living to Town & told when he was a young boy to not go into the Country. Since then, Barber has become family business of restaurant ownership. His a hero to the locavore movement, shar- father wanted him to be a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant. Lenny feels he knows more than ing his knowledge through his pots and any established professional when it comes to pans and his pen. (He writes on every- life’s unimportant facets, so he decided to steer clear of his dad’s advice and become a restau- thing from how to cook caulifl ower to rateur. Visit him at AJ Maxwell’s Steakhouse, op-ed pieces on the politics of food.) where the proprietor is happily solving guest’s “This region was carved out by farm- problems while spewing his daily sermon on the little things in life that matter most. ers,” Barber says, “the open space pre- served through animal husbandry and Q: I am celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary agriculture. Which means the places that and will be planning a party at my house. Is there a special dish that I can cook my wife for breakfast have grown out of the landscape—farms, the next morning? vineyards, restaurants—also support the John, Philadelphia,Pa

landscape. Great gastronomy, entertain- Lenny: John, AJ Maxwell’s has a dish on their new ment and responsibility are all inter- breakfast menu called “The Hangover”. It’s de- twined. What’s tastier than that?” signed to be enjoyed after getting too toasted the prior evening! You take 2 eggs per person, separate in Cortlandt Manor. Eric Gabrynowicz, But the big and fl ashy institutions the yolks and whites, and fry the whites in a pan. a Hudson Valley native, recently moved aren’t the only reason to celebrate the Cook some home fries and make sure they are pip- ing hot so you can pile them on the whites when from sous chef at Union Square Cafe in Hudson Valley as a food destination. they are !nished cooking. Then, smear the raw Manhattan to chef at Tavern in Garrison, Up and down the river, mom-and-pop yolks into the hash browns. Top it off with bacon, where he serves gutsy comfort food. cafés serve terrifi c local food, and my sausage or roast beef hash, then a side of toast. If you want, you can view the video on our website, David Wurth, formerly chef de cuisine at meal at Swoon could have been mis- which will show you exactly how to make this hang- Savoy, a farm-to-table pioneer in Man- taken for a Michelin one-star in France. over cure. Just visit ajmaxwells.com. hattan, now cooks simple, rustic dishes A bartender in a chambray shirt and red Q: Lenny- What do you like to do on a day off ? at Local 111 in Philmont. suspenders cheerfully served my meal, Maggie, New York, NY But perhaps the best-known chef— off ering the same kind of laid-back and L: That’s easy - hang out with my kids on the couch, and an outspoken proponent of farm- satisfying experience you might dis- relax and tell them not to be a restaurateur! to-fork eating—is Dan Barber, who with cover at a table for two in the window at his brother and sister-in-law owns Blue Cafe Tamayo in Saugerties, or chatting Q: Len, my wife has been nagging me to junk my boxers and get briefs. I won’t do a thing until I ask Hill at Stone Barns. He gets many of his with owner Michael Gross about dessert Lenny! Thanks. ingredients from Stone Barns Center for wines at Relish in Sparkill. Jim, Baltimore, MD Food & Agriculture, and his deceptively “I think it’s the number of choices we L: Jim, this depends on the situation. Why don’t simple cooking can both surprise you have now ... the number of restaurants you add briefs to your repertoire while keeping the (e.g., radishes on a fence is a dish of just and markets,” says Crawshaw of The Val- boxers? Call it a compromise. Wear the boxers for radishes and salt, served on double- ley Table. “We’ve reached critical mass.” black tie affairs and save the briefs for casual nights. pronged tines on a board) and make Farmers markets have grown expo- Have a question for Lenny? Send them to [email protected] your heart skip a beat (e.g., a soft farm nentially, too. (There are now more than The best question will receive a egg over delicate greens with pork belly). 70 in the region.) Distilleries like Tuthill- 100 dollar gift certificate. Stone Barns Center is an organic town Spirits, known for its bourbon and AJ Maxwell’s is now opened for breakfast. farm and education center that cel- rum, and American Fruits from War- ebrates local food and farms and teaches wick Valley Winery, known for its eau visitors the advantages of learning de vie, are taking their place on cocktail where your food comes from. Three menus throughout the country. 57 West 48th Street (bet 5th and 6th Avenue) stately stone barns—formerly the Rock- And early pioneers are keeping up 212-262-6200 • ajmaxwells.com efellers’—are home to the center and with the change in tastes. Artisanal

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FdAA0908_68-74_Cafe_TK.indd 73 8/13/08 3:34:31 PM Premium Ergonomic TaskSeating

EZ2 model EZ2MB model EZ2MBHR model Baby lambs at Old Chatham • Full features • Omni directional • Mesh back Sheepherding Company in Chatham • Cradle lumbar ball allows lumbar to • Ergonomic support adapt to movement adjustment Retail $949 Retail $1,141 Retail $1,194 bread baker Dan Leader of Bread Alone, NOW ONLY NOW ONLY NOW ONLY which opened in 1983, just expanded his Rhinebeck bakery into a full-fl edged Free Shipping! Free Shipping! Free Shipping! bistro and recently published a book, Panini. Tom and Nancy Clark, who since 866 474-8748 1997 have been making award-winning www.e-chairusa.com farmstead Camembert at Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in Chatham, using milk from the sheep that graze their 600-acre farm, went national with their yogurt last year and are now working on a blue cheese. Guy Jones, who for 28 years has been raising organic produce on his Blooming Hill Farm in Blooming Grove, is bringing people together with farm dinners under the stars, served at long tables in his fi elds. “We are so diverse,” says Eve Felder, associate dean for culinary arts at the Culinary Institute of America. According to Felder, it’s not just grapes, as found in Napa Valley. There are farmers with both fruit trees and fi elds of produce. Cheese makers who raise goats, cows and sheep. And we no longer have to rely on chefs to buy the products out of the back of a truck. You have your choice: Browse in a local gourmet shop like Random Harvest in Craryville, or just walk up to Sir William farm and slide your cash in the honor box. You’ll have the same cheese and meat that are served at the best restaurants in Manhattan. Or, the next time you’re in the area, pull up a bar stool at the nearest neighborhood restaurant and order the duck terrine. Then raise your glass and propose a toast: The Hudson Valley has arrived.

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