I drew a blank when my editor asked me to pick a favorite recipe from the year’s Cook This Now! column. How could I possibly pick just one?
I immediately was reminded of an expression she told me she learned as a journalist, “kill all your little darlings,” referring to editing your favorite sentences or photos to the cutting room floor when, perhaps, they don’t serve the story or project at hand. Magazines are a brutal business.
Instead, being a photographer, I went into collage mode, allowing me to put nine images in a grid and show as many of my favorites as possible. That went further into seasonal collages since all the recipes in Cook This Now! celebrate supporting locally sourced ingredients.
Looking back at all the images taken this past year for this column reminded me of how generous chefs are. They are always willing to help explain the steps in a recipe and share where they source and what to look for when selecting ingredients. Having photographed many contributing chefs through the years, I found a familiarity when conducting the interviews, resulting in conversational pull quotes that made the column feel real.
When my editor found out I dabbled in writing this past February, she asked me if I would like to “take a stab” (I told you: magazines are brutal) at Cook This Now!, which Southforker initially planned as a weekly online column.
My first victim (no pun intended) was Mary Schoenlein of the sorely missed bakery and lunch spot Mary’s Marvelous in East Hampton. The recipe and story behind her robust mulligatawny soup proved to be a hit, so much so I was asked to keep going.
Next up was renowned chef Jeremy Blutstein and his recipe for fluke crudo. Being one of the first photographers to cover Mavericks in Montauk for Southforker was a true honor, and Blutstein, with an unwavering passion for localism, made for a great interview, reiterating that crudo is “visually, a lot more complex than it is.”
Momentum, word of mouth, and a beautifully designed web template, Cook This Now! gained popularity and was added to the print issue, a personal dream come true.
What followed was a floodgate of delicious recipes from some of the South Forks’ most talented array of chefs, restaurants, and home cooks, including Terry Harwood, Hamptons Aristocrat, Buckley’s Inn Between, Hen of The Woods, Florence Fabricant, The Culinistas, Calissa, Phillipe Corbet, The Pridwin, Cameron Prather, Il Buco al Mare, Meghan Huylo, Nicholas Vogel, Michael Ayoub, Dan Rizzie, Alex Bujoreanu, Seasoned Fork, Laurent Tourondel, Stefanie Sacks, Stefano Mastracchio, Joe Realmuto, Sandy Bermudez, Eataly, Hampton Maid, Paul Del Favero, Jason Weiner, and Eric Ripert.
I hope the column continues to inspire home cooks (like myself and my editor, who have contributed a few of our recipes) to try new techniques and celebrate the South Fork for all of the abundance it offers.
Cheers to 2024!
