If you’ve ever enjoyed the snappy crunch of chef Cheryl Stair’s homemade potato chips at an Art of Eating catered event, you know how thoroughly irresistible they are. With the holidays and entertaining season hot on our heels, Stair and her partner in business and life, John Kowalenko, are releasing their hand-made, small batch Art of Eating potato chips in both large (for all those big gatherings you have coming up) and small (gifts!!) format.
Made from local potatoes, Stair cooks them to the perfect, crispy texture, drains them and lets them dry. Before packaging, she judiciously sprinkles them with a just-right amount of sea salt. There are three flavors, too: deliciously plain, garlic and parsley (because isn’t that just the best combo on hot taters?) and sweet potato.
“It started when one client wanted homemade potato chips for their party, and we said okay. We found some local potatoes we liked and tried four or five different kinds before we settled on the one that was best,” says Kowalenko.
They were such a hit at the party, Stair and Kowalenko started adding them to the bar menu at all of their catered events, and crunchy word traveled. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Milk Pail in Water Mill asked if they could bag them and sell them in the store. Meanwhile, Stair started experimenting with a couple of other flavors.
“We had all these great local sweet potatoes from Ian [Calder-Piedmonte] at Balsam Farms, and we added those to the line, which really took off,” Kowalenko says. “Then we thought, mmmm, garlic and parsley would be good, too! And that’s how we ended up with the trio of chips.”
Right now, you can buy them either by the pound (for $55/lb — sounds pricey, but that’s a lot of chips!), in single-serve gift sizes ($12 for 3.75 oz), in a cute little chip-tastic trio of all three flavors ($35) or by the six pack ($69). Where to get ’em? The website is a great place to start (click here), but because Art of Eating has long been a staunch supporter of locally grown goods, several farm stands on the South Fork will be featuring them, too — among them, Milk Pail, Amber Waves Farm and Balsam Farms, as well as the Southampton shop Farm and Forage.
The Art of Eating (264 Butter Lane, Bridgehampton, 631-267-2411) is Stair and Kowalenko’s joint edible love letter to the East End. Formed nearly 40 years ago, they’ve been delighting the palates and parties of North and South forkers for decades, with no sign of losing their freshness or fine culinary craftiness borne of their Bridgehampton-based digs. The new line of potato chips are available now — grab yourself a bag or, better yet, a trio because we bet you can’t eat just one.
