Chef Tom Colicchio emerged from his low-key existence on the North Fork to showcase some of his favorite local places to eat in a just-released episode of “Where the Chefs Eat” by Condé Nast Traveler.
The digital travel series features renowned chefs exploring local regions and focuses on their food culture away from formal restaurants. The show can be found on Condé Nast’s YouTube channel and on Netflix.
Colicchio co-founded Gramercy Tavern with Danny Meyer in New York City and is the recipient of five James Beard Foundation awards. His Crafted Hospitality group includes restaurants in New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Garden City. He’s also known for the Top Chef and Best New Restaurant television programs, has written several cookbooks, and even made a cameo in an episode of The Simpsons.
Colicchio and his wife Lori have spent summers in their farmhouse in Mattituck for over two decades. The couple are patrons of the three businesses shown in the show: Southold Fish Market (64755 Main Road, Southold, 631-765-3200), Peeko Oysters (900 First Street, New Suffolk, 631-765-7994) and the Village Cheese Shop (105 Love Lane, Mattituck, 631-298-8556).
Clockwise from left: Michael Affatato of the Village Cheese Shop, Peter Stein of Peeko Oysters and Charlie Manwaring of Southold Fish Market were all visited by chef Tom Colicchio for the “Where the Chefs Eat” series from Condé Nast Traveler. (Photo credit: David Benthal)
“It was wonderful, a lot of fun,” says Michael Affatato of filming a segment of the show at his store, the Village Cheese Shop. “It was a very impressive production; we’ve done a fair amount of filming, and I’ve never seen so much equipment and [so many] people. It was full-on movie set material.”
It took at least five production people, including two enormous cameras, to shoot the segment, “complete with someone with a clipboard saying ‘action,’” says Affatato.
Colicchio and his crew were at the shop for about two and a half hours, which produced seven minutes of film.
In the cheese shop segment, the two discussed several different kinds of cheese on offer, leading with a local goat cheese from Catapano Dairy Farm (33705 Sound Ave., Peconic, 631-765-8042).
“Tom was very chatty, he was in his happy place,” Affatato says. The cheese shop owner reports that he’s gotten many phone calls, emails, and customers congratulating him after seeing the episode, even though it had only been out for 24 hours (the show was released mid-day on August 18).
Over at Southold Seafood Market, Colicchio sat down with owner Charlie Manwaring and sampled blowfish from Peconic Bay (“It’s like a chicken wing,” Manwaring says), a fried oyster sandwich and the market’s famous seafood stuffies — similar to a baked clam, but stuffed with lobster, shrimp, clams and scallops.
“Tom and I are good friends,” says Manwaring. “I’ve known him for 20 years — he used to come to my old shop. We always talk about fishing; he loves to fish.” In the video, Colicchio mentions that he learned to fish as a boy on his grandfather’s boat, making trips out of Barnegat Bay, N.J.
Peeko Oysters, owned by Peter Stein, also rated as one of Colicchio’s favorite places. In the video, the chef notes that he’s been a Peeko customer for about ten years, before helping Stein carry a heavy tote of oysters down his New Suffolk dock; Stein tells Colicchio that Peeko can harvest 45,000 oysters in an hour.
The duo sit down waterside to eat a dozen oysters on the half shell, with a little cranberry horseradish from Schmidt’s Farm and fresh lemon. “I don’t think that it gets better than just a couple of drops of lemon juice and an oyster,” says Stein; “that’s summer right there.”
“Tom and I have known each other for several years,” says Stein. As far as the making of the video goes, Stein says that “it’s fun to be part of something like this and a testament to the amazing producers, growers and artisans we have across the community.”
Sonja Derr, Peeko’s director of marketing, notes that “it was a really fun day and some of our younger team members got to meet a world-renowned chef — not a bad day at the office!”
The video ends in Colicchio’s garden in Mattituck, which he created from a neglected area behind his house; he grows arugula, lettuces, kale, carrots, beets, turnips, strawberries and more.
“This is my happy place,” he says in the video. “There’s something about digging in the dirt; it relaxes me,” Colicchio continues. “I just love it out here.”
To see Colicchio’s take on why the North Fork’s food scene is so special, watch the video on Netflix or visit the show’s YouTube channel here.
