THE CHEF'S HOLIDAY

Hot Chocolate, as prepared by Chef Michael Rozzi at the 1770 House in East Hampton, New York, photographed on October 29th, 2019

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

Indulgence and the holidays go hand in hand — and when it comes to food, these East End chefs wouldn't dream of skimping. Each employs their culinary ingenuity to create winter menus that combine the savory meat, seafood and pasta dishes associated with the season with the freshness of local fruits and vegetables, resulting in a December meal sure to be remembered.
The decadence doesn't stop once they leave the restaurant. At home, these chefs continue to be the stars of their kitchens, nourishing friends, family and themselves the same way they do guests at their establishments the other 364 days of the year.
Whether it's forming the perfect potato latke or eating their way through the Feast of the Seven Fishes, chefs from the Hamptons and North Fork share how they celebrate the holidays at home — and give readers a taste of what to expect on this year's winter menus at their respective restaurants.

He spends the majority of the year crafting New American cuisine for guests of The 1770 House & Inn, but since the East Hampton mainstay's restaurant is closed Christmas Eve, executive chef Michael Rozzi makes it a point to celebrate the holiday in markedly intimate fashion.

On December 24, Rozzi and his wife, pastry chef Holly Dove-Rozzi, enjoy decorating homemade cut-out cookies for Santa with their children, who are seven and four. While Rozzi makes shrimp scampi with garlic sauce and clam pasta, Dove-Rozzi whips up a mid-20th century style crab dip complete with a packet of onion soup mix.

They have also been known to order out.

"Some years we throw all tradition to the wind and do our [Feast of the] Seven Fishes in sushi," Rozzi said with a laugh.

Homemade or not, food has always been at the forefront of the holiday season for the veteran chef, 48. A South Fork native whose great-grandparents emigrated to the area from central Italy's Abruzzo region, Rozzi spent his teenage years duck hunting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It really tied into my love for cooking and the whole understanding of where food comes from," he said, adding that he doesn't hunt anymore. "Chefs, especially, should understand how it all works."

Growing up, Rozzi helped dry fresh pasta, like his grandmother's deep-fried bow ties topped with honey and powdered sugar. He also assisted with piping the sweet sausages into casings his grandfather made for Christmas Day breakfast.

Rozzi now eats Dove-Rozzi's baked egg casserole every December 25, along with her cornbread stuffing filled with oysters. The rest of the day, he said, "is laden with decadent stuff" meant to be snacked on, like local cheeses from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic and Bridgehampton's Mecox Bay Dairy, plus shrimp cocktail and caviar from Hen of the Woods in Southampton.

"My seven-year-old even eats caviar," Rozzi said.

The menu is similarly indulgent yet comforting during the holidays at 1770 House, where Rozzi has been executive chef since 2013. The Main Street inn's parlor is outfitted with a Christmas tree decorated with antique ornaments, he said, and decked-out mantelpieces.

"It's breathtaking," he said, "and we bring a lot of beautiful food and decadent cuisine in there. We're ambitious as far as the dining is concerned."

Lobster and prime cuts of beef are seasonal mainstays, but 1770 House's winter menu is also dictated by what local ingredients are available, with Brussels sprouts, squashes and game birds topping the list.

Guests can expect dishes like Crescent Farms duck breast with white sweet potatoes, dried prunes and sauteed kale, as well as roasted Carolina quail served with stone-ground polenta and bacon-onion jam. Black and white truffles, typically featured in pasta or risotto, are winter favorites, as is veal osso bucco.

"I strive to be constantly innovating," Rozzi said. "I think that the classics, revisited — our own interpretation — is a really fun thing to do."

Growing up in Queens, Christmas Eve was "all about the Feast of the Seven Fishes," said Joe Realmuto, executive chef at Nick and Toni's in East Hampton and a partner in the Honest Man Restaurant Group. But he didn't always partake in the Italian American tradition, nor did he have a favorite fish.

"The joke is that when I was really young I didn't even like food," said Realmuto, who is also culinary director at Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ and Honest Catering. "I would eat pasta and hot dogs and that was pretty much it."

Now 50, the Springs resident can't get enough seafood during the holidays — both at home and at Nick & Toni's. He's been executive chef at the North Main Street restaurant for 28 years and is also a partner there.

"For me, it's about indulging in some of the things you don't on a regular basis," said Realmuto, who has since assumed the responsibility of creating seven seafood dishes the evening of December 24 for his wife, their two adult children and extended family members. They include his favorite, a meaty Dungeness crab, served two ways: with spicy red sauce and steamed with butter on the side.

Fish also figures into Realmuto's Christmas Day breakfast, which usually consists of bagels and smoked salmon, his homemade vegetable and cheese frittata, and mimosas, coffee and Bloody Mary’s. Dinner is decidedly lower ley, with prime rib, roasted potatoes and vegetables and a bottle of pinot noir.

"I just want to put it in the oven at that point and forget about it," said Realmuto, who is also known for his homemade eggnog. "We're usually picking on leftovers from Christmas Eve, anyway."

Christmas Eve is a similarly big night at Nick & Toni's. The establishment offers its regular menu with fish-centric holiday specials featuring fresh catches from local waters, plus white truffle risotto and cioppino, a type of seafood stew. Guests can expect a gratis amuse-bouche and enjoy winter dishes like roasted Littleneck clams with herbed breadcrumbs, white wine and olive oil.

Meat eaters will appreciate the grilled Berkshire pork chop, a British heritage breed that Realmuto said boasts a high fat content and "insane marbling." It's served alongside an apple and autumn Panzanella and apple-cider reduction.

The apples in that dish are from Halsey Farm & Nursery in Water Mill, but Nick & Toni's has a one-acre farm at the rear of the property where Swiss chard, kale, various squashes, melon, berries, peppers, arugula, eggplant, lettuces and more all thrive. During the winter, that produce takes a leading role in dishes like baked delicata squash served with beluga lentil and mushroom ragout and preserved lemon creme.

"That's definitely an important factor in all our restaurants — trying to use a potato from the farm right in our back door," Realmuto said.

Will Horowitz is a barbecue connoisseur now, but there was a time when the executive chef of Green Hill Kitchen & Que in Greenport didn't know much about pork.

"Most of the Christmas traditions that someone might be used to I found a little later in life," said the Westchester native, who took the helm at the craft barbecue restaurant earlier this fall and is culinary director at nearby sister restaurants Anker and Alpina.

"The first time someone gave me a thick slice of ham I was probably 14 and it was the most mind-blowing thing," he said with a laugh.

Horowitz, who is 38 and lives on the North Fork, grew up eating potato latkes with the Jewish side of his family during the holidays. He still does, except these days he likes to pair them with caviar.

"The perfect potato latke is not too thick and not too mushy," he said. "If it's pre-formed, don't even try it. And if you want to get really crazy with it, fry it in chicken fat."

Horowitz has adventurous tastes, but this winter at Green Hill he's focusing on the classics, with "great smoked meats" like ribs, smoked briskets and pulled pork, plus burgers made with beef from North Fork Grasshead. Comfort-food sides include macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and hand-cut fries.

"This is a lot of fun for me, to just hone my skills after all these years and work on the traditional stuff," he said, adding that there will also be smoked vegetarian options. "And you can count on all the sides and sauces to be changing with the season."

Apples, squashes, pumpkins and Brussels sprouts from North Fork produce giants like KK's The Farm, Sang Lee and Satur farms are some of the items Horowitz expects to feature on Green Hill's winter menu. Currently, he and his team are also pickling cucumbers and preserving off-season ingredients like tomatoes.

On Christmas Eve, Horowitz expects Green Hill will offer smoked hams to go. Over at Anker, diners will be taken through the Feast of the Seven Fishes with family-style portions of catches from nearby waters.

"Everything seafood-wise is based around what's local," he said. "Crabs, lobsters, oysters and shellfish, and huge, beautiful roasted-over-the-fire tray fish."

The restaurant will also offer dishes like traditional fisherman's seafood platters and crab risotto.

Throughout the holiday season Green Hill, which has a second-floor dining room, will host private parties with customizable menus like trays of ribs. Anker will follow suit, offering dishes including striped bass and swordfish.

Green Hill, which hosts live music and open-mic nights each week, may also extend a special invitation to the public during the month of December.

"We're probably going to do a big Christmas party," Horowitz said.


It could easily be argued that comfort food is synonymous with the holidays — and that just so happens to be what Jennie Werts specializes in.

Werts, the executive chef and owner of Ellen's on Front in Greenport, has filled the restaurant's menu with hearty year-round favorites like butternut squash soup, fish and chips and crispy chicken thighs. But when winter approaches, she starts to think more about beef.

"I love braised meats, so I try to put something like a braised brisket or short rib on the menu," said Werts, who co-owns the Front Street eatery with her brother, Andrew. The siblings also own the seasonal Greenport snack food bar Jennie's at Drossos, and earlier this year, Werts took over the menu at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead with The One Eighteen Club, infusing it with her eclectic-yet-familiar culinary style.

Growing up in Manhattan, Werts loved to experiment with different flavors to ensure no two meals were exactly the same. Her favorite holiday dish, however, was decidedly traditional.

"Two words: sweet potato. I'd always go back for seconds — thirds when Andrew didn't beat me to it," said Werts, who now lives in East Marion and enjoys spending Hanukkah with her four-year-old nephew.

Back at Ellen's on Front, which offers customized holiday parties and catering, winter diners can enjoy stick-to-your-ribs entrees like short-rib grilled cheese and sweet-tea brined fried chicken, the latter of which is made with hot-sauce honey butter. Asian influences are also found in dishes such as Thai coconut chicken and Korean fried rice served with gochujang-soy sauce, micro cilantro, cabbage, carrots, scrambled egg and scallions.

If you're in the mood for fish this December, Ellen's on Front also sells a market catch of the day with fresh seafood Werts procures from Southold Fish Market.

"Whatever [owner Charlie Manwaring] tells me is looking good and there's an abundance of, I try to incorporate into a special," she said.

1770 House Chef Michael Rozzi puts the finishing touches on the Roasted Carolina Quail. DANA SHAW