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  3. Tom Colicchio's Dinner Party

Tom Colicchio's Dinner Party

By Food & Wine Updated April 25, 2017
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Poached Peaches with Baked Ricotta
Tom Colicchio sources the best local ingredients for a summer dinner party at his house on Long Island's North Fork. Here, his amazing dishes.—Kate Krader
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Chef Tom Colicchio
Credit: Photo © Michael Turek

An F&W Best New Chef 1991 who helped launch Manhattan’s legendary Gramercy Tavern, Colicchio runs the sprawling Craft empire and recently opened the new restaurant at Topping Rose House, a luxury hotel in Bridgehampton, New York. At Topping Rose House, he emphasizes Long Island produce, especially vegetables and herbs from the property’s one-acre farm.

Topping Rose House is a 40-minute drive from Colicchio’s home on Long Island’s North Fork. Recently, he invited a few East End neighbors—including chef Kerry Heffernan and winemakers David Page and Barbara Shinn of Shinn Estate Vineyards—to a dinner party. To determine the menu, he visited several farm stands, grabbing corn for a tangy-sweet salad, then stopped at a seafood store to pick up a big kahuna of a sea bass to spread with Asian chile sauce and roast whole. And then, back at his house, he did all the peeling and chopping himself.

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Mussels

Steamed Mussels with Tarragon
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One of the first things Colicchio learned to cook, when he was about 13, was a dish of cold mussels and tarragon created by the former New York Times food writer Pierre Franey. “You usually see mussels hot, never cold in a vinaigrette,” he says. On the North Fork, Colicchio buys his mussels at the Southold Fish Market, where the locals shop.

  • Fish and Seafood Recipes

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Radishes

Thai-Style Radish and Watermelon Salad
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According to Colicchio, “Radishes are the unsung heroes of the vegetable world.” He has been passionate about them ever since he was a kid in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he’d pick them from his grandfather’s small garden. “Radishes add texture, spice and color,” he says. “I was featuring them in dishes at Gramercy Tavern almost 20 years ago, back when no one else was. Radishes are one of those ingredients that I always use when summer rolls around.”

  • Summer Produce Guide

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Tomatoes

Squid with Burst Cherry Tomatoes
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In summer, most people don’t bother to cook tomatoes. But Colicchio likes to see what flavors he can bring out. “I was just messing around with cherry tomatoes, and I decided to try cooking them low and slow, with garlic,” he says. The result: extravagantly juicy tomatoes with amped-up flavor.

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Goat Yogurt

Cucumber-Fennel Salad with Herbed Goat Yogurt
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Colicchio is crazy about Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic, Long Island. The five-acre property has 95 or so milking goats, which generate about 60 pounds of cheese and yogurt on any given day. Catapano’s fresh and aged cheeses are excellent, but Colicchio’s favorite is the creamy, superbly tangy and slightly funky goat yogurt, which he uses for cooking and eating straight.

  • How to Make Homemade Yogurt

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Corn

Sweet and Tangy Corn with Roasted Peppers
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“Some people get sick of corn, but I never do,” Colicchio says. “On the North Fork, the season for corn is short. Just when you might start getting tired of it, it’s over, gone. You have a much better sense of the seasons out on Long Island than you do in New York City, where it’s very easy to push it and keep getting fruits and vegetables when the season really should be over.”

  • Summer Recipes

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Sea Bass

Grilled Whole Fish with Chile and Lime
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“I’ve been fishing since I was about five,” says Colicchio. “I was introduced to the North Fork through fishing. But I never put my own fish on the menus at my restaurants; I release almost everything I catch. When I do occasionally kill a fish, it’s usually a bass, and I like to cook it whole.”

  • Recipes for Whole Fish

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Zucchini

Zucchini with Niçoise Olives and Burrata
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When he was at Manhattan’s Gramercy Tavern in the 1990s, Colicchio came up with a method of stewing tiny pieces of zucchini in just enough water to cover them. “You create a kind of zucchini broth, and what you get in the end is the essence of zucchini,” he says.

  • Summer Produce Guide

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Peaches

Poached Peaches with Baked Ricotta
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Colicchio favors the peaches at Wickham’s Fruit Farm in Cutchogue on the North Fork. More than 300 years old, Wickham’s is set on land that’s been farmed since 1661. Colicchio buys both yellow and white peaches. For cooking, he looks for freestone peaches, which separate from the pit easily (clingstone peaches are better for straight eating).

  • Recipes for Peaches

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    1 of 9
    2 of 9 Mussels
    3 of 9 Radishes
    4 of 9 Tomatoes
    5 of 9 Goat Yogurt
    6 of 9 Corn
    7 of 9 Sea Bass
    8 of 9 Zucchini
    9 of 9 Peaches

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