Cooking Demonstrations

Learn the cooking secrets of your favorite regional chefs. Attend one or all of the fabulous free cooking demonstrations throughout the Fest weekend. Our guest chefs own some of the Hudson Valley’s finest restaurants, have cooking shows on the Food Network, PBS and have published cookbooks.

Demonstration Schedule *

Saturday – Sept 10

Main stage:

12-12:45 – Abby Dodge, 4-ingredient desserts

1:15-2:00 – Patrick Watson, food & wine pairings

2:30-3:15 – Fine Cooking Magazine – Cook the Cover: Tacos with Denise

3:45-4:30 – Vincent Tropepe

 

Sunday – Sept 11

Main stage:

12-12:45 – Dan Leader, baking bread demo

1:15-2:00 – Fine Cooking Magazine – Cook the Cover: Tacos with Juli

2:30 3:15 – Vincent Tropepe

3:30 – 4:00 – Debbie Decker( Cheese manager Adams Fairacre Farms) – Local Cheeses

*Schedule is subject to change without notice.  Seating is limited, arrive 15 minutes prior to demonstration for best seating.

 

For 2011 we are very excited to welcome Patrick Watson, Dan Leader and Abby Dodge as our demonstrating experts.

 

Patrick Watson went to college for the arts. He studied at McGill University & the Boston Conservatory of Music for opera and sang professionally for many years in New York City.  Like many young artists, he ended up in NYC’s thriving restaurant industry on the side cooking, waiting tables, managing, and someliered. From back of house to the front–the last 18 years have brought him a wealth of experience in a competitive business.

Patrick began his career as a line-cook in Boston, but soon switched to the front of house, waiting tables and later as a sommelier and manager. When he decided to move to San Francisco, he found his passion for wine working at a few top restaurants, including One Market Restaurant, Aqua, & Moose’s Café. After his move to New York, he spent two years as a captain at Gotham Bar & Grill working closely with the wine program, and rounded out his education as a sommelier, bartender, and server and managing at well known restaurants such as Lupa and Blue Hill Restaurant and Raouls, New York’s oldest Bistro.

After opening Smith & Vine, Patrick missed working closely with food and decided to open their Gourmet Food and Cheese Market called Stinky Bklyn. The response has been immense and their neighborhood now has a complete wine and cheese resource in close proximity. Soon after that he opened The Jakewalk and Brooklyn Wine Exchange. The Jakewalk is a cozy neighborhood wine & cocktail bar and restaurant, serving the very best wine, cocktails, whiskeys, cheeses and meats to their growing Brooklyn fan club and the Brooklyn Wine Exchange is an upscale wine and spirits store right next door to Trader Joes in Cobble Hill Brooklyn.

 

 

 

Daniel Leader is the founder of the Bread Alone Bakery in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Dan’s food career began when, nine months short of his undergraduate philosophy degree from the University of Wisconsin, he realized his need to work with his hands as well as his mind.

He enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, graduated at the top of his class, and worked as a chef for some of New York City’s hottest restaurants, La Grenouille and the Water Club. Then, after eight years of cooking food “too fancy to eat,” he became obsessed with the idea of creating something wholesome, timeless, and beautiful. Great bread and Bread Alone were born. Bread Alone has been using organic grains in their hand-shaped breads since 1983 and is the only certified-organic artisanal bakery in the New York metropolitan area.

Dan’s first book, Bread Alone, won the IACP award for Best Baking Book.  He is also the author of Local Breads, which was named one of the top ten culinary books of 2007 by Martha Stewart Living. In 2008, Local Breads also won an IACP award in the Baking category.  Dan has also authored Panini Express and Simply Great Breads.  Dan has appeared on Good Morning America and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Splendid Table.

 

A former pastry chef, Abby Dodge is a widely respected baking expert as well as a popular food writer and instructor. She studied in Paris at La Varenne and is the author of seven cookbooks, including Desserts 4 Today (Taunton Press, 9/2010) and The Weekend Baker, an IACP Cookbook Award Finalist. Her recipes and articles have appeared in more than six dozen cookbooks, publications and websites. A contributing editor to Fine Cooking magazine, she’s a regular guest on TV and radio and teaches cooking around the country.

You can visit Abby’s website at www.AbbyDodge.com

A returning favorite, Chef Vincent Tropepe will once again lend is expertise to our demonstrating chefs lineup

Seven time certified, nationally ranked, and internationally honored celebrity chef, Vincent Tropepe is considered one of the brightest minds in the world of food. With his induction into the Les Amis d’Escoffier Culinares Society and his United States ranking as being one of the Top 200 chefs in the United States his knowledge and technique paired with his educational and entertaining demonstrations has continued to make Chef Tropepe a fan favorite time and time again.

Chef Tropepe wrote the first cookbook ever dedicated to the preparation and execution of stuffed food items, titled STUFFED! New York Yankee and Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra has said, “Knowing Chef Tropepe and his work, to put it simply STUFFED! is a home run for the amateur and professional chefs.” Food Network’s Ingrid Hoffmann has said, “An amazing chef’s book filled with great recipes that home cooks can actually make. Vincent’s ingenious use of ingredients and flavors are Simply Delicioso!” Chef Tropepe can now add published author to his long list of accomplishments.

Chef Tropepe is currently the Executive Chef of Epoca Restaurant in NYC.

Check back to this page for our demonstration schedule and a full line-up of our demonstrating chefs.