“Hudson Valley could be considered the Napa Valley of the East Coast,” says Buffy Arbogast, owner of Babette’s Kitchen in Milbrook.
Arbogast didn’t realize that she would stay in the region when she was in cooking school. But by the time she graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park in 2004, the Texan was hooked.
“I fell in love with the four seasons here and the change that the area brought to my life.”
Arbogast isn’t alone in her decision to use the Hudson Valley, rather than the culinary mecca of New York City, to launch her career. Upon graduating from the CIA, chefs are faced with many options: Head to a big city where they can train under well-known chefs and build a reputation before launching their own venture. Or stake their claim in the small towns that surround their Hudson Valley-based alma mater. Increasingly, the ones who stay local no longer seem like outliers.
After working at a few local restaurants and then managing a space in Millbrook, Arbogast met her business partner and future wife, and together they opened Babette’s, a market, café and catering company, in 2005.
The availability and top-notch quality of produce and wine was a big selling point. “I’ve had a farmer ask me ‘What do you want me to grow for you this year?’” Arbogast says. She calls it a win-win situation — restaurants help subsidize farms and those farmers in turn appreciate and want to supply the restaurants.
As someone who established her business long before the pandemic-fueled influx of urbanites, “it’s been really amazing to witness the change in the Hudson Valley in the last 20 years,” Arbogast says.
Gaining skills in the city, launching ventures in the country
Daniel Baganell (right), a CIA grad and owner/chef of Halycon Café and Sonder in Rhinebeck, returned to the Hudson Valley in the pandemic after working in New York City. He says he appreciates his new work/life balance.
SonderWith the new residents have come new restaurants, and Daniel Baganell, owner/chef of two Rhinebeck businesses — Halycon Café and Sonder wine bar, which he moved from Hudson to Rhinebeck — is one of those recent transplants.
Hailing from California, he worked in fine dining restaurants in New York City after getting his CIA degree in hospitality management in 2016. He was like many graduates from the CIA, he said, who opt to head first to a big city “to grind a few years there with chefs they look up to, network and meet investors.”
Then, like many who left New York City in the pandemic, he moved up to the Hudson Valley in 2020. “While I still intensely love the city, and can see opening up a wine bar there one day, the life up here does offer a better work/life balance.”
Baganell notes that for a chef, “it’s a lot easier to make good food with good ingredients. We’re surrounded by some of the best produce on the East Coast.” But he also appreciates the new business he’s received from the influx of people who have moved up from the city. “They’re appreciative of good food and a cool vibe,” he says.
Andrew Chase, CIA class of 2012, is gearing up for his second season behind the pit at Harvest Smokehouse in Valatie, and agrees with Baganell, saying, “The pandemic definitely caused a paradigm shift in the Hudson Valley.”
He says that with the influx of New Yorkers to the area, there’s definitely a greater demand for authentic food made with local ingredients, and that’s easy to do here.
“I now take advantage of my location at Golden Harvest Farms orchards to burn applewood in the smoker and to use the cider to make vinegars,” he says.
Connections to farmers is key
Rachel Wyman of Gunkin’ Doughnuts in New Paltz fell in love with the Hudson Valley when she attended the CIA and knew she would return.
@gunkindoughnutsLike Chase, Ryan Viator aims to source as locally as possible, but that mission that can present challenges when a restaurant grows.
Viator, a Louisiana native, owns three Buns Burgers, in Rhinebeck, Kingston and Saugerties. Upon graduating from the CIA in 2008, he stayed in the Hudson Valley and by chance decided to open a fast-casual, farm-to-table burger concept.
“Cody Kilcoyne of Kilcoyne Farms came by with some samples of beef as I was thinking of what type of restaurant to open,” he recalls. Viator had been planning to open a full-service restaurant but couldn’t find the right space. A smaller space was available, though, and Rhinebeck didn’t have a quick-serve burger destination, says Viator.
Now that he has three locations, Viator says that he’s still able to work with Kilcoyne, but some of his other local vendors haven’t been able to keep up with his growth.
Still, he says, “What I love about the Hudson Valley is the amazing sense of community you get in the towns where you do business.” This spirit was quite apparent during the pandemic and increasingly, the community seems to be growing. Viator says he’s also noticing a “flow of talent upriver” as NYC chefs look to focus on smaller, more manageable restaurants.
That sense of community was also a major draw for Rachel Wyman, CIA class of 2004. Wyman, who grew up in Maryland, had worked at Amy’s Bread in Manhattan and took over the reins at Montclair Bread Company in New Jersey in 2012. But the decision to come back to the Hudson Valley at some point was cemented when she got to the CIA.
There, “You live in a dorm the size of a jail cell with a giant picture window with the best view of the Hudson River,” Wyman recalls.
New Paltz beckoned as Wyman got into the climbing community, and in 2021 she opened the artisanal bakery Gunkin’ Doughnuts, which she plans to rename soon to Rabble Rise Bakery. She continues to operate Montclair Bread Company.
“Since my doughnut menu changes monthly, I’m able to take advantage of great purveyors of spices, honey, fruits and vegetables up here.” Additionally, Wyman notes that the community “really understands that the stores and restaurants that operate in town make up the fabric of that town and I’ve been blown away by their support.”
Charlie Webb, a 2019 CIA grad and owner of Hudson & Packard in Poughkeepsie, thinks that the migration out of New York City and into Hudson Valley towns will continue.
“I would invite people who are wary of Poughkeepsie to come and see the awesome changes happening up here,” says Webb, whose Detroit-style pizzeria downtown is reminiscent of the ones he grew up with in the Motor City.
The challenges of the region
“I would invite people who are wary of Poughkeepsie to come and see the awesome changes happening up here,” says Charlie Webb, a 2019 CIA grad and owner of Detroit-style pizzeria Hudson & Packard.
Hudson & PackardWhile the chefs say they love what the Hudson Valley brings to the table, they also face a number of challenges. Staffing — an obstacle everywhere now — can be particularly hard in the Hudson Valley for a number of reasons. Living in a geographically spread-out region can make the drive to and from work long, especially when a lack of affordable housing in hotspots like Woodstock and Hudson force staff to commute from even greater distances.
And New York City does pull some talent out of the region.
“Everyone thinks because we’re in such proximity to the CIA that we have a great labor pool, but many of its graduates want to head into the city,” Arbogast notes.
Other chefs, like Chase, lament the lack of representation in more global cuisines, and Webb thinks the “the food scene is lacking for being near such a mecca of culinary education,” he says.
But Baganell thinks that is changing, and says the Hudson Valley offers the uniqueness of having both untamed wilderness and a growing polish.
“There are so many treasures and surprises up here now in the restaurant field, and I think we’ll continue to see more of that.”
More tastes of the Hudson Valley
"local" - Google News
February 21, 2022 at 06:39PM
https://ift.tt/fk8ocsU
Meet the chefs who resisted NYC, stayed local - Times Union
"local" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2w0iF6e
https://ift.tt/LOdTEyw
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Meet the chefs who resisted NYC, stayed local - Times Union"
Post a Comment