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Business & Tech

Meet the Chef: Larchmont's Adam Kaye at Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Patch interviews the kitchen director at the distinguished restaurant on the old Rockefeller estate.

Food has always been a part of Adam Kaye's family history.

His great grandfather was a butcher in Johannesburg, South Africa. His grandfather ran a butcher and restaurant supply company and owned a spice-milling business before becoming an importer of sausage casings.

At the high-end cookware and gourmet food stores run by his parents in South Africa, his mother was in charge of the cooking school; she taught, coordinated classes by chefs and cookbook authors and occasionally gave in-store demonstrations involving new kitchen utensils and food. His family migrated to America in 1987 and today his parents own and operate a catering company in Westchester County.

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Kaye, kitchen director at the famed Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills and a resident of Larchmont, attended Scarsdale High School and the University of Rochester where he majored in history and geology. Following graduation, he worked for a nonprofit environmental research organization in Washington, D.C. but he was ready for a career change after two years had passed. "I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life," he said.

He began to apprentice at a D.C. restaurant called Vidalia on evenings and weekends.

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"Food was always in my blood," said Kaye, who will soon move with wife Wendy and children Ari and Jonah to Mamaroneck. "I loved cooking."

He returned to New York and enrolled at the French Culinary Institute while also working at La Panetiere, a restaurant with southern French cuisine, in Rye. After graduation, he accepted a job offer from Chanterelle in Manhattan, starting on a cold station (as garde manger) and working his way up to grill station cook.  About two-and-one-half years later, he heard about a new restaurant gaining great acclaim in New York culinary circles; its name was Blue Hill. He stopped by one night for dinner.

"After I ate there," he said, "I knew I had to work there. I can still remember that meal."

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is not a traditional restaurant and it does not have a menu. Patrons indicate their preferences after being informed about available ingredients; they select the number of courses to be served (five or eight) but they do not actually choose the food. What is served depends on the type of food they prefer but also on what was purchased at the market that day or picked at a greenhouse or fields on the premises to draw the most distinctive flavors available.

The development of new recipes at Blue Hill is a collaborative effort but Kaye is considered the reigning expert as far as the discovery and development of new sausages is concerned – an unusual claim to fame for someone whose parents and grandparents excelled in the cooking of South African Jewish food. His latest contribution, a new blood sausage, will be introduced shortly.

Kaye's title, kitchen director, means he oversees kitchen operations, trains front-of-the house personnel, orders ingredients, develops relationships with farmers and suppliers, investigates new foods and makes sure the equipment is in good order.

Like his mother, he especially enjoys giving cooking classes for both adults and kids.

Adam's hobbies are mountain biking in local parks and keeping up with his kids, 4 months and 4 years old. His favorite casual restaurants are Goldenrod, a Chinese restaurant in New Rochelle (he loves their scallion pancakes), and Tarry Lodge in Port Chester. 

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday and lunch on Sunday (see hours below). It accepts reservations for up to two months before the scheduled date. The days and hours of operation  for dinner are: Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m. Lunch is served on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is located at 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, New York 10591. 914-366-9600. www.bluehillfarm.com.

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