"I was raised the same as my mother and her grandmother before her. We all take turns cooking at home and gravitate to this happy business. It's a way of life!" -Sybille van Kampen
After her family immigrated from northern Germany to New Jersey, van Kempen says that her mother's cooking and knack for entertaining is what gave her comfort during that trying time. Twenty years later, she joined her mother as a chef at the Loaves & Fishes Food Store her mother had purchased in Bridgehampton. Today, van Kempen operates the Bridgehampton Inn & Restaurant and is similarly keeping it in the family. Her son Kyle is the "master of mixology" and oversees the cocktail menu and wine list; her other son, Stefan, is the manager at the Loaves & Fishes Food Store. Her daughter, Karina, is also in the food business, as a butcher in New Jersey. Continuing this pattern, van Kempen hired their new executive chef, Brian Szostak, who learned about cooking from his father.
When asked for her perfect meal plan from the new cookbook, van Kempen says she would start the day with the Orange Juice French Toast for breakfast, have the Stuffed Split Lobster for lunch—with one Split Seconds cookie—and finish the day with a Blue Skies cocktail, the Gravlax Duet for an appetizer, and the Korean Barbecue Chicken Steak with Vegetable Stir Fry for the main course. So if you don't find yourself in the Hamptons this summer, bringing home this new cookbook—for yourself or as an ideal hostess gift—would certainly be the next best thing.
The Bridgehampton Inn Restaurant and Loaves & Fishes Cookshop reside on a shared compound in the historical and picturesque year round beach community of Bridgehampton, Long Island NY. It includes beautiful action photography of our food and cocktails will capture your attention and beg you into the kitchen or bar to make each creation your own.
Sybille van Kempen With Chef Brian Szostak And Mixologist Kyle Fengler
