Secrets from Her Famous Hamptons Summer Soirées
You may know Katie Lee as the co-host of the hit Food Network show The Kitchen. Or if you live in the Hamptons, perhaps you’ve heard of her fabulous summer parties, where delicious, no-fuss food and laid-back vibes invite a glamorous crowd to let loose and enjoy.
This year, Katie is taking her passion for summer, food and good friends global with a brand new show, Beach Bites and her latest cookbook, Endless Summer. Divine Living caught up with the food and lifestyle expert to learn how to add a little extra wow factor to our summer barbecues— just in time for the Fourth of July.
How did you discover your passion for food and develop your career as a chef?
I grew up in West Virginia in a really small town and my grandma was my babysitter. As far as I’m concerned, she’s the best cook there ever was. I was pretty much raised in her kitchen. We were always making something. I thought biscuit dough was Play-Doh. I just loved being in the kitchen with her. But I had always thought that in order to have a career in food you had to be a chef in a restaurant—and I worked in restaurants all through college and knew I didn’t want that lifestyle. So I just assumed cooking was a hobby. Meanwhile I was a journalism major and around my junior or senior year, food started becoming a bigger part of pop culture. Food Network started to get popular. I was reading Gourmet and Bon Appétit and I started thinking, “Could I write about food?” I wanted to be a food writer. So I started a blog—and this was in 2003 so I wasn’t even really sure what a blog was. From there, my career started to grow. I got writing gigs and then I ended up on TV and writing cookbooks and my career just evolved from that. I know it’s really cliché to say, “Do what you love and you’ll have success,” but that’s really how it worked out for me.
Tell us about your latest cookbook, Endless Summer.
Endless Summer is my food love letter to summer. I love summer. I spend a lot of time out in the Hamptons. I have a home in Watermill and I love going to the farm stands out there. It’s this area that has a reputation for glitz and glamour and parties, but really at the heart of the Hamptons are all these farms. The farm stand I go to has been in the same family since the 1600s. It’s an all-organic, biodynamic stand called Green Thumb. I shop there almost every single day. Beyond the really awesome produce, we also have seafood, chicken farms, dairy farms, vineyards. We even have sea salt farmers now. It’s a place where you really can eat locally. It’s very inspiring and it’s what inspired the cookbook.
What are some of your favorite recipes from the cookbook?
One of the highlights in the book are the lobster reubens. People always love those. I’ll serve them at a lunch party, or I’ll make them during cocktail hour, cut them into quarters and serve them as hors d’oeuvres. There’s a cocktail chapter in the book that has a lot of really fun recipes. Since fruit is so ripe and sweet in summer, you don’t have to add sugar to cocktails if you use that really good fruit. I make blueberry daiquiris and honeydew margaritas and watermelon rum punch. Those are some of my favorites. Then I have a few different kabobs in there which I always think are fun for parties. Then desserts, I keep those easy—so a pecan ice cream ball with fudge sauce is something I like to do, or I’ll make ice cream sandwiches and then I can just pull those out of the freezer and serve.
Is there a little southern influence in your cooking?
I think that my cooking has changed a bit over the last decade. I used to cook in a much more southern style. The longer I’ve lived in the northeast, the lighter my food has gotten. That’s also partially because of age. The older you get the slower your metabolism is. But I love those southern comfort foods. In my cookbook there’s a pimento goat cheese spread, which I used to make with cheddar cheese and then started using goat cheese, which is a little bit lighter and just a bit different. I’d say the heart of my cooking is simple comfort food, but I take inspiration from my travels and my past and put it all together.
You’re known for throwing fabulous dinner parties in the Hamptons. Tell us some of your secrets!
I love to entertain. It’s something I do almost every weekend. I kind of have it down to a formula now so that it can be easy. I don’t like a dinner party to seem daunting or to be exhausted from putting it all together. What I like to do is make as much in advance as possible. Cocktail hour I do hors d’oeuvres that are assembly only. I don’t think you have to overdo it with making a ton of hors d’oeuvres. You want people to be hungry for dinner. Something I do is I tend to buy a lot of cute little dishes (whether it’s from vintage shops or online) and I’ll get some great kettle chips, some really delicious olives and some Marcona almonds and then put them in cute little bowls on a tray with some chic cocktail napkins and a pitcher of cocktails. I’ll put it all on a pretty tray and it looks really nice for cocktail hour. Then for dinner, I make a few different salads in advance, usually a green salad, a grain salad and either grilled vegetables or a lentil salad. Lentil salad is great because it can double as a main course if somebody is a vegetarian. Then for the protein, I’ll do a marinated flank steak or a side of salmon that all I have to do is cook at the last minute—it’s the only thing I have to cook while my guests are there. Then for dessert, something like cute little ice cream sandwiches. I keep those in the freezer and then stack them up on a plate. You get a little bit of drama when you build them up like a pyramid and bring them out—everybody is really excited to have an ice cream sandwich.
Does the culture of the Hamptons influence your party-throwing style?
I think that people really appreciate a relaxed environment when you have a dinner party. We go to so many parties that are kind of formal. I think when you invite people over and serve something that’s a casual food, but do it in an elegant way, everybody kind of lets their guard down and relaxes and has a good time. I think it’s about finding the balance of throwing a chic, elegant party, but keeping it casual at the same time.
Tell us about one of your favorite summer parties and what made it special.
Well, for about five years in a row, I had a keg party party every Labor Day weekend. This party really took on a life of its own. It started because I went to this really obnoxious, pretentious party. It was a black party where everyone had to wear black and they took the theme so far that there weren’t lights outside. There was a spotlight and someone got up and read poetry. There was a horse running around. It was ridiculous. I said, “I am so sick of these pretentious parties. I want to have an old-fashioned keg party.” So I bought six kegs. I got a DJ and I had this barbecue company come cook. One year I got a food truck and had it parked on my lawn. I got an ice luge for vodka shots. People went nuts and it was so fun. It would go until three in the morning with people dancing. I had a no social media rule. I put a sign on the front door: “This is an Instagram, Facebook and Twitter-free zone.” People connected more. Instead of worrying what picture they were going to take and post, they actually paid attention to each other, let loose and had a good time. Those were my best parties.Then I moved into a new house that I thought was more grown up and I didn’t want a keg party there anymore, so that ended. Another party that stands out in my mind was a Jamaican themed party one summer. It was a lot of fun with all Jamaican food and rum cocktails. I always think people get into a theme. I don’t ever make people dress to the theme, but I have a theme for the music, the cocktails and the food. It actually makes the whole formula much easier if you say, “Tonight I’m having Moroccan,” and you can decorate your table that way and play that style of music. Italian is another—I do a pizza party every summer. I have a pizza oven and I’ll play Italian opera music and we’ll have a big antipasto buffet.That’s always a really fun party as well.
Nice. You have a brand new show coming out called Beach Bites. Tell us a little bit about the show, the inspiration behind it and the food you’re going to be exploring.
I’m so excited to make Beach Bites because I’m a beach bum. I love to be at the beach more than anything in the world. If it’s a sunny day in the Hamptons and you can’t find me, you can pretty much bet that I’ll be sitting at the beach on a chair reading a book or surfing. For Beach Bites, I traveled around to some great locations. I went to Sayulita and Punta Mita in Mexico, to St. Barths, Puerto Rico, Miami and the Golden Isles of Georgia—which was a great slice of Americana with really delicious southern coastal fare. The whole show features so much good food, whether it was fish tacos on the beach in Mexico or the crab hush puppies in Georgia. I got to try a lot of delicious little bites everywhere. The culture of beach food, to me, is just so much fun. There’s nothing better than eating something delicious and drinking a fruity cocktail with your feet in the sand.
What about putting on a bikini afterwards? How does that work?
Well, the cruelest part of the show was that I had to be in a bikini and I had to eat. I worked out like crazy for three months before I left. I did Tracy Anderson two hours a day, six days a week. It was tough and then when I was on the road, I would get up and do an hour before filming and an hour after filming of workouts. It was a challenge.
The Fourth of July is coming up—what will you be serving at your celebration?
The Fourth of July is like the Thanksgiving of summer. You get to eat whatever you want. You can pig out. I always go classic, all-American. I don’t try to do anything fancy or inventive. I always make barbecue ribs, hot dogs and hamburgers. I make potato salad, corn on the cob and usually either a strawberry shortcake or a red white and blue trifle for dessert. Oh, and deviled eggs to start. It’s not a Fourth of July party without deviled eggs.
What’s your favorite way to add a little bit of wow factor to a basic summer barbecue?
You can dress up your barbecue with a couple of really easy things. Say you’re having people over last minute and you’re going to make steak. You can do really simple salt and pepper on your steak and grill it, but then dress it up with a compound butter. That’s as easy as letting the butter get to room temperature, mashing some jalapeno peppers in there and then forming it into a log and refrigerating it. If you want to do a barbecue chicken, instead of just opening a bottle of sauce and putting it on there, you can dress it up by pureeing some fresh peaches and mixing that in so it’s a peach barbecue sauce instead. For your corn on the cob, make a green goddess butter with a bunch of fresh herbs, butter, a little mayo and some Parmesan cheese to go on top. Just those little extra bits. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it makes your barbecue much more special.
Tips for Effortless Summer Entertaining
How to Serve: “I think summertime lends itself to more casual entertaining. It’s not the time for formal, plated meals. Buffet or family style is much more relaxed and in the spirit of summer.”
What to Wear: “When I get dressed for a summer party, I think about no bell sleeves that could get into something. I don’t wear heels—I wear either a wedge or a flat. And I avoid light colors in case anything splashes on me.”
How to Style: “Bring some element of nature onto your table, whether it’s sand dollars or starfish or wildflowers from a local farm stand. And don’t forget about lighting. If your back patio is not incredibly well lit, buy candles, tiki torches and café lights online. You want to be able to see the food, the beautiful table and your dinner mates.”
on the Cooking Channel.