Chef Tom Schaudel to host cooking demonstration at Taste NY Marketplace in Dix Hills

Tom Schaudel, one of Long Island’s most recognizable chefs, will host a cooking demonstration next month as part of a new series that aims to teach home cooks how to better flex their culinary muscle.

The series is the latest act from Taste NY Marketplace at the LI Welcome Center, a New York State-sponsored rest stop on the Long Island Expressway in Dix Hills. The marketplace, the centerpiece of the centerthat opened in 2016, promotes farm produce and food products made exclusively in New York State.

Titled “Know Real Food LI,” the series is sponsored by the LI GreenMarket, and will engage prominent local chefs to offer home cooks new ways to use fresh, local and nutritious whole foods. The organization is still working to nail down other chefs and future dates.

Schaudel, a serial restaurateur who currently owns A Lure Restaurant Chowder House & Oysteria in Southold, A Mano in Mattituck and Jewel Restaurant in Melville, will kick off the series at 7 p.m. on Aug. 8 with a 90-minute cooking demonstration plus pointers for sourcing local produce.

“I was happy to do it, trying to get some fire in there,” said Schaudel, about playing the role of a culinary ambassador at the year-old marketplace. He said his menu is still a work in progress, but he’s toying with gazpacho and crudo.

“I think cooking is the coolest thing in the world,” he said. “I think everybody should be able to do it at whatever level. I’m just trying to encourage people to cook, to cook around the seasons and as local as possible.”

There are 30 seats for the Schaudel demonstration. More information is available at ligreenmarket.org and the $20 tickets are available here. Sales end August 2.

The Taste NY Marketplace at the LI Welcome Center is located on the eastbound Long Island Expressway, between exits 51 and 52, in Dix Hills.