Pantry Confections
Photography by Alexandra Grablewski
The Fabulous Beekman Boys
open up their pantry for us and
tell us about highs and lows in
their kitchen
Do you have any secret tools or gadgets in the kitchen?
Anything that you could never live without? We’ve
recently fallen in love with our KitchenAid Fruit & Vegetable
Strainer attachment. We have a stubborn habit of romanticizing
manual devices, like food mills. But when faced with garden
harvests measured by the bushel, we cave. And usually we
realize that labor-saving kitchen devices aren’t moral hazards
after all.
If you could change anything about your kitchen,
what would it be? We would be in it more. We work and travel
too much.
What do you always have stocked in your pantry? Any
specific products you always want to have on hand?
Lemons, lemons, lemons. The nearest grocery store is a half
hour away, so we grow or raise nearly all of the fresh ingredients
for our meals right on our farm—from meats to veggies to
dairy. But of course we can’t grow lemons in our northern
climate. This means we obsess about running out of them and
buy a dozen at a time when we make an infrequent trip into
town. We’re lemon hoarders. We even save squeezed lemon
carcasses to polish our copper pots. Our freezer is half full of
empty halves.
What’s your go-to dish to make at home? Omelets.
Between farm chores, working in our store, and traveling for
appearances, we often find ourselves ready for dinner at a very
late hour. And we both get pretty grouchy pretty quickly when
we’re hungry. Our omelets take less than 10 minutes from coop-to-table—plus we always have our own Beekman Blaak Cheese
on hand to add in. If you drive by the farm late at night, don’t be
surprised if you spot us in the garden gathering fresh omelet-filling ingredients by the light of a flashlight.
What was your most nightmarish kitchen situation?
Any major catastrophes? Our most major catastrophe is
almost cliché. We were filming the Thanksgiving episode of our
reality TV series and one of our apple pies spilled over in the
oven, causing it to smoke and set off the house’s fire alarm.
Since our home is an important historic landmark in our area,
the alarm is wired directly to the volunteer fire department alert
system. Within minutes we had a half dozen volunteer firemen
pounding at our door. We were mortified that we’d pulled our
neighbors away from their Thanksgiving tables, but of course
the show’s director couldn’t have been more thankful for the
unexpected drama.
If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life,
what would it be? For Brent, it would be a garden tomato
sandwich. For Josh, pie. Any kind.
Are there any foods you can’t stand? Nope. We’ve been to a
lot of places in the world where people don’t have enough food,
so we’re grateful for every bite we eat. That said, neither one of
us will ask for second helpings of boiled cabbage.
What does home cooking mean to you? Home cooking
means food that comes with a side of good stories.
