In ‘The Hamptons Kitchen’ with a New Cookbook

It’s food season on the East End.

That might sound a bit odd, considering food is a year-round necessity, but just think: soon it’ll be June and there will be strawberries. Then it will be July and there will be tomatoes. Then it will be August and there will be — well, you get the picture. And if it can be grown, cultivated, caught, fermented, foraged, baked, or harvested on the East End, chances are you can find a great recipe using it in “The Hamptons Kitchen: Seasonal Recipes Pairing Land and Sea,” a new cookbook by two local foodies, Stacy Dermont and Hillary Davis, with photography by Barbara Lassen and an introduction by Gael Greene.

A unique feature about “The Hamptons Kitchen” is its dive into the five seasons — not four — of food. (Summer is divided into “low summer” and “high summer.” Did you know low summer comes first?)

“I’ve read all the cookbooks,” says Ms. Dermont. “The ones that try to be seasonal say, ‘It’s peach season, use peaches!’ But we tried really hard to use multiple local ingredients in each recipe. It’s what’s in season when, and what’s available locally.”

Particularly in light of the Covid-19 virus, “The Hamptons Kitchen” could be a guide to eating your way through the pandemic, in style.

“This book is so geared toward the situation we’re in,” Ms. Dermont says. “Now it’s not just knowledgeable foodies — everyone is talking about the local food system and eating seasonally, and everyone is thinking about or actually building their own garden.”

Does poached cod and clams in buttered broth interest you? What about strawberry layer cake with rhubarb jam filling? Baked stuffed zucchini blossoms? Yum, yum, and yum.

There’s even a recipe for compost, which Ms. Dermont is proud of, because nothing should go to waste. “My compost heap is my favorite part of the garden,” she says.

The cookbook “is for informally entertaining small groups. That’s how we live here in the Hamptons — it’s really laid back, comfortable, seaside dining,” she says.

“The Hamptons Kitchen,” from Country Man Press, a division of Norton, retails at local bookstores and on Amazon.

“It’s pretty timeless,” Ms. Dermont says. “It’s not trendy in any way, unless conservation, local, and seasonal are trendy. It’s a simple take on a very specific place.”