Six Berkshire Chefs, One Famous Kitchen

When invited to dinner in New York City on a run-of-the-mill Wednesday evening, most 9-5 Berkshirites will take a rain check. Understandable. But when that meal is to be prepared by six local chefs at the famed James Beard House in the West Village, there's only one logical decision: cancel any prior plans and get ready to rally.

That's how I found myself racing down the bucolic Taconic State Parkway toward the bright lights of the big city yesterday afternoon: Red Lion Inn chef Brian Alberg so graciously scored me a seat at the first-ever Berkshire Grown Farm to Table Dinner at the epicurean epicenter, featuring six local chefs preparing a six-course meal with ingredients gathered from 23 regional farmers and producers.

Walking through the townhouse's tiny kitchen--an element of any dining experience at the members-only club founded in 1986 by Peter Kump and Julia Child after the pioneering culinary namesake's death--was such a trip:

Daire Rooney of Brix Wine Bar in Pittsfield!

Peter Platt of the Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough!

Adam Zieminski of Cafe Adam in Great Barrington!

Joji Sumi of Mezze Bistro + Bar in Williamstown!

Joshua Needleman of Chocolate Springs in Lenox!

And, of course, Brian Alberg of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge!

There they were, the cream of our crop, packed into a kitchen likely the size of yours at home, limbs awhirl in a focused, creative fury. Guests filed through the steamy space and into a small foyer to find Chris Weld of Berkshire Mountain Distillers filling martini glasses with the Last Word, a frothy seafoam-green concoction featuring his small-batch Ethereal Gin. (Be on the lookout for the company's new Pink Label Gin, set to launch next week.) Indeed, the bracing potion lives up to its name.

Out on the tree-shaded outdoor patio, servers passed trays of the chefs' six amuses-bouches: roasted golden and red beet and goat cheese crostinis parading quite amusingly as bite-size cheeseburgers; ceramic spoons filled with the crisp-weather comfort of truffled potato purée and slow-roasted pulled pork; foie gras, paté, lamb's tongue, and chocolate covered blueberries, oh my!

Wines from Napa Valley's Joseph Carr--a fixture at this year's Tanglewood Wine and Food Classic--accompanied each of the following six courses, "probably one of the best pairings I've ever had here," announced one longtime James Beard Foundation member at the post-meal toast to the chefs in the 55-seat dining room upstairs.

Alberg, now a seven-time James Beard guest chef, explained how such synergy came to be: he simply asked the institution to invite his five farm-to-table collaborators of the Red Lion Inn's March Maple Dinner last April. (Unbeknownst to him: the number six, as it happens, is the smallest unitary perfect number.)

As the team proved last night with grace: there never can be too many cooks in that kitchen.