James Beard awarded Chef François Payard’s newest restaurant, Southold Social, has recently opened on the North Fork.
The famed pastry chef’s latest venture is a labor of love and hard work, offering both the sweet and savory dishes, while showcasing menu items that focus on seasonality and provenance.
Payard, a fourth-generation chef, honed his skills by his family’s side as well as at La Tour d’Argent in Paris. He later brought his talents to New York, working at Le Bernardin and Restaurant Daniel. Following that, he opened his namesake venue, François Payard Patisserie & Bistro.
He currently splits his time between Manhattan and Southampton. We caught up with Chef Payard to learn more.
Tell us a little about your background as a chef. How did you get started?
I grew up in pastry. My parents were third-generation pastry chefs, and as a young boy, I was always helping, working in the store. I eventually started working for a contemporary of my father’s, an incredible man and pastry chef. He took me under his wing. I was working 12-hour days when I was just 13 or 14 years old, and learned so much from the experience. After that, I worked at two- and three-star establishments in France before moving to America and opening Payard, which was always my dream.
You’ve opened Southold Social on the North Fork. What inspired you to create this restaurant?
Last year, I was working on the Southold General and some other projects out here, and the owners also had the Southold Social space opening. Once I saw the kitchen and the space, I fell in love with it and jumped at the opportunity to do a partnership.
What are a few of the menu highlights?
People must think I’m Italian — we have six pastas. What I love about the menu is that we have something for everyone. The watermelon salad is very light and refreshing, and people really love it. We do an excellent lobster roll, lots of crudo, embracing the local fish on the North Fork.
What do you love most about the North Fork? What inspired you to go into business in this region?
I really love the people here. They’re very relaxed, very low-key and patient. It’s a small, tight-knit community, and I love making them happy with our food and service as much as possible. We adapt the menu and pricing to the people, to make it accessible and enjoyable for the clientele.
Talk about how you’re embracing the maritime and wine culture of the North Fork.
The wine list is very French, but we rounded it out with local options as well. Our wine director, François Latapie, spent weeks going out to the local wineries, creating relationships with the owners, and finding the best wines. We also have a great relationship with our fish guy, Charlie. We get some of the best seafood and love to embrace what’s available locally. For example, we took a very typical, popular dish, rigatoni with vodka sauce, and added local mussels to it. We get beautiful local sea bass, beautiful tuna, oysters, everything.
When you’re not working, how do you enjoy your time on the East End?
I try to relax as much as possible, but I find myself working so much, and late. I finish at one in the morning sometimes at the restaurant, so I sometimes have to just go home, rest, clean up the house, and get ready to go back to work!
