Photo Credit: Doug Young
You will fall in love at first bite whenever you dig your fork into the freshly prepared fish and other flame-grilled specialties at Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor. Chef Corbet, who joined the Montauk Asset Holdings team in 2020, launched Lulu Kitchen and Bar, which is now in its successful third season, having a menu built around a custom wood-fired grill. The Hamptons may be known as a summer spot, but Lulu serves up lunch and dinner seven days a week, year-round, which means you do not have to long for Lulu's delectable dishes when the season concludes!
With summer in full swing, Chef Corbet explains, “Everything is flourishing this season, the fruits and also the vegetables, therefore it is thrilling, and we simplified recption menus. It is so busy around here now, so we will be offering more specials and much more seafood. We're enjoying recption menus and trying to become authentic using what our surroundings are here. I've been on New york for 18 years, and i have really seen the Hamptons grow. There are other farms, these products are wonderful and the prices are getting better.”
Corbet, a culinary genius who has created a menu full of fresh and native products, been trained in France, including in Michelin-star-rated restaurants, before bringing his creative concepts to Long Island's most sophisticated spots. After joining Montauk Asset Holdings, he exposed the kitchen at Arbor in Montauk, and today he serves his loyal clientele at Lulu Kitchen and Bar together with his wood-burning cuisine as well as at Duryea's Lobster Deck in Montauk.
Photo Credit: Eric Striffler
“I started cooking in France in 1994, visited school for 4 years and worked in several Michelin-star-rated restaurants. After i found America, I fell in love with the Hamptons, after which I needed to see the New York City vibe. Like a chef, I think this location is very important; it's the capital from the culinary world, there are plenty of different cooking styles and also the city is simply incredible. I did annually at Bouley and then returned to New york and also got lucky. I met Steven Jauffrineau, the md of the group. I caused him, and also at no more that summer, he proposed the position. I said I needed a wood-fire grill, which I think is extremely special. It's very flavorful but very raw and intense, and combined with the vegetables and seafood we have around here, the grill in the summer is the best. We are starting to have farms with meat and ducks, so it's even better. We're now within our third season, and they desired to keep me around and offered me a partnership I could not refuse; it was perfect for me.”
Summer may be great grilling season, but Lulu Kitchen and Bar is equally as delightful within the dreary winter season. “When we first opened the doors here, we felt that it was a really happy place. It seems like we've been open for 25 years; it's all of the feelings of comfort, particularly with the wood-fire grill. My personal favorite time to be in the restaurant is incorporated in the winter. I really like the smell of the fireplace and the cozy flame.”
This inventive chef, who loves playing with flavors, earning him a sizable fanbase, continually travels looking for tasty delicacies, and that he even visited Israel last winter to get a better idea of what he desired to do with his team. Throughout the trip, Chef Corbet remarked that “simplicity is key, specially in the summer here. We'd a tomato salad after some vinegar, and the product am shiny and merely wonderful, it was hard to explain. There was nothing that must be completed to make it better. In winter, it's harder to obtain local produce, but in July and August, we actually have beautiful produce here and work with local vendors and farms. We re-visited recption menus just a week ago and today have lamb, simply marinated and grilled, having a fresh cucumber salad and lots of fresh herbs. I'm also using fresh trout from Upstate New York, and it's really delicious. I simply brought leeks to the menu as well, served steamed and grilled around the wood oven by having an almond vinaigrette and handle with olive oil. It's all regulated very simple and healthy, but all of the flavors exist.”
He might hail from the French Alps around the border of Switzerland and Italy, but Chef Corbet makes the Hamptons his home and pays homage to his family's foodie history. While he has fulfilled his imagine creating classic and inspired dishes, Corbet didn't always fantasize about finding yourself in the food business.
“My father would be a health inspector and my grandfather had a two-star Michelin restaurant, so I grew up around food, and the last thing I needed to become was a chef because I remarked that kind of life was hard. I hardly reached see my grandfather on holiday or perhaps at Christmas, but then I acquired the chance to start cooking and I understood everything next. I caused a Michelin-star chef then one clicked; I enjoyed it right away. I'd very good mentors plus they demonstrated that it's demanding and difficult work, but when you're passionate about cooking, you have to do it, and it brought me here. After i came to the united states, I was 24 and couldn't speak English, and one of my close friends, a chef, explained in the future with him, and I moved here. I never thought I would work here in America and growing this fast. It was an outing, but it was a fun journey. It is a hard life but when you like it, it is a wonderful life.”
Photo Credit: Eric Striffler
It may well be a large amount of work, but Corbet and his kitchen team, which triples in size in the summer, are filled with passion, which translates to very palatable plates. If you're sufficiently fortunate to get a table at Lulu in the summertime, you can experience a few of their creative cocktails and various dishes, ranging from Grilled Spanish Octopus – certainly one of Chef Corbet's favorites – to Shakshuka, succulent steaks, vegetable platters, fresh fish, pizza, pasta and much more mouthwatering creations. He might be savoring his sweet success – and consequently – but Chef Corbet has stayed humble and learns his customers as well as the critics.
“The food scene is definitely changing, and I'm still learning every single day. I have been cooking for Twenty five years, and making time to listen makes me better. Only the other day in fact, a chef demonstrated a different way to cook things. After i opened my first restaurant on Long Island, I had been 28 years old, and that i paid attention to my customers and so i got busier. I had been friendly with my customers, and that i would go to the bar and get locals what they wanted to eat. I changed the menu, but I was still proud of things i was doing. You may be cooking for passion, but the person is still paying the bill!”
When you dine at Lulu Kitchen and Bar, you get both dinner and a show – after all, with their open kitchen located right in the middle of the restaurant, guests can munch while watching the magic happen! Regardless if you are searching for a romantic dinner or a lively party, Lulu Kitchen and Bar provides an intimate private dining room, so you can host the perfect celebration, family feast or soiree this year. Your summer got a great deal sweeter!
Dine in their other location, Duryeas in Montauk, where one can dig into Duryea's Royal Tower featuring lobster, king crab, pearl oysters, snow crab claws, jumbo shrimp, little neck clams and tuna tartare, in addition to their other tantalizing seafood towers. They even possess a seafood market and farmer's market, so that you can get fresh products, or even a lobster to-go!
126 Main St.
Sag Harbor, NY 11963
631.725.0900
lulusagharbor.com
