Tall, lean and Hollywood-handsome in his white chef”™s jacket, Brett August already knew whether he was TV”™s “Next Food Network Star” ”“ both the show”™s name and its competition-fueled goal ”“ on the eve of Memorial Day weekend.
But, as you would expect of a show that begins airing June 7 (9 p.m.) and runs consecutive Sundays through August, suspense is key. So, “I”™m sworn to secrecy,” August says.
He would say that for the first show his entrée was roasted filet mignon with a wild mushroom-red wine sauce. The series ”“ for which executive sous chef August submitted a video of himself making potato gnocchis in the Doral Arrowwood hotel-conference-resort kitchen in Rye Brook ”“ filmed in New York and Miami.
August”™s love of food as something beyond sustenance dates to his Orange County youth and to his parents”™ ”“ Eve and Steve August ”“ who loved preparing big Sunday feasts when the family, including sisters Danielle and Michelle, gathered.
“I was 8 years old, playing baseball and my mother would call out to have me come check the butternut squash,” he says. “I was the only 8 year old on the block who was roasting butternut squash.”
August”™s first professional food job was as dishwasher at the Barnsider Restaurant in Orange County”™s Sugar Loaf. He graduated from the now-defunct New York Restaurant School and, 11 years ago, began working in the kitchen of Doral Arrowwood hotel-conference-resort center on Anderson Hill Road. Today he is in charge of the three restaurants on site: The Atrium, The Pub and Mulligan”™s Restaurant, plus room service for 374 rooms.
“We run the full gamut,” August says. “Pan-seared diver scallops, fillet mignon and Chilean sea bass to burgers by the pool at the cabana.” A typical vegetable offering might be petit French beans or baby carrots, or simply fries with that burger. For dessert: “The sky”™s the limit.”
It was no coincidence August”™s mom used to call in her son from the sandlot. As August tells it, his youth was a never-ending sports program, dictated very strictly by the seasons. August and his 15 buddies played pond hockey when Goshen locked in for winter and then broke out the baseball mitts when the sun came out. Fall was for football. Basketball ably filled any gaps created by weather not conducive to other sports. He played both baseball and basketball on the high school level.
August remains athletic today, working out every day in the Doral Arrowwood gym and playing basketball in Central Park, near where he lives in Manhattan.
“And after a long day, it can be heaven to just sit back with the clicker and turn on the YES network and watch the Yankees. Food and sports is all I know.”
Besides the Yankees, August follows his mom”™s teams in hockey, the Devils, and in football, the Cowboys. When he spoke, his basketball team, the Lakers, was still in the hunt for the NBA championship.
Meanwhile, back at the grill, August was preparing to host a cooking demonstration incorporating blueberry martinis, scallops with watermelon relish and veal with wild mushrooms. He was expecting “about 200” to show up for the Memorial Day demonstration at Doral Arrowwood. “And at the end I”™m having my mom come out as a special guest. I”™m very family oriented; I think that”™s one reason the Food Network liked me.”
