Erlé's Truffles Are Big Hit in the Big Apple

Erl‚ LaBounty, who began studying the culinary arts in high school in Randolph, prepares a gnudi from a hand-written recipe at pane e salute in Woodstock, where he works as a chef.

By Marjorie Drysdale

Erlé LaBounty's Farmhouse Truffles, long-appreciated in Randolph, now have won the hearts and palates of New Yorkers.

LaBounty has just returned from a week in New York City, where his signature Farmhouse Truffles and pastry creations were featured Monday, March 12 at the celebrated James Beard House.

Located on 167 West 12th Street, the James Beard House is a Mecca for chefs, wine connoisseurs and food aficionados. There, on Monday evening, guests poured upstairs into an elegant hall, replete with chandeliers, fireplace, and glass atrium. Dinners were prepared by the osteria pane e salute restaurant of Woodstock; desserts were by Erlé LaBounty. The price was $130 a plate.

Once the private dining room of celebrated cookbook author and teacher James Beard, this hall lends an air of grace and calm to one's dining experience. Before he died in 1985, Beard, a renowned chef and colleague of Julia Childs, arranged for this home to be used to further the teaching of culinary arts.

LaBounty's desserts also were offered all week long at the fashionable Café Opaline at the Dahesh Museum at 580 Madison Avenue.

Just how did a young man from Randolph and Brookfield end up concocting foods to entice the palates of New York sophisticates?

The son of Matt LaBounty and Sherri McPhetres, Erlé started out his life at the farm on LaBounty Road in Randolph owned by his grandparents, Kermit and Lois LaBounty. At the age of 4, his family moved to Brookfield, but he still spent much of his after-school time back at the farm. There, he made himself useful, helping with chores, including feeding, milking, and cleaning up after the cows, heifers and calves. He also helped with the haying during the summers.

An Actual Farmhouse

LaBounty later named his truffles after this farmhouse, the site of so many childhood memories. When he was 12, his family moved back to LaBounty Road, to a house next door to his grandparents. That house was located just across the town line, in Braintree. So, really, three different towns—Randolph, Brookfield, and Braintree—can claim him as their own.

The idea for the truffles themselves came from an annual family tradition—the making of the Christmas truffles. In fact, LaBounty's mother, Sherri McPhetres, and his grandmothers, Lois LaBounty, Shirley Russell and Grace Brown, were his first culinary influences. They conjured up a variety of tempting treats in their country kitchens, treats that a young boy found hard to resist.

In his junior year in high school, LaBounty began to think seriously about pursuing a cooking career. He was studying culinary arts at the Randolph Area Vocational Center (now RTCC) under the guidance of Jim Graves, who exerted a tremendous influence on him.

"He emphasized the value of hard work," explained LaBounty. (Graves, for many years, also baked peerless doughnuts, cookies and home-made breads at his "Village Bakery" on Merchants Row.)

After graduating from high school, LaBounty enrolled at the New England Culinary Institute (NECI) in Montpelier. There, he spent two years "doing a little bit of everything," including baking, cooking, butchering, and waiting tables. 

Between his freshman and sophomore years at NECI, LaBounty interned at the Sagamore Resort on Lake George, where he worked in five different kitchens, preparing club dinners, hotel dinners, banquet feasts and cold lunches. The next summer, he traveled further afield—all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska—to work as a pastry chef at an establishment known as "Pike's Landing."

In the fall of 2001, with an associates degree from NECI in occupational studies and two successful internships under his belt, LaBounty walked into NECI's placement office and asked a former teacher, Brenda Furber, to help him find his first full-time job. Furber gave him a list of restaurants that she thought might need help. One of those restaurants was Woodstock's "osteria pane e salute." The rest, as they say, is history.

A Friendly Place

Hired as a pastry chef on the basis of his recommendations and resumé, LaBounty discovered to his delight that "pane e salute" ("bread and health") was a very friendly establishment. He had been trained to observe the proper hierarchy and therefore initially addressed proprietor Caleb Barber as "Chef Barber." But Barber and wife Dierdre Heekin, who is in charge of the wines, preferred that the staff work together on a first-name basis. 

The owners are unstinting in their praise of LaBounty's work. "He's one of the best things that ever happened to us," Barber said this week. "He relishes his work and he's just fun to work with.

"He is just as much a reason for the quality of restaurant as we are."

It was Heekin who helped LaBounty set up a web site from which to sell his Farmhouse Truffles, which were beginning to take off. They had first made their appearance in 1998 at The Blue Moon store on Main Street in Randolph. Owner Jan Reis joked that it used to be hard to sell them…because she kept eating them! They were chocolate-covered sensations filled with a ganache of heavy cream, chocolate and butter. 

Over time, LaBounty expanded his line; he now offers a wide variety of flavors, including such novelties as "orange and toasted almond" and "chili and nutmeg" truffles. One can purchase them in local stores, or through his web site at farmhousetruffles.com.

Pane e salute, located upstairs at 61 Central Street, Woodstock, combines fine dining with a warm atmosphere. The dress is casual, and the modest seating capacity of 22 keeps things intimate. The first course costs about $10-$12; entrees are generally $18, pizzas run from $10 to $15, and a prix fixe dinner with four courses can be enjoyed for $36.50. 

Compare that to the $130 a plate guests shelled out at the James Beard House for the privilege of dining on this same fare. Most proceeds from the dinner were donated to the Beard Foundation, which provides scholarships for young adults, and cooking programs for children.

Distinguished Guests

Among those in attendance Monday night were a crew from ABC's "Good Morning, America," loyal Woodstock patrons, wine purveyors, Beard House regulars, foundation supporters, culinary school interns, chefs, and the head chef from Café Opaline.  

Pane e salute offered their guests a choice of six different wines, six different hors d'oeuvres, four different entrees, a pineapple sorbet "palate cleanser," and, for dessert, LaBounty's "Farmhouse Truffles and Confections." These included cacao nib and Maldon sea salt truffles, and almond pralines with citrus.

It was the restaurant's impressive wine list, says LaBounty, that originally landed it the coveted invitation. James Beard House trustee Judith Stein, on a visit to Woodstock last August, happened to be dining at pane e salute, where Heekin manages a list of 100 varietal and regional Italian wines. (Food and Wine Magazine has deemed Heekin's the "best wine list in Vermont.") Delighted with her dining experience, Stein asked Heekin, Barber and LaBounty to submit a menu to the Beard House Board. Later in the year the board convened, reviewed the application, and extended its invitation.

Italian Roots

The menu at pane e salute changes weekly, and sometimes even daily. In his role as pastry chef, LaBounty bakes anything from bread to desserts. He also assists Barber, cooking on the line for dinner, helping to prepare tempting appetizers, salads, pasta dishes, pizzas, and entrees. Annual summer trips to Italy keep the proprietors brimming with new ideas for these meals. 

LaBounty, too, has traveled to Italy. His first trip, in April, 2003, introduced him to the restaurant Villa Fiore in the village of Torano Nuovo, Abruzzo, near the Adriatic Coast. Then, in 2005 LaBounty returned to this same establishment to work in the kitchen. He ended up spending three months in Italy— one month in each of three restaurants: Villa Fiore, which used traditional methods and produce, Borgo Spoltino, a larger, high-volume eatery in the town of Mosciano Sant' Angelo, and Masseria Gattamora, a restaurant in the village of Uggiana la Chiesa, where a younger chef was introducing new ideas and novel ways to combine ingredients.

Whenever possible, the staff at pane e salute obtains its ingredients, and even its flowers from local markets. For example, the quail dinner served last week in New York came from a Vermont enterprise, "Cavendish Game Birds." It was described on the menu as "Pan-Roasted Vermont Quail with Grapefruit, Rosemary, and Marsala, Served with Roasted Winter Squash." Mmm-mm! And the ricotta cheese used in the hors d'oeuvre, "Frittata con Ricotta Fresca," came from the Dancing Ewe Farm in Granville, NY.

Heekin, Barber and LaBounty did a fair amount of preparation before embarking on their trip to the Big Apple. LaBounty made batch after batch of truffles, loading over 600 of the dainty morsels into the car for the trip down. 

When the trio arrived in New York, they found a parking space right across the street from the restaurant. They took this lucky beginning as a sign of good things to come. And indeed, things went very well that night. "Everything went so smoothly," said LaBounty. "The staff at the Beard House was extremely efficient and well-organized."

Evidently, the positive impression was mutual: Pane e salute has been invited back for next year.