Nick & Toni’s signs a homegrown sous chef

Bryan Futerman, whose Water Mill restaurant Foody’s closed in November, has joined Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton as a sous chef.

It’s a homecoming for Futerman, a Long Island native who moved to the Hamptons in 2001. For the first five years, until he opened Foody’s, he worked as a sous chef at the celebrity magnet Nick & Toni's.

“The place was always an inspiration,” he said. “And over the last 13 years, we have both evolved.”

Nick & Toni’s organic garden is three times the size it was when Futerman left, the restaurant now hosts a Friday farmers market (starting this year on May 23) and has deepened its relationships with local farmers. One of Futerman's tasks in his new role will be to strengthen ties with such purveyors as Quail Hill Farm, Balsam Farms and Dock to Dish, provider of sustainable seafood. He's already enjoying picking herbs from the garden.

Futerman’s six-month hiatus gave him the opportunity do more work on behalf of both the East End’s Edible Schoolyard program, which has established farms at more than 20 local schools, and the sustainable activist group Slow Food: He’ll be a delegate to the international Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy, in October.

Nick & Toni’s is at 136 N. Main St. East Hampton, 631-324-3550, nickandtonis.com