Virtual Stirring the Pot: Thanksgiving, with Carissa Waechter and Roman Roth

Florence Fabricant, a food and wine writer for the New York Times, contributes the weekly Front Burner and Off the Menu columns, is a member of the wine panel and writes the pairings column for the wine tastings. She frequently writes features that appear in the Food section and also covers food and travel elsewhere in the Times. She has written 13 cookbooks. This spring, her latest, The Ladies Village Improvement Society Cookbook: Eating and Entertaining in East Hampton" to celebrate the 125th anniversary of LVIS was published by Rizzoli. Other books include Wine with Food, based on the New York Times pairings columns and written with Eric Asimov and The City Harvest Cookbook, both published by Rizzoli. She actually began her career as a food writer in East Hampton, contributing the column In Season to the East Hampton Star. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College, she has an M.A. in French from New York University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She holds L’Ordre National du Mérite from the French government, is on the Board of Trustees of Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y., and is a member of Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. (New York, NY). She and her husband, Richard, a retired lawyer, live in Manhattan and East Hampton, N.Y. They have two children and two grandchildren. 

Carissa Waechter graduated Dean’s List from the Art Institute of New York City and began her culinary career under world pastry champion Michel Willaume. Following a decade of pastry chef experience in top NYC restaurants, including esteemed 4-star chef Daniel Boulud, Carissa followed the food trail to Amagansett, NY where she developed close relationships with local farmers while operating the Amagansett Farmers Market with Eli Zabar. 

She launched Carissa’s Breads in the spring of 2010 based upon locally grown and produced ingredients, and that same year she co-founded the Amagansett Food Institute, a nonprofit organization who’s mission is to support small-scale farmers and food producers on the east end of Long Island. 

Carissa managed AFI’s South Fork Kitchens in Southampton, where she produced her breads and baked goods before partnering with Lori and Alexandre Chemla in 2016  to expand the business into retail and open their first flagship bakery in East Hampton while continuing to wholesale across Long Island and NYC. 

After three busy years it was time to expand to a second retail location, and the business’ 221 Pantigo Road location opened in the Summer of 2019 as a 75 seat cafe, restaurant and bakery with a focus on locally-sourced produce from its long-standing partners on the East End. 

A gifted winemaker, Roman Roth can often be heard singing in an enviable tenor voice amid the barrels in the winery. But most of all, he gives "voice" to his wines, produced by experience that covers three continents and stems from the dream of a 16-year-old boy in Rottweil in Germany's Black Forest.

Roman began a three-year apprenticeship at the Kaiserstuhl Wine Cooperative Oberrotweil while attending technical school as a teenager. Following that, he traveled to the United States, working at the Saintsbury Estate in California, then to New South Wales, Australia, at Rosemount Estate. Returning to Germany, he became a winemaker at Winzerkeller Wiesloch near Heidelberg and earned his Master Winemaker and Cellar Master Degree from the College for Oenology and Viticulture in Weinsberg.

In 1992, Roman became the first winemaker at Wölffer Estate Vineyard. He established the estate’s distinctive character —European elegance combined with the typicity of Long Island terroir. He has dedicated himself to promoting not only the wines of Wölffer Estate but of Long Island, where he has consulted with numerous vineyards.

Roman's contribution to quality winemaking on Long Island was recognized at the 2003 East End Food & Wine Awards (judged by the American Sommelier Society), where he was named Winemaker of the Year. Recent honors include Wine Advocate rating Diosa Late Harvest 2018 and Grandioso Rosé 2018 92 Points, Caya Cabernet Franc 2017 90 Points, and Fatalis Fatum 2017 91 Points. Caya Caberney Franc 2017 also received 92 Points from James Suckling and 90 Points from Wine Enthusiast. Our top Chardonnay Perle 2017 rated 92 Points from James Suckling.