Alison Awerbuch grew up in a home where her mom read Gourmet and enjoyed entertaining — creating a menu, setting the

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stage, preparing the food and serving it with style. This upbringing planted the seeds that grew into her catering career.

It wasn’t, though, until half way through college that she realized those passions. She finished college with a business degree then headed to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) for another.

Her first job was at Abigail Kirsch, then a small catering company in Westchester. More than 25 years later, Alison is still with the company — only now she’s a partner, running and expanding the business and continually tapping into her creativity. Today, Abigail Kirsch Catering Relationships is one of the area’s largest catering companies.They operate The Loading Dock in Stamford; Tappan Hill Mansion in Westchester; The Skylark Lounge in Manhattan; and, Pier Sixty, The Lighthouse & Current at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

When I spoke to Alison for this piece, she recalled us meeting years ago when she interviewed me to be a Dame — a member of Les Dame d’Escoffier, a society of professional women involved in the food, wine and hospitality industries.

For that organization, we are currently working together on the committee for the second annual The Next Big Bite: Media’s influence on what we eat, drink and crave on October 17, 2016 in Manhattan. That panel — moderated by CBS’s Martha Teichner — will include Nilou Motamed (Food & Wine), Christina Tosi (Milk Bar), Carla Hall (The Chew) and Talia Baiocchi (Punch.com). Details will be posted later this month at LDNY.org.

– bonnie

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Which food product or gadget would you never give up? Why? There are three important items that are the core to my culinary existence: My chef’s knife —Like any tradesman, if you have the right tool, your job is not only easier but very precise. The trick is to keep it razor sharp at all times. I couldn’t live without my honed 10” sword!

Citrus — lime, grapefruit, lemon, blood oranges, yuzu… I use citrus in almost every savory and sweet dish I create, hot and cold dishes and in all types of ethnic dishes. I don’t necessarily use it to give the dish a strong citrus flavor, but instead it’s to make the dish taste “bright and fresh.” Adding a little zest or fresh juice brings out the predominant flavors in any dish.

Hot Sauce — yes, you read this right! Hot sauce to me is like what salt is to many others. I like to add a few dashes to many dishes to bring out flavor, not to make the dish piquant. I find the addition of a little hot chili brings out the other flavors of the dish, adds a burst of flavor and creates the feeling of wanting to have one more bite…one more bite. I vary the type of hot sauce based on the dish and my pantry is full of little bottles and jars, which include jalapeño, habañero, smoky chipotle, fruit infused and many other variations.

What do you like to serve when you entertain? I love to entertain, and I have set the bar pretty high since I typically go all out in creating not only a unique menu, but in creating a room and table design to compliment the holiday or party theme. I always plan in advance and leave as little as possible to do last minute. I like to have a long cocktail hour followed by either a family style sit down dinner or buffet style. Very rarely will I do a formal plated meal. This way everyone tends to mingle more and feel more relaxed throughout the meal.

Most recently I hosted a 4th of July get together. I carried out a full blown holiday theme with decor. From the time the guests got to the front door until the time they left, there was no question we were celebrating the fourth…with decor throughout the house, party favors, colorful beads and themed hats for guests to wear. On the verge of being overdone, I am optimistic that the look just hits the mark of having a little more sophistication to it than being thought of as tacky!

Guests are always greeted with a specialty cocktail or two. For this party, I created a spiked blueberry ginger rum lemonade & watermelon jalapeño margarita (served with frozen cubes of watermelon in lieu of ice cubes), both served from spigot jars with appropriate garnishes.

Once everyone arrived, we moved to the deck where I offered three types of grilled pizzas, which guests helped to create by having the group decide what toppings to combine on each pizza (I love to create some interactive menu options for my guests)!

Before we started dinner, I offered frozen mojito granita which I served in red, white & blue mini tasting cups, each topped with an American Flag pick.

Dinner was an easy-to-eat New England lobster bake…including all of the traditional components served in a more eating-friendly way (i.e. no cracking and very few shells!). Citrus rosemary grilled lobsters on the half shell, charred skewers of different types of chicken sausages, shucked clam crostini drizzled with arugula pesto, sweet raw corn & avocado salad, start of summer tomato, burrata & peach caprese, and sips of chilled summer veggie chowder served in tin mugs with homemade cornbread croutons.

Dessert included bite-sized strawberry shortcake biscuits and my now famous ice cream cakes. My mom used to make these and I decided a few years ago to bring back the tradition. My friends and family love them, so I can’t host a party without including at least two types. These are so simple and can be done well in advance. They are prepared in spring form pans and include a buttered crumb crust which encases the three flavors of layered ice cream, gelato and/or sorbet. A few of my favorites are a decadent chocolate cookie crumb crust layered with salted caramel, bourbon vanilla & chocolate hazelnut gelato, and a ginger amaretti crumb crust layered with coconut & pistachio ice cream and strawberry sorbet. I mix up the flavors based on the season. I serve them with a variety of sauces such as warm caramel, chocolate and fresh berry sauces and whipped cream. Everyone goes crazy over this…even the most die-hard healthy eaters have at least two pieces!

Describe your “last meal?” Microwavable soup! Just kidding, that’s an inside joke since I eat this most days for lunch! My last meal would include a just caught whole grilled fish such as branzino or dorade drizzled with olive oil, lemon and savory herbs; margherita pizza from a wood burning oven; a pint of gelato filled with at least three flavors (almost any flavors will do); and a bottle of Amarone wine…of course I would be on the Amalfi Coast enjoying this meal!

What food is your secret guilty pleasure? Buffalo wings…I eat these very rarely, but when I do, everyone is stunned. It’s very different than my typically healthy diet which includes very little poultry or red meat. I am pretty discerning so there are only a few places I’ll order them…and I am OK with eating three to four and feeling satisfied…but boy, at times, do I crave them!

What is your go-to neighborhood restaurant? I spend part of my time in NYC and part of my time in CT so I have a favorite in each locale and funny, I just realized that two of my favorites both have a similarity in name, but name only!

In NYC I love Decoy in the West Village, just a few blocks from my apartment. My favorite is going with a group of five to six and ordering the special tasting menu. You actually get to select a great variety of dishes from the regular menu (served along with a few surprises) and the meal finishes with their outstanding Peking Duck (served with a palette cleanser of duck broth before you dig in). I also like to go there and sit at the bar and order one of their great cocktails and have a few appetizers.

In Westport, CT, I am torn between The Black Duck, a real dive place located on what used to be a barge that got recent recognition on the Diner & Drive-In show. It’s like Cheers…with an eclectic crowd, great bar food and fun atmosphere. This is one of the two places I get my buffalo wings! The other places I adore in Westport are Kawa Ni and The Whelk. They’re located one block apart with the same owner/chef, but one offers the best and most unique fish dishes, and the other offers the best and most unique Asian dishes. Both are casual, and what I often do is start at The Whelk for a cocktail and appetizers, and then walk to Kawa Ni for dinner and have a sake bomb shooter!

What is one food product most people don’t know about, but should? Togarashi spice, which is a traditional Japanese mixed spice featuring chili pepper, orange peel, black sesame, white sesame, ginger, Japanese pepper and seaweed. It can easily be found in Asian grocery stores and online. I like to use it to flavor soups, broths and sauces and as a finishing dust on fish, poultry, grain dishes and salads. A little goes a long way and when you use just enough, you get bursts of heat, citrus & spice. With this spice, you need very little of other flavors or seasoning to build flavor complexity to a dish.

Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it: My worst professional kitchen disaster took place many years ago when we were serving gazpacho as a first course at a high profile benefit gala dinner. We prepared the gazpacho the day before the event for the 500 guests and packed it in chilled Cambro thermos so it would stay icy cold. When we determined the portioning of the soup, we measured the bowl being used and we added several extra gallons so we’d be all set.

At the event, we plated the appetizer just prior to guests being seated since the host wanted the soup to be pre-set on the table as guests walked in the room. Twenty minutes before the guests were to enter, we realized we had only plated 450 bowls and had no more soup left! I didn’t have time to figure out why this happened, but I needed to make something happen. I got the bartenders to bring me 8 bottles of bloody mary mix and I got the servers from the reception to bring me all of the extra crudité vegetables and I mixed everything together to make up the 50 extra portions. Ironically, several of the guests who got the “made-to-order” gazpacho asked for the recipe. So what happened, the day before the event, the host contacted the rental company and changed the pattern of the bowl they were using…the new bowl held one ounce more soup than the one we measured (and with 500 portions, that’s a lot of soup!)

Who was your most influential mentor? My mother, grandmother and aunts. All were fantastic cooks, but my mom was the rock star. This is going back to the 1970s and 1980s when I was very young and watched her do her magic in the kitchen. Back then, recreational “gourmet” cooking was not the norm, but my mom would read cookbooks (The Joy of Cooking), read magazines (Gourmet and Bon Appetit), watch the few cooking shows that existed at the time (Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and The Galloping Gourmet!) and she would entertain and host parties in the most creative and lavish ways, both in the menus she designed as well as the table set, beverage elements, etc.

Describe an event that changed/redirected your career. My real redirection came about when I was in college. I was a pre-med student at The University of Michigan. Two years into the program, I realized that this career path wasn’t for me. I volunteered in hospitals and worked in a doctor’s office to gain experience and I was very unhappy, partly because I didn’t like the sight of blood or the idea of “hurting” people (although I know doctor’s heal patients).

So I thought long and hard about what I loved to do and what I was passionate about…and I realized cooking and entertaining was at the top of the list.

In the mid-80s, this was not the ideal career path for a pretty intelligent young woman, but I decided to give it a shot. In between my sophomore and junior year at college I worked two jobs cooking, doing pretty menial tasks and working 14-16 hours a day, and I LOVED IT! I decided to continue back at college and get my bachelor’s degree before pursuing a career in the culinary world. So during my last two years, I worked with a catering company close to campus and that solidified that catering and special events was the career path for me. When I graduated U-M, I went to The Culinary Institute of America and have never looked back…loving what I do each and every day!

To follow Alison Awerbuch on Twitter, click here and for Instagram, click here.