Southampton - Le Chef Bistro on Jobs Lane is a true Southampton landmark, celebrating 30 years of fine dining this coming May. Eclectic continental with a strong Provencale influence, this warm and homey dining room has a French country, white linen atmosphere. Beautiful artwork adorns the walls and there is a classic oak bar for pre-dining cocktails. The restaurant is open every night for dinner and Tuesday through Saturday for lunch.

Chef/owner Frank Lenihan adding the separately steamed mussels.

Renowned for its year-round Pre Fixe dinner menu, Le Chef features three courses for $24.95 throughout the winter, along with the extensive a la carte selections. Nightly specials usually include an aged center cut veal chop dish and grilled fresh local seafood. Look for special wine pairing dinners throughout the winter along with other special events.

Galway born chef/owner Frank Lenihan, the sixth generation of his family in the trade, caters his menu to the seasonal changes, using local ingredients whenever possible, "At this time of the year we feature a lot of casseroles, stews and risottos. We feature many risottos, but the most popular is our seafood risotto."

For this installment of "Hamptons Dish" Chef Lenihan shared with us his recipe for the immensely popular Le Chef Winter Seafood Risotto. "We sometimes make this dish with saffron, but the purists like it plain. Cook Arborio rice in the usual way until crunchy, but not fully cooked. We like to use shallots, a good vegetable stock and a little white wine, stirring constantly. Set it aside."

In a highly heated medium sauté pan add a tablespoon of olive oil and an optional dab of butter; add shallots, shrimp and scallops. Straight from the freezer add a handful of garden peas and crumple a handful of fast frozen basil (a must in every winter kitchen). Add a cooked and quartered 1¼ pound shelled lobster and ¼ cup of white wine. Now add the semi-cooked Arborio rice, additional vegetable broth as needed and a pinch of white pepper while stirring constantly over reduced heat.

Add Romano or Parmesan cheese. When sticky yet firm, spoon the rice into a pasta bowl placing the seafood on top and garnish with 10 separately steamed mussels and fresh, finely chopped chives."

Ingredients:
 • ¼ cup Arborio rice
 • 1¼ freshly steamed shelled lobster
 • 5 medium shrimp
 • 4 medium sea scallops
 • 10 mussels
 • ¾ cup vegetable broth
 • ¼ cup white wine
 • 2 large shallots chopped
 • 1 handful of frozen peas
 • 1 pinch of white pepper
 • Basil, chives and Parmesan or Roman cheese

Le Chef Bistro is located at 75 Jobs Lane, Southampton, 631-283-8581, www.LeChefBistro.com.

The ingredients of Le Chef Winter Seafood Risotto stirred constantly on a low flame.