HUDSON VALLEY CHEF’S TABLE

Chef Peter X. Kelly had a prescient view of the Hudson Valley. He knew back in the 1980s, when he started opening restaurants in Garrison and Rockland County, that the Hudson Valley was poised for restaurant greatness. “People who travel to San Francisco spend a few days in Napa Valley. People who go to Florence spent time in the Tuscan hills. We knew that the Hudson Valley could attract people interested in food and wine when they traveled to New York City.” With characteristic modesty, Kelly credits some of the culinary stars who migrated north from Manhattan with finally making it happen in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

In 2005 the Rockefellers and Dan, David, and Laureen Barber proved that city diners would make the trek to Blue Hill at Stone Barns and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, but it was really the Batali/Bastianich project in Port Chester—Tarry Lodge (opened in 2008)—that proved that suburban restaurants could be profitable. In the wake of Tarry Lodge, others followed, but Kelly was first because he knew all along.

In 1997, a full sixteen years before Zak Pelaccio debuted his Fish & Game in Hudson, Kelly took on the Bully Boy in Congers. “The Bully Boy had been a well-known suburban restaurant for forty years. It was on the way to the Catskills, plus the Bully Boy was a country restaurant, with fireplaces and charm. But it was dying a slow death, so I took it on.”

Upon installing his brother, Chef James Kelly, in the newly rechristened Restaurant X & Bully Boy Bar kitchen, Kelly began to serve soulful American cuisine in the landmark’s intimate, clubby rooms. Kelly redesigned the space with help from another brother, Ned Kelly; many of the seats now offer views to a sylvan garden and pond. Like the restaurant’s decor, Restaurant X’s menu slings newly fashionable, old-school classics. Look for beef Wellington, filet mignon with foie gras, and the luscious Roast Hudson Valley Lola Duckling, below.

ROAST HUDSON VALLEY LOLA DUCKLING

For the duck:

1 (4–5 pound) Lola duckling

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon crushed juniper berries

1 orange, cut in half

1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped

1 onion, quartered

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

1 stem lemongrass, smashed to release fragrance

1 large leek, cleaned and sliced lengthwise (white part only)

For the sauce:

½ cup Grand Marnier

2 cups chicken stock

2 shallots, minced

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar

1 pint pitted Picholine olives

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

To prepare the duck: A full 24 hours before you intend to cook the duck, rub the duck inside and out with salt, pepper, crushed juniper berries, and orange. Place the orange, celery, onion, carrots, lemongrass, and leeks inside the cavity of the duck. Prick its skin all over with a kitchen fork to allow the fat to drain as it cooks. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 550°F. Place the duck, breast side up, on a rack in a large roasting pan and place it in the oven. Roast for 30 minutes at 550°F, then lower oven to 400°F and continue roasting for 15 minutes longer, basting periodically. Remove the duck from the oven and transfer it to a platter. Cover with aluminum foil and keep warm as you prepare the rest of the dish.

To make the sauce: Pour off the fat from the roasting pan. Empty the contents of the duck carcass, including its juices, into the roasting pan. Deglaze the pan over high heat by adding Grand Marnier, chicken stock, minced shallots, honey and vinegar, gently scraping up all the flavorful brown bits from the pan. Pour the liquid from the roasting pan into a saucepan and add the olives. Cook over medium-high heat until the liquid is reduced by half. Add butter and strain through a fine mesh strainer. Keep warm and serve with the duck.

RESTAURANT X & BULLY BOY BAR

ROAST HUDSON VALLEY LOLA DUCKLING