World-renowned chef cooked at the Legion Hall: Sandy Bermudez catered to all tastes

In the dead of winter on Shelter Island, you don’t particularly expect to find one of the most satisfying, comforting meals on eastern Long Island in the basement of the Legion Hall.

But sitting at the old bar in Mitchel Post 281, the sound of bowling balls crashing into pins from the two-lane alley in the next room, it’s exactly what you got from Chef Alejandro “Sandy” Bermudez.

He quietly served three-course meals for $25 a pop at the American Legion at the behest of Legion Commander Dave Clark since October of this past year, and now has wound up his run at the Legion. Wait until next year, he said, and he’ll be back. 

On one of the last nights of the chef’s residency, up it felt like a convivial Islanders’ night out. Lifetime Islander Stephanie Tybaert was behind the bar adeptly slinging drinks, serving the food and occasionally fixing the bowling pins when the old machine got wonky.

Neighbors and old friends caught up over a glass of something or other. Bowlers dashed in to grab a beer before the next frame. All the while, Mr. Bermudez methodically prepared the meals of the night, all ordered ahead of time via the hall’s dedicated land line or his cell, if the Legion’s line was busy.

The kitchen door was ever open, and you could spy the brawny Mr. Bermudez deftly stirring, slicing, pouring and plating if you side-eyed to the right from the bar or had a seat at the little tables on the other side of the partitioned room where photos of Island veterans and memorial triangle-framed American flags honor the walls.

Each week on the Shelter Island Neighborhood group page, Bermudez posted the appetizer and dinner options, served on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Things like hearty ladlings of minestrone, chock-a-block with multiple types of beans and veggies; tuna croquettes and Swiss chard fritters; excellent meatloaf with onion sauce and mashed potatoes; and fork-tender pork loin cooked sous vide, slowly and gently, for four unrushed hours.

His budget was slim, and he made the most of it with creative ingredients and techniques, trying to make all his regulars happy, like on Friday during Lent when he offered meatless options for the Island’s observing Catholics or just vegetarians looking for a night out.

He’s also had to get a bit creative with the hall’s old kitchen appliances, especially when it came to cooking meat — one of the pricier ingredients to serve.

That’s where the sous vide came in, a chef’s technique where meat is vacuum-sealed in a bag and simmered at a precise temperature in water via a gizmo called an immersion circulator, which keeps the heat at one moderate setting for hours on end.

Mr. Bermudez didn’t start out as a cook. Born in Manhattan, he speaks in a thick accent, but not a New York one — his parents transported him to Madrid, his father’s home, when he was just a baby. “I learned to walk on the ship,” he laughed. “That’s why I walk so funny.”

Eventually, he came back to the States to fulfill a dream of becoming a film director. While studying at Emerson College in Boston, he went to work making croissants for a Portuguese restaurant owner to support himself.

The chef at that place stopped showing up, and at 21, Mr. Bermudez found himself in charge of the entire kitchen. He traded in a director’s chair for a chef’s apron, and has cooked all over the world since, from the East Village to Ohio, Scotland, Peru and, of course, Spain, where he apprenticed at the two-Michelin starred Zalacaín in Madrid.

As for Shelter Island: He was looking for a change in 2019, when an ad for a seasonal chef at a little surf and turf spot called The Dory caught his eye; he’s been here pretty much ever since.

“I cater to the Islanders. I try to think about what they want,” Mr. Bermudez said. “It inspires me to try to do something different. It gives me creativity.”

Amy Zavatto is the content director for Times Review’s newest publication, southforker. Find the magazine at southforker.com