Rob Handel Catering

Chef, forager, teacher

I’ve had a passion since childhood to create. Farm-to-table long before it was a buzzword. Creating everything from soaps and textiles to meals designed around locally sourced and foraged foods.

I am currently the executive chef at The Bees Knees Cafe, a farm to table cafe located on Heather Ridge Farm, an Animal Welfare Approved farm that raises grass fed and pastured meats, poultry, eggs, and honey. We're available to cater private events and curated dinner parties using locally-resourced, seasonal foods. Special consideration is taken for gluten free and paleo diets, vegetarian meals may be prepared by request. 

In addition to weekly brunch and lunch offerings, we organize a monthly "Supper Club" at the farm. This is a five or six course tasting dinner crafted with our own meats and complemented by locally grown and foraged produce, herbs, and flavors. I also teach monthly cooking classes that aim to provide a technique based approach to cooking that is accessible to cooks of all skill levels. For more information about the tasting dinners and cooking classes, please visit the Heather Ridge Farm website HERE

Please take a moment to review a sampling of my work on these pages.

 

Eight Treasures Supper Club

 
 

The Eight Treasures Supper Club is something we've been dreaming of doing for a long time.


David is Chinese-American, and had spent a lot of time as an adult trying, with varying success, to recreate the dynamic flavors of Chinese cuisine as a way to connect with his heritage. 


Rob is a chef, and had dabbled in Chinese cuisine before, but never really had a way to connect all the dots. 

One of the first things we discovered about our relationship was how extraordinarily well we work together, and after David got over his stage fright of cooking in front of a professional, we found that our strong teamwork very much applied to making food as well. Combining Rob's skills and creativity with David's cultural background, we quickly started turning out some pretty kick-ass Chinese food together.

We have long said, half-jokingly and half-seriously, that between the two of us, we make the best Chinese food in the entire Catskills. Rob is a native child of the Catskills, and has a strong understanding of how to imbue his cooking with a rich sense of place. With good locally sourced meat and produce, some of which we forage and grow ourselves, this very much also applies to our joint Chinese cooking. We are very proud of what we are able to create together, and we are excited to share it with you. We hope that you enjoy it, too.