Having a Frank Talk About The Art of Beautiful Food

Having a Frank Talk About The Art of Beautiful  Food
Food stylist Frances Boswell, who created this still life with asparagus, chatted with her friend and fellow food professional, Frank Way, on Zoom. 
Photo by Frances Boswell

Restaurant owner Frank Way joined his friend, food stylist Frances Boswell, for a chat on Zoom about food that is both beautiful and delicious — as meals are likely to be at Way’s new West Cornwall, Conn., restaurant.

Way was the owner of frank.food in Kent, Conn., until the pandemic. He is now working on a new restaurant in West Cornwall that is likely to open in May.

Sponsored by The Cornwall Library and hosted by Jane Bevans, the conversation happened on Sunday, March 6. For those who missed it, a video is available on the library’s website at www.cornwalllibrary.org.

The infectiously enthusiastic conversation between Way and Boswell drew 65 Zoom participants, who had the chance to look at the new frank. food site (still being renovated) overlooking the Housatonic from the West Cornwall side. The restaurant will be in the carriage house of the building known for years as The Pink House (although at the moment it is a creamy light yellow).

Way and Boswell worked together at Martha Stewart Living for years, and now are pleased to be back together as Cornwall neighbors.

Boswell’s life has always maintained a thread of a connection with food. She always loved cooking, from a young age.

But she had no experience in television production when Stewart asked her to take on a television cooking show. Although none of the food experts working on the show had any idea how to make a TV production, somehow it all worked out.

“That’s how life is,” Way interjected. “You just figure it out.”

That was something of a theme in the conversation between the two friends: Life throws you opportunities, and sometimes you just have to reach out and catch them.

“I have always said ‘yes’ to opportunity,” Way said.

Way first came to Kent as a weekender, but soon found that he was spending more and more time here. He was working for several large companies as an expert on “branding,” and found he could do much of his work from The Country.

Although he had no experience as a professional cook, a friend invited him to open a small business in a retail space she owned on Main Street in Kent. He called it frank.food, not just because his name is Frank but also because he liked the idea of food that was sincere, open and honest.

The restaurant did well for three years, even when the pandemic made indoor dining impossible. He laid off most of his staff and started doing take-out dinners — and was so successful at it that he was spending about 75 hours a week cooking.

He eventually gave it up, and was then invited to open in the Pink House carriage house by the property’s new owner/developers.

Way used his laptop computer to give a walking tour around the future restaurant space, noting the river view from the outdoor deck that will seat 40 guests.

The inside is clean and modern, with a bar counter fashioned of dark walnut from a tree on the property that needed to be removed.

The menu will be simple, with artisan pizzas produced by Joel Viehland of Swyft in Kent. There will also be burgers made with local beef, fish and chips, salads and more. Way said he is working with a chef to help make the cooking more streamlined and professional, but he will still come up with the menu ideas.

As for what a food stylist does, Boswell described her career with several major magazines, including Martha Stewart Living and its spin-off, Real Simple.

As a stylist, her aim is to create visual balance. She said that one of the first things she has to tell clients is to calm down the presentation; there doesn’t always have to be a “cheese pull,” the food can stand on its own.

Her Zoom tour of her city apartment showed a sea of sheet cakes awaiting frosting and due for plating and a photo shoot the following day.

“For all the downsides of COVID-19,” Boswell said, “it has made people drive their creativity to new levels.”

Boswell finds food essential to post-pandemic life and noted “how important food is as a connector.” She is looking forward to seeing people experience food-human connections at frank. food. The long community table is expected to be a popular gathering spot.

Preparing at full tilt to open his new restaurant, Way said, “I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m giving it 150%.”

Food stylist Frances Boswell explained to Frank Way in a Zoom last week how to take ordinary dishes and enhance their beauty. Photo by Frances Boswell

Food stylist Frances Boswell explained to Frank Way in a Zoom last week how to take ordinary dishes and enhance their beauty. Photo by Frances Boswell

Latest News

Webutuck graduates embrace their bright futures

The 71st annual Commencement at Webutuck High School on Saturday, June 21, was a time of celebration for the class of 2025. Classmates Luis Cabrera, left, of Wassaic and Alex Hernandez of Millerton, paused for a photo in the moments following the ceremony marking their milestone achievement.

Photo by Leila Hawken

AMENIA — A variety of paths will lead the 45 members of the graduating class of 2025 in vastly different directions. To mark the milestone, they assembled with family and friends for their Commencement ceremony at Webutuck High School on Saturday, June 21.

Pride in school and individual achievement was a clear theme as well as the joys of the moment. The weather was sunny and mild for the event held under a huge tent filled to capacity. The view of the far-off hills was silently symbolic.

Keep ReadingShow less
Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less