NORTH HAVEN—The home of artists April Gornik and Eric Fischl is perched above freshwater wetlands and surrounded by gnarled wild cherry trees that stretch to the sky. The path from the driveway, where a Chevy Volt is fed through a bright-orange cord near a bank of solar panels, leads past matching his-and-hers glass studios with wraparound porches; up concrete stairways bisected by collecting pools that ferry rainwater away from the house; and finally, through a native-plants garden dotted with Japanese maples ablaze in autumn glory.
The robust Lacinato kale patch outside the front door is a sign of the couple’s deep-rooted interest in matters related to eating. In 1975, when the two painters met at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Fischl wooed Gornik with mulligatawny soup, a salade composée and what Gornik recalls as “this insanely delicious creamy clam chowder.” (Born in New York City and raised in suburban Long Island, Fischl knew the chowder as part of his kitchen vernacular. He thinks the mulligatawny soup came from the Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook; the salad was “a half-assed attempt at dieting.”)
Gornik admits she was no gourmand—“my main food was Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Ragú spaghetti sauce”—but a few years later, inspired by a fancy French dinner-party circuit that some art school friends started, she got a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and, on an electric skillet and hot plate in the illegal office building where she and Fischl were squatting, turned out sole de bonne femme and a gâteau de crêpes with a frangipane filling. Did those early edible installations from April help seal the deal with Eric? “It certainly went a long way,” he says, wrapping an arm around his wife’s shoulders.
Dinner parties remain a big part of the routine. They regularly host holiday feasts, dishing up communal delicacies like Brazilian fish soup to a couple dozen guests. Other edible endeavors include Gornik pushing farmers market schedules and food pantry donations in the Save Sag Harbor e-newsletter, and Fischl re-creating historic Midwestern meals as part of “America: Now and Here,” his ambitious 18-wheeler mounted, moveable exhibit that raises questions about democracy, patriotism and trust in a post-911 America. Both artists have produced labels for Bedell Cellars’ Artist Series—a Fischl nude kicked off the series on a 2001 magnum of merlot, while a Gornik oceanscape graced the 2007 blanc de blancs.
Most days, they do breakfast and lunch separately. She eats lightly before noon to leave room for yoga and swimming. He sips cappuccino and munches granola. She tends the garden, stocks the pantry and books their CSA memberships. He makes bread—“a genius talent,” Gornik says.
Their home, designed by Fischl and built with the collaboration of architect Lee Skolnick, is adorned with a collection of sculpture, paintings and books that you’d expect from a New York art world power duo who both count works at the Met, Whitney and MoMA. From the main living room—a soaring barnlike space with a library that floats overhead—the home flows down into a cozy dining room and kitchen, joined by a floor-to-ceiling concrete and stucco partition, with heart pine cupboards and trim, that holds plates, cups and cookbooks.

And although Gornik and Fischl are two very different eaters, they share the conviction that what we put in our mouths can be both model and muse. “It seems like every couple of months, I’m wildly interested in cooking and I’ll need to make up a new recipe,” says Gornik. “I don’t really associate it with either a creative or fallow time in my studio. But I do think that cooking and making art and gardening are all parallel activities for me.”
The opening of “America: Now and Here” in Kansas City, Missouri, included two food events. The first was a lunch that featured jerky, hardtack and jars of lard. “One of the courses was preceded by a history lesson in which it was told that the Missouri River was once full of salmon, but that settlers said they would rather eat their dogs than eat salmon,” says Fischl. “The chef then served salmon hot dogs!”
At the second event, organized with a local artists collective named Bread, aspiring activists came to sup on homemade bread and soup. Attendees threw their names into a hat, three were chosen to speak about their projects, a vote was taken and the winner was awarded the evening’s proceeds. “So, yes,” Fischl says. “Art and food are intimately tied together.”

Who does the cooking?
AG: It’s me. He does bake bread, but that’s kinda it. It’s partly my fault because I’m kind of strict about health things, like butter. I’m a little bit of a kitchen dictator. (I’m tired of people saying “Nazi.”)
What’s your breakfast routine?
AG: I always eat two local, organic eggs, either from Bette and Dale or David Falkowski, and some bread from Eric, and chives from my garden.
EF: Coffee, two cups, cappuccino, first thing. I read the paper (digital Times Reader), do crossword and/or Words with Friends. Bola Granola with fruit (April makes it with maple syrup) and 2 percent milk. I’m a friend of [the designer] Nicole Miller’s, and Bola is her sister’s product. That would be enough reason to support it, but
it is delicious on top of that. We get it at Cavaniola’s Cheese Shop.
Eggs
AG: My mom would make me eggs when I was sick. Softboiled. Eric will tell you his theory that women like to eat eggs more than men do. He thinks that’s weird and cannibalistic. I think he thinks that because he doesn’t like caviar.
EF: I do find it unsettling to watch women coo and glee over a bowl of caviar. More so than men who also coo and glee over it. Ironic how upset they can get at birds that rob eggs from other birds’ nests but don’t make this connection to our nest or uterine robbery.
AG: I’m currently eating them scrambled. I’m a little OCD with my eggs. I’ll get into a soft-boiled thing and I’ll do that for six months or a year. Sometimes it’s only one egg. Sometimes it’s two. But I do find that if I eat two eggs and a piece of toast or a half a piece of toast, then I’m just fine for hours and hours and hours and hours.
Andreja Premium espresso machine
EF: I have a fancy espresso machine and burr grinder but I am not an expert. My coffee is organic beans called Hurricane Espresso I get from IGA in Sag. Every now and then I nail a great foam, but it is so inconsistent it plagues me. I do the same thing every day with differing results (which proves I am not mad, just inconsistent). My theory is that it is the milk’s fault. It seems when I open a new carton [it] foams the best but then over several days it becomes less and less certain. I will never research this theory, but if any of your readers have thoughts let me know.
Berries
AG: I like to eat red fruits in the morning. What the French call “red fruits”—strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. I get that at Provisions. They are high in antioxidants, and I like them.
Meat
AG: I’m not a meat person. It’s to a certain extent philosophical. I do eat fish, not large amounts, maybe once every two weeks or so. I curated a show called “Other Is Animal” at Danese Gallery. It was not supposed to be a “don’t eat animals show,” it was just supposed to show animals as having real presence and as being worthy of attention. Because of their consciousness. Not because they are cute or they look like us or even on ecological grounds. For Thanksgiving I ordered a Heritage Foods USA cruelty-free turkey. It’s not so much people eating animals per se, but the cruelty involved in factory farming. It makes me insane with rage and disgust and sorrow. To me it’s the moral elephant in the room of America.
Dreamfields pasta
AG: I should do an ad for this spaghetti. Actually, I was talking with the guy who sells the fish at King Kullen, about trying to find local fish. But then what I wanted for dinner was pasta. He said, “Have you tried Dreamfields spaghetti?” And I said no, because I like Barilla the best and I’m a total pasta snob. And so I bought it, and it’s fantastic. It has a lower glycemic content than most spaghettis, and it’s the best pasta I’ve ever bought. I recommend it, but the only place I can find it is King Kullen. I do spaghetti and arugula pesto from my garden. And kale pesto is really good, or just kale sautéed. My personal favorite is probably spaghetti and artichokes with tomato and mint.
Indian spices
AG: Here’s a funny story. I’m in a taxi in New York and the driver has a dish on his seat that he’s going to eat for dinner, and it smelled delicious. And I went, “That smells so good. There’s amchur in it, isn’t there?” And he said, “Yes, how did you know?” And I said, “I just love that spice, I could smell it from a mile away.” And he goes, “all women love amchur, what is it?” And I said, “if you don’t understand it, I don’t understand it.”
Ceramic egg tray
That’s Mae Mougin. She makes them. She’s great. It’s obviously decorative, but I use it all the time.
Tomato sauce
I have my own way of doing it. It’s not chunky, chunky. I like it with a huge amount of garlic, olive oil, bay leaf and salt.
Broccoli rabe
This is broccoli rabe from Quail Hill that needs to be eaten. Right now, I’m in the winter share of Quail Hill. But in the summer I tried Sunset Beach Farm, which is, like, just around the corner.
Garden
I just started doing the garden two summers ago. It’s always been, like, flowers and perennials. I said to Eric, “What do you like?” And he said, “Cucumbers.” I don’t like them really, but there’s this Thai fish soup that involves those long European cucumbers. And there was a seed package at Marder’s, so I grabbed it. And I planted them just like it said, five little seeds in a mounded hole. And then, like three weeks later, our entire yard was a sea of cucumbers.
Cupcake trays and baking pans
AG: I got into trying to make health muffins a few years ago. The baking trays are what I use to bake sweet potatoes and vegetables. I love roasted vegetables. I do that a lot in the winter. Eric used to make pies and cinnamon buns. And I begged him repeatedly to make them. ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have cinnamon buns?’ But then he’d probably put butter in them and I would be telling him to put less butter.
EF: I was a dishwasher at a pharmacy in Scottsdale, Arizona, [I] got promoted overnight to cook because the cook quit. It was a real soda fountain kind of place, and I was responsible for breakfast and lunch. The usual stuff like eggs any which way, BLTs, burgers and dogs, chicken and tuna salads. I also had to make a couple of pies and cinnamon-raisin buns each morning. They were edible but not pretty. I could never get the fruit to gel, so when I
sliced into the pie, the crust collapsed and fruit pooled. No one complained but no one offered to help me figure it out either.
Two Bengal cats
AG: We got one from a friend and another from the Southampton Animal Shelter [Gornik is an active supporter of the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation]. We take our cats for walks on leashes. When they see something outside it’s really cute. They go boing, boing. They bounce, like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh.
Breadmaking supplies (including assorted flours, measuring containers,
scale and Tartine Bread cookbook)
AG: This is his olive bread from a few days ago. It’s really delicious. He also makes an amazing walnut loaf. That’s my favorite.
EF: I’m not a baker. I just make some bread.
Cookbooks
AG: I tend more now to go to Epicurious online if I’m trying to make something up and I just want ideas. I’ll scan a bunch of recipes and make my own version. But I like the cookbooks.
Astier de Villatte china
AG: This company in France makes it. We’ve been collecting it for years and years. It’s a black or dark-gray clay with a white slick. It’s really a simple idea. I don’t think there’s anything like it.
Places you like to go?
AG: Nick and Toni’s. I like North Fork Table and I love the Vine Wine & Café up there [in Greenport]. And I like Vine Street Café. I think Cittanuova does a really great job. The nice thing is that most of the restaurants around here seem to be aware of using local produce and supporting local farmers. That matters to me.
EF: Almond (excellent). Tutto il Giorno (though I am not treated well there). Dockside (lunch in summer on the patio, can’t be beat).
Dining table
AG: Our dining room table was made by Eric’s former assistant, a great woodworker named Tom Brokish who now lives in Portland, Maine, but still does custom work down here for us and others. He and Eric worked on the design together. We have some pretty ambitious dinners here. I get nervous cooking and planning, but once I pull it off, when everyone is enthusiastic and happy, I’m happy. I do Christmas or Christmas Eve dinner. Every year with friends, which is really nice. I’ve done Thanksgiving for years and years and years. The occasional birthday party. And big dinner parties in the summer.
EF: For me all our dinners blend together into one continuous love affair with friends.
Brian Halweil is the editor of Edible East End.