Alison Becker Hurt has been in the restaurant business for twenty years.
Born and raised in New York City, she attended the Hewitt School, and Choate
- Rosemary Hall, from which she graduated in 1974. Deciding to embark on
an acting career she was chosen by the Professional Acting School at Boston
University, which she attended for two years. She later returned to New
York, where she attended Columbia University.
Alison started acting professionally at age 16 and continued
on through her twenties. However, her
avid interest in food kept her around the restaurant and catering
businesses. At
one point she was prepping for a caterer
during the day, performing in a play at the American Place
Theater at night, and cooking
the late night shift at a rock and
roll hangout on the Upper East Side. In 1981, she costarred
as one of the pink ladies
in the film “Grease 2.” Harper’s Bazaar magazine
named her a future star of the eighties.
But after performing in a television series (“Boone”),
two movies, and a play at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles,
she vowed never
to audition again. Instead, she decided
to return to the food business full-time and put her acting
career behind.
Alison quickly acquired experience in management starting
at the bottom and working her way up. She was offered a job
answering phones with Jonathan Waxman at what was to be Bud's;
from there The Gotham Bar and Grill found her and hired her
as assistant manager. She was subsequently promoted to night
and banquet manager in a very short time. At the Gotham, Serge
Raoul and Thomas Keller discovered Alison, who then asked her
to be General Manager at what was soon to be Rakel.
In May of 1989, after one year at Rakel, Alison opened ALISON
ON DOMINICK STREET, featuring Basque-influenced
food. The restaurant received three
star rave reviews in almost every publication
imaginable, and continued to do so
until its closing in 2002. In 1993
the restaurant received the first of ten prestigious
DiRona awards. In 1995, the restaurant
garnered a Wine Enthusiast Restaurant
Award, a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, and
the highest ratings ever in all the
guidebooks. In 1996, Alison On Dominick
Street was named one of the “top twenty” restaurants
in New York by Gourmet magazine and
Manhattan File magazine.
In July of 1996, Alison opened ALISON BY THE BEACH, in Sagaponack,
New York, featuring country French
cuisine that once again won rave reviews from critics and customers.
In 1999 Alison
wrote her first cookbook, Kitchen Suppers,
which was published by Doubleday. In 2004, Alison moved her
Long Island restaurant
to its present location in Bridgehampton,
New York, and changed the name to simply ALISON. Great reviews
and accolades have
followed Alison wherever she has moved.
Located in the heart of the Hamptons, ALISON is a “warm & welcoming” hot
spot with “unique & impeccable” food created
by renowned chef Robert Gurvich. The
charming décor
and meticulous staff expected of Alison,
adds to a truly quintessential experience and offers simple,
yet elegant dining whether blue
jeans or black tie. The garden dining
room serves as the perfect place to have a private dinner event,
or one can take advantage
of Alison’s superlative off premise catering.
In addition to being the dining magnet that it is by celebrity
starlets Scarlet Johannson, Christie
Turlington, Ed Burns, Christie Brinkley,
Julianne Moore, Betsey Johnson, Julianna
Margulies, Shirley MacLaine, Andrew
Stein, Richard Shelton, Roy Scheider,
Richard Price, artists Chuck Close
and Robert Dash among others, Alison has teamed
up with East End Books to present the
Authors Round Table Dinner Series for
both food and book lovers alike. Alison offers
patrons a three-course meal and discussion
with well-known authors such as Holly
Peterson, Paul Saltzman, Carrie Karasyov, Ann
Liguori, Tracy Hotchner and many others.
Alison is currently working on projects that could take her
brand to television, and writing another
cookbook. She lives in Sag Harbor with her husband Harry
Hurt III and son Harrison.
Robert Gurvich has returned to
New York as Executive Chef of Four Food Studio and Cocktail Salon
in Melville. He was recently in Palm Beach working with his old
mentor Daniel Boulud as the banquet chef at Café Boulud handling all banquets as well as off-premise catering. Prior to Café Boulud,
Mr. Gurvich had been the Executive Chef of Alison By the Beach
in the Hamptons since February 1998 as well as Alison Hurt's
other namesake restaurant in Manhattan, Alison on Dominick. Before
Alison's, he was Executive Sous Chef at Paul Bertolli's Oliveto's
in Berkeley, California, which serves Northern Italian cuisine.
He also held positions of Executive Chef at The Rose Garden Inn,
in Berkeley, California, Chef de Partie at Restaurant Daniel
in NYC, and Sous Chef at Aqua in San Francisco. As Sous Chef/Lead
Cook at Spago's in Las Vegas, Mr. Gurvich was part of the opening
team.
Mr. Gurvich, a New Orleans native began his culinary career at age 19 as a waiter at Commander's Palace, the landmark restaurant owned by his godparents' Dick and Lynn Brennan. Though he felt the urge to cook, he chose other options before becoming a chef. He ran a seafood company and soft shell crab operation in southern Louisiana. Rather than attend culinary school, Mr. Gurvich decided to learn his craft on the job, working for a then unknown Emeril Lagasse at Commander's Palace. Mr. Gurvich enjoyed the immediate gratification of seeing empty plates return to the kitchen, and soon he was working in some of the top restaurants in the country. Over the years he has worked with a variety of cuisines, from the Asian Californian fusion of Spago, to the classic French of Restaurant Daniel, and seafood at Aqua. Along the way his cooking has garnished multiple star reviews, as well as gratitude from many appreciative diners. Mr. Gurvich now moves to a different venture with Four's seasonal New American concept.
