Ferran Finds Second Culinary Life with Iron & Salt

When Michael Ferran handed over the keys to 36 Main Street, home of Barrister’s, the Southampton restaurant he owned for 30 years with his partner, the late Digger McMahon, in 2013, the idea of being in the food business again was the farthest thing from his mind. Ten years later, he’s back at it, on his own terms, making his own hours, and loving it.

It’s not a restaurant that brought him back to the food business but a fondness for baking.

“I had always baked some of the desserts at Barrister’s,” said Ferran, who after selling the restaurant had time on his hands and decided to branch out into baking breads of all kinds. One, in particular, was a favorite of friends and family: focaccia.

As the former owner of a village staple like Barrister’s, Ferran had friends in most of the shops and easily made them in those he didn’t. So when a friend started working at the new Hen of the Woods market, he brought a sample over. The owners immediately asked if he’d supply focaccia on a daily basis.

The focaccia sold out almost every day.

In between making batches of focaccia — a long process that involves making a “biga” the night before; adding flour, water and more yeast the next morning; three half-hour rises, plus shaping, resting and baking — Ferran fiddled with a basic cookie recipe that became his Brown Butter-Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie. It was also picked up by Hen of the Woods.

Last fall, a connection (full disclosure: that is the writer of this story, who also happens to be Ferran’s sister-in-law) at the Halsey Farm Store in Water Mill, asked if he’d a bring sample over.

A favorable review by the Halseys earned Ferran a place on the display table at the farm stand. Customers took to the product and this year, the second season at the stand, would come in specifically asking for the cookies.

Those who timed it right would be rewarded with a fresh, still-hot loaf, with the slight hint of rosemary fragrance. The cookies were soon added to the inventory at the farm stand and have become another favorite of customers.

Originally packaged as Mike’s focaccia and Mike’s cookies, Ferran’s granddaughter, 12-year-old Matilda, heard him talking with her father one day about branding. A short time later, she sent her grandfather her thoughts on branding, noting “Grandpa, our name begins with Fe, which is on the periodic table for iron, and we all know you like to put salt on everything, so you should call it ‘Iron + Salt.’” The name also fit nicely with the Ferran heritage, which includes ancestors who were blacksmiths in Maine.

A bakery — with one baker, one boss, in a certified home kitchen — was born.