Dressing Room Restaurant | A Homegrown Restaurant

Michel Nischan
As a leader in the sustainable food movement and chef with over 30 years of experience working with local producers and farmers, two-time James Beard Foundation award winner Michel Nischan wears many hats. Nischan is the owner/founder of Dressing Room: A Homegrown Restaurant, located at Westport (CT) Country Playhouse, as well as President/CEO of Wholesome Wave Foundation. The nonprofit organization’s mission is to overhaul the nation’s food system by increasing access to healthy, fresh and affordable locally grown food. Wholesome Wave and Dressing Room work in tandem to create grassroots initiatives that celebrate local food systems and heritage recipes.

Nischan’s newest cookbook Sustainably Delicious (Rodale) will be released in April, 2010. An author of two celebrated cookbooks – Taste Pure and Simple; Chronicle Books 2003 (a best-selling Beard award winner in 2004) and Homegrown Pure and Simple; Chronicle Books 2005, Nischan won a 2008 James Beard Foundation Award for his work on the PBS television series, Victory Garden.

A son of displaced farmers, Nischan grew up with a deep appreciation for sustainable agriculture and those who work the land. As a professional chef and advocate for a more healthful, organic and sustainable food future, he has built on those childhood values and become a catalyst for change and new initiatives in local and regional food systems. Wholesome Wave was founded in 2007 with funding from Newman’s Own Foundation and the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, and supported in part by funding from Grow for Good, a philanthropic initiative of FOOD & WINE Magazine.

Nischan serves on the boards of the Amazon Conservation Team, the James Beard Foundation and Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment. He lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with his wife, Lori and their five children.

Tor Newcomer, General Manager
Tor Newcomer has actively performed in “dual” hospitality genres in a variety of forms since 1980. Beginning in Greenwich, CT as an assistant manager at Jonathan’s Other Brother, Tor worked through a variety of both high end and casual restaurants, including the famous Landmark Club, The Terrace Club, the beloved River Cat in Rowayton, and The Great Room in Downtown Denver. Tor’s experience ranges from high-end table service to managing banquets up to 500 people. Tor’s other hospitality genre has allowed him to enthusiastically share music with many since the late 70’s. A master of up-beat, danceable Rock “n” Roll music, Tor has led bands such as The Vibe Bros, Budd Bottleneck and the Tall Boys, and Tor and the Newcomers. Tor is well known and well loved on the Tri-State music scene. Friday nights often find Tor leading our own Dressing Room House Band featuring Michael Mugrage (Orleans) and Dressing Room Owner Michel Nischan.

Tor will serve you, and he’ll sing for you…

Executive Chef, Jon Vaast
Jon is a CT native (born and raised in Fairfield) and now lives in Trumbull with his wife, Meghan. He opened the restaurant in 2006 as Garde Manger and has climbed through the ranks to get where he is today; learning techniques, developing new recipes, getting friendly with the local purveyors and mastering the art of upscale American fare using seasonal ingredients. Jon has a commitment to celebrating organic products, from produce to pasture raised meats to wild caught seafood. His recommendation on the menu, you ask? Try the Heritage Pork; it’s his favorite!

Kathy Oberman, Director of Catering
Dressing Room Catering Co.
Kathy brings a 20 year culinary background to the Dressing Room Catering Co. As a former private chef/caterer to Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward she also shares the same local, sustainable and organic views as Michel Nischan and therefore it seemed a natural fit to help create the catering arm to the Dressing Room Restaurant for Michel. Kathy’s background also includes food styling where she did a stint with Michel at dlife a diabetic TV show, cookbook recipe testing and development as well as having been an owner of a Fairfield based catering company with clients such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Gore Vidal, Chris Dodd, Giant Steps and the Hole in the Wall Camp.

Kathy also has a television background and was producer to Martha Stewart where she worked with President Bill Clinton and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, David Letterman and the Today Show hosts. She is also a contributing editor for “Eating Well Magazine” and “FamilyTime.com”.

Kathy is a graduate from the Culinary Institute of America, Food Styling program and The New School Culinary Master’s program. She is also a graduate from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (specializing in holistic nutrition). She is a member of the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance.