FEATURES

Click on any photo for a larger view.

TOLE BOOTH (click photo for larger view)

Among her specialties are classic Mediterranean flavors from her Spanish girlhood—clams with chorizo, and anything with lemon, onions and garlic. Amory grew up between Madrid, where she attended convent school, and a ranch outside Seville, where her family grows wheat, olives, sunflowers—and, yes, raises bulls. "I'm always there in April because my family has the first bullfight of La Feria, the traditional festival of flamenco and other fun," she says. When her Spanish family in turn visits Southampton, she puts out a very American shore-style feast on traditional, treasured Spanish majolica. "My husband is an avid fisherman—he sometimes brings home these huge striped bass," she says, adding that her Spanish family "loves the corn, the steamers—things they don't have in Spain—and for dessert all the fabulous pies like blueberry or raspberry or peach."

NOT JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE (click photo for larger view)

No worries about the lack of a formal dining room, either: "There's nothing like big, drawn-out family meals," she says. "We sit and drink, and drink some more and eat some more and go out near the pool. The boys play in the garden and we laze on the chaises, and suddenly it's seven o'clock and we have to get dressed for dinner." In the winter, she simply puts "round tables by the French doors with a view of the fireplace, so eating is movable," she says. "That saves the space of a dining room, which is always an empty space in a house otherwise." Other, more casual meals take place in the breakfast room off the kitchen, which has rustic red-and-white striped linens on a pine farm table, a striking contrast to the Scalamandré Kashmir-print shades and delicate, antique bamboo furniture.