Ask food enthusiasts who have been influenced by the natural- and organic-food wave what they want in a restaurant and you'll get a variation on three themes: healthy, enlightened cooking that gourmands can enjoy, moderate prices, and a casual but attractive setting. Bruce Kazan's Main Course fits the bill on all counts. Established in 1990 in New Paltz, the restaurant remains true to its original vision: It provides contemporary American cuisine that emphasizes wholesome cooking using natural, organic, and free-range ingredients drawn as much as possible from local area farms. Recently, the restaurant underwent a handsome facelift, and its menu has been shortened to accentuate its specials, which showcase seasonal ingredients and creative cooking. Kazan, one of the Hudson Valley's most eclectic chefs, is also one of its most successful caterers. He points out that "while my restaurant holds its own in the face of heightened competition, my catering business has been growing at the rate of 20 percent per year." 

Bruce Kazan graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 1979 with a degree in business and economics. But he found his true calling during his college years when he worked part-time in the former Thesis restaurant in New Paltz. After a two-year sojourn at the Culinary Institute of America, he started his culinary career in the Catskills at Rudi's restaurant in Big Indian, working under Eugene Benard. Primarily under Benard's rigorous and authoritarian tutelage, Kazan says he "truly learned how to cook." During the 1980s, Kazan worked for a corporate chain in cities throughout the country and eventually managed the executive dining room for Chemical Bank in Manhattan. 

After almost a decade of city-based living, New Paltz exemplified the kind of country living he now sought. His idea was to create a chef-driven restaurant where everything would be made fresh from scratch; where there would be no freezing of meat or fish; where rather than relying on fat or butter to create flavor (a classic French technique taught to culinary students), aromatics drawn from diverse cultures would be used to create new taste sensations; and as he put it, "where food would be raised to an art form." Kazan wanted to work in a place closer to the source of his ingredients for cooking,  not one in which quality products were flown in overnight from, for example, France. He proudly recounts that "during most of the year approximately 40 percent of my meat and produce come straight from Hudson Valley farms, while in summer the number jumps to about 80 percent." The purveyors Kazan uses include Murray's all-natural chickens; Hudson Valley Foie Gras for all duck products; Valley Livestock Marketing Task Force for grass-fed beef; Coach Farm goat cheese for inclusion in salads; and Phillies Bridge, Taliaferro, and Honey Locust Farms for produce and fruit. 

To avoid the tight parking in downtown New Paltz, Kazan located his restaurant in a building once occupied by a bank, in the corner of an upper Main Street strip mall. Sixteen years later the original emphasis on catering and takeout food remains, but the restaurant itself has recently been refashioned into a warmer, more inviting, visually streamlined space. The long, stainless steel, glass-enclosed take-out counter has been shortened and supplemented by a small dining counter, with seating for four, containing a black granite top resting on a cherry wood foundation. Wooden chairs, tables, stools, and wine racks replicate the dining counter's rich tones. Black, light gray, and white square floor tiles lend a classic bistro-like look to the setting. Walls are faux-painted in a mix of lavender and ivory. They adjoin darker, complementary-toned upholstered benches located along a side wall. The work of local artists adorns the walls, adding an additional splash of color and interest to the space. Behind the dining counter, framed by an array of wine bottles and glassware in wooden racks, a blackboard menu lists featured drinks while two others list specials and food to go. Among the drinks, you can find Zen-Gria, a take-off on Sangria made with Sake, Fu-Ki Plum Liquor, and fresh tropical fruit juices; Sparkling Lychee Cocktail; and  Ginger Peach Bellini. The off-beat cocktails reflect the same thoughtfulness that goes into the planning of the specials.

Recent soup specials include unexpectedly delicious combinations: Kazan's carrot and coconut soup is Thai-style, made with vegetable stock, sweated onions, ginger, garlic, carrots, unsweetened coconut milk, lemongrass, and kafir lime leaves (which impart a strong lemon-like fragrance), and garnished with toasted coconut and red chili oil. His fennel and walnut soup, also made with vegetable stock, features fennel, onions, potatoes, garlic, and powdered toasted walnuts, and is garnished with walnut oil. Most refreshing on a warm day is a cold watercress soup with fennel, topped with a balsamic syrup glaze. The touch of sweetness in the balsamic reduction and in the fennel's mild licorice tang plays off nicely against the acidity of the watercress puree, which is made from watercress, vegetable stock, onion, and potato. This strained soup has a smooth, creamy consistency as well as an enticing pale green color.