Woman of the Year Nancy Kouris is an entrepreneur with stage presence

If Blue Duck Bakery owner Nancy Kouris ever decides to reinvent herself again, stand-up comedy may be her next adventure.

The East End Women’s Network woman of the year had the audience in stitches last night at the organization’s dinner in her honor at the Birchwood in Riverhead, telling stories like the one about teaching a strip-tease class to breast cancer survivors at a convent in Water Mill. Yes, that really happened — and she had a photo to prove it.

Kouris is a natural in the spotlight and she thrives there, out front and center stage. That’s why being in the kitchen in a bakery, always in the background, presents a challenge for the outgoing, self-described “people person.” It comes more naturally for her husband of 41 years, Keith, the master artisan bread baker named one of the top 10 in North America by the national trade magazine Dessert Professionals in 2015.

The couple’s personalities compliment each other and Nancy Kouris believes that’s the secret to their relationship’s success and is an asset to their business. When she’s not overseeing business operations, she handles marketing and public relations for the Blue Duck Bakery and Cafe, founded in Southampton in 1999 and now operating four locations on the East End.

Keith, whom Nancy calls “the hardest-working person I know,” bakes hundreds of loaves of bread every day, supplying not just Blue Duck’s retail shops but other retailers across the region.

“Keith,” she said, turning to her husband seated at the table next to the podium, “We’ve been through it all together. Thank you and I want you to know how much I love you.”

The Kouris family filled one of the tables at the award dinner, where attendees included four previous woman-of-the-year award recipients: Virginia Lewin (1993), Carolyn London (1994), Ann Cotten-DeGrasse (2013) and Rosemarie Dios (2016).

Kouris was lauded by speakers who included Susan Dingle of Poetry Street, which the Blue Duck Bakery and Cafe in Riverhead hosts on the fourth Sunday of each month since 2014.

Asked if the Blue Duck would be willing, Kouris’ response was “Why not?” Dingle recalled.

“Her hospitality, warmth, creativity and vision have made the Blue Duck a literary venue — the only literary venue in Riverhead,” Dingle said. She presented Kouris with a poster-sized greeting signed by all the Poetry Street regulars.

Other presentations to Kouris included proclamations from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Riverhead Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith.

“I’m blown away,” Kouris told the crowd when she took the mike. “This is crazy. Listening to all this is kind of like an out-of-body experience.”

Since the award was announced, there have been stories written about her in local news media. “My face is all over Facebook. Total strangers are congratulating me.” Kouris strikes a pose — shifting her weight to one leg, bending the other at the knee, raising her hand to her forehead — “It’s not easy being famous,” she says, a perfectly timed punch line.

Kouris is an 18-year member of the East End Women’s Network, an organization founded in 1981 to bring together women for networking, education and advocacy. She said the organization has been, among other things “a great social outlet” for her, a “great way to get out and connect with other women.” That’s something she likes to do but doesn’t often get a chance to, she said.

She spoke about the “red dress dinner” she started after the-First Lady Laura Bush suggested the red dress as a symbol of awareness of heart disease as the number one killer of women.

“So I thought. ‘Let’s have a party,’” she joked. In 2003 the dinner drew about 35 people. Over more than a decade it grew to a fundraising event that had 330 attendees.

“Let’s remember, heart disease is still the number one killer of women,” Kouris said, turning serious for a moment. “So take care of yourselves. Get out and exercise.”

Kouris, a personal trainer and aerobics instructor, was asked by Southampton Hospital to teach a strip-tease class for breast cancer survivors. Though she insists she never had experience in that form of art, Kouris decided she could rise to the challenge.

The class meant a lot to the survivors, helping them get comfortable with their bodies again and improving self-image, especially for those who had had mastectomies.

“People told me this was the first time they had smiled in a very long time,” Kouris said.

A playwright who wrote a series of vignettes about breast cancer that was performed at Guild Hall penned one about Kouris’ class. The actress who played Kouris, the strip-tease instructor, was “very…robust” she said. She had “large red 80s hair and wore a leopard-skin body suit.” She hasn’t tried the leopard-skin body suit — not that she publicly admits — and the hair was a bit exaggerated, but the skit was otherwise pretty much on target, she said. And hilarious.

It’s not too often that an award recipient can hold forth and be so entertaining and funny, but last night, Kouris nailed it.