As a child growing up in South Boston, Barbara Lynch got an unconventional education in taste and initiative by shoplifting her first jar of pesto and crank-calling Julia Child. This self-taught chef, who on the first day of her first job had to cook for 150 people on a Nantucket dinner boat, began experimenting with food early on. Her mother was baffled by her daughter’s direction. “When I started learning more about food, my mother would say, ‘Where did you come from?’ I think that she was surprised at, and I hope proud of, my new interest,” recalls Lynch.
In high school, Lynch spent more time cutting classes than attending them—until she took a home economics class. There she tasted food “that I had never been introduced to in Southie.” Soon after, Lynch was trying out recipes from her mother’s Good Housekeeping magazines and wowing her family with twenty-ingredient recipes.
Lynch lied her way into jobs at restaurants, learning about Italian and French cuisine by reading cookbooks by Alain Ducasse. She ended up working under the acclaimed Boston chef Todd English, first at Michela’s and later at Olives. He had a hot temper and his kitchen was challenging and brutal. But English taught her to embrace big powerful flavors, and, more important, “I also learned a lot about how I wanted (or didn’t want) to run my own kitchen one day,” she says. In addition, Lynch, who has ADD, found focus among the clatter and stress: “In the kitchen, I can do anything and have a million projects working at once.”
After a few formative trips to Italy, Lynch hit it big when she was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in America for her cooking at the Galleria Italiana. That’s when she knew it was the right moment to open her own place—No. 9 Park; twenty years later, it still defines fine dining in Boston. Not one to take her time, she quickly opened eight other restaurants, including several in her old neighborhood in the South End.
Lynch now divides her time between a loft next to her Fort Point restaurants and a quiet house in Gloucester, where she lives with her husband and daughter. In her home kitchens Lynch is the perennial innovator—testing dried foods and experimenting with marijuana-based recipes. The long marble-and-granite countertop in the kitchen of her spacious loft is the kind of place you want to hang out with a glass of wine in your hand, sampling from the little bowls of olives, bits of poached lobster, and dried oranges. The refrigerator is a study in towering stacks of leftovers, basics like sliced bread and milk, and some local lobster ready to be tossed in a salad or nibbled on with a glass of wine.
CURRENT HOMETOWN: Boston, Massachusetts
RESTAURANT THAT MADE HER NAME: No. 9 Park, Boston
SIGNATURE STYLE: Simple Italian and French-inspired dishes
BEST KNOWN FOR: Her memoir, Out of Line: A Life Playing with Fire; several James Beard Awards, including for Outstanding Restaurateur (2014); and her many restaurants, especially Menton
FRIDGE: Samsung
- CORNICHONS
- COLD-BREWED GREEN TEA
- 2015, YVES LECCIA BLANC
- SILK SOYMILK
- DEHYDRATED ORANGE SLICES—“I use them to add flavor or texture to a dish. They’re also a healthy snack for travel.”
- ASSORTED CHARCUTERIE—(coppa, summer sausage) for snacking and last-minute entertaining
- LEFTOVER CHICKPEA PENNE WITH EVOO
- WHOLE ROASTED CHICKEN—“This was left over from earlier in the week. I like to pick at it during the week if I want something but don’t feel like cooking.”
- UNSWEETENED ORGANIC SHREDDED COCONUT—“I use this on chia puddings for breakfast.”
- VERMONT CREAMERY CRÈME FRAÎCHE
- PEPPERIDGE FARM SOFT 100% WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
- HOMEMADE MARINARA SAUCE—“I always have some on hand.”
- CHIA SEED PUDDING—“I prepare this ahead of time for breakfast.”
- 365 ORGANIC COCONUT OIL, for cooking and blending in smoothies
- MUG OF BEEF STEW
- CAMPBELL’S OVEN SAUCES CHICKEN POTPIE—“This is one of my favorite comfort foods. The Campbell’s oven sauces remind me of growing up.”
- WILD RICE SALAD WITH ASPARAGUS AND HALIBUT—“This is another leftover. I like to cook with light ingredients at home.”
- DOMAINE DU BAGNOL CASSIS BLANC
- MARINATED MIXED OLIVES
- NEOCELL BEAUTY BURSTS COLLAGEN SOFT CHEWS—“They help keep my skin, hair, and nails healthy.”
- PICKED AND CLEANED LOBSTER MEAT
- LIVE LOBSTERS
Q & A
You were raised by your mom, right? South Boston was very working-class Irish when I was growing up in the seventies. My father died before I was born, so my mother raised me and my five brothers and sisters. She worked several jobs to support our family, so we never really had much parental supervision. I grew up in a housing project, and became resourceful and self-sufficient at a young age.
Your first job was cooking at the age of thirteen for a local priest. Did you know you wanted to be a chef at this young age? I’ve been interested in food since I was young, and even though I wasn’t cooking particularly fancy food, it still sparked something in me. That job led to another at an ice cream and sub shop, where I waitressed and made subs. It wasn’t until my high school home ec class, though, that I realized a future in food could mean more than casual joints. My teacher, Susan Logozzo, deserves a lot of credit for channeling my energy to cooking (and for keeping me in school). I was also inspired by Chef Mario Bonello of the St. Botolph Club, who showed me the magic of fine dining.
Did your mom cook for you? Although my mother didn’t cook fancy food at home, I loved her tuna fish sandwiches (the secret is pickles!), her meatballs made with crumbled Saltine crackers, and her stuffing, which I still make every Thanksgiving. She worked such long hours, though, that she mostly left us to fend for ourselves.
Apparently you were quite the entrepreneur in high school, even though you weren’t very good at studying. Any stories you can share? I have a ton of stories, including stealing an MBTA bus when I was thirteen (my feet didn’t even reach the pedals!). My friends knew me as our high school bookie, placing bets for my teachers . . . or at least collecting the money. One of my favorite stories from that time isn’t actually from school itself, but from working at the St. Botolph Club, a private club in Boston’s Back Bay. During my first week as a waitress, there was one crazy busy night. I was instructed to send plates of salad upstairs from the kitchen in an old dumbwaiter, one tray at a time, for a party on the second floor. I figured I could game the system and save time by sending up two trays at a time, each one overloaded with plates. The dumbwaiter started up before I heard the crash . . . and all of the brand-new fine china plates went flying down to the basement! Chef Mario was fuming and fired me on the spot. Luckily, after a few days of cooling off, he hired me back. I learned the hard way that some rules aren’t meant to be broken.
How would you describe your cooking style? I love to cook simple things at home. When you start with good ingredients, you don’t need to add a million components to each dish. My home cooking is typically rustic Italian, though I love to rely on classic French technique.
What is your favorite food when coming home from a long day at work? I usually reach for whatever is easy and relatively healthy. If there are leftovers, I’ll usually dig into those (I try to have greens and grains on hand at all times), but I’ve also been known to whip up a PB&J or tuna fish sandwich late at night.
What do you cook for your family? What are their favorite dishes? I love to make one-pot meals for my daughter, who’s fourteen—beef or seafood stew, chicken potpie, pasta with beans. My daughter loves pasta—as do I!
What do you always have in your fridge? I always have eggs, a variety of dairy (lots of cheese, different types of milks, and crème fraîche), as well as lots of fresh produce and herbs.
What would we never find in your fridge? I don’t love fermented foods—so I would never have kimchi or sauerkraut in my fridge. I’m also not a huge hot sauce fan.
Are those gummy bears in your freezer? Yes, well almost. It’s a mix for gummy candy. Since legalization in Massachusetts, I’ve been experimenting with pot gummy recipes at home. I just got some Lego molds that I LOVE! My friends come over to taste them.
What foods would you never eat? I wouldn’t say “never eat”—especially not in the hands of a great chef—but I’m not really a fan of broccoli. Broccoli rabe, however, is a different story!
What is your favorite junk food? I LOVE Cheez-its.
Who shops for food at your house and where do you go? I typically do all the food shopping, unless it’s for a big dinner party and I need help! I love Formaggio Kitchen, run by my friends Ihsan and Valerie Gurdal. They now have three locations around Boston and they carry the best condiments, cheeses, wine, prepared foods, and extras you never knew you needed. When I’m in Boston, I often shop at Foodie’s Markets in Southie; when I’m in Gloucester, I love Common Crow. I try to support independently owned grocery stores as much as I can. I also love picking up produce from my friends Ana Sortun and Chris Kurth’s farm stand, Siena Farms, in the South End—it’s right next to three of my restaurants and full of seasonal produce from their farm just outside of Boston.
What is in your freezer? Blanched French fries ready to be fried, Brigham’s vanilla ice cream (I worked at Brigham’s when I was a kid and have a soft spot for their vanilla), hash browns, frozen pizzas (my daughter and I love Half Baked’s pies, made in Vermont), and some spoons to depuff my eyes when I wake up in the morning!
You seem to recipe-test a lot at home. I do! I love to think of new ways to use my favorite ingredients so I end up experimenting a lot at home. I actually have a line of dehydrated foods called MADE that I created to preserve fruits and vegetables that didn’t sell from my old produce shop. I found that I could use them to make super-nutritious meals at home really quickly and without much effort. Dehydrating can also intensify the flavor of an ingredient. I always keep dehydrated olives in my pantry, which add rich flavor and interesting texture to make a dish really sing.
What is your home cooking mantra? If you use beautiful ingredients and prepare them simply with great technique, you don’t need all of the other bells and whistles. You can never go wrong.