From tough childhood to Boston restaurant empire
Barbara Lynch bluffed her way in to her first real chef’s role, held her own and never looked back.
The only chef/restaurateur named to Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world, she now runs an empire of seven restaurants in the Boston area, while overseeing the seafood program at Eataly Boston.
Lynch unabashedly shares her most personal stories in her new memoir, “Out of Line: A Life of Playing with Fire” (Atria, $25). With grit and humor she introduces us to a girl in South Boston who personally knew organized crime boss Whitey Bulger’s influence on her neighborhood. That childhood reverberates through her cooking and career.
Raised by a single mother, Lynch writes of the time she stole a city bus, how home ec class kept her in high school, and how her first trip to Italy forever changed her cooking.
In 1998, she opened her flagship restaurant, No. 9 Park, in upscale Beacon Hill, and the James Beard Award winner has never wanted to open a restaurant in any other city.
Q. Give us a little of your background and how you developed an interest in cooking.
A. I was born in South Boston, a working-class part of Boston, the last of six, to a single mom. My father died a month before I was born. My mother worked three or four jobs to keep us off welfare. I, for some reason, felt like I wanted to be a chef when I was 12. I just knew if I could cook I’d always have a job.
Q. What was the cookbook that started it all for you?
A. My first book was a gigantic one by Alain Ducasse, and it was all in French, but when I had enough money I went and bought that. It was not about reading the recipes, it was just the photos.
My real first book is “Foods of Italy,” it had no pictures. A friend gave it to me, and I read it five or six times. My first trip to Italy, everything just made sense. I fell in love with the Italian culture. It was about the love of food more than your title or what you do for a living.
Back then we had great food writers, too. My mother would get Gourmet magazine and I’d read that front to back. It was fascinating. Patricia Wells would write in it, and Nancy Harmon Jenkins. I would call it armchair travel. Back then I didn’t even know where Italy was, and I was just fascinated.
Q. You include some very personal stories, from childhood traumas to your relationships and work. Why write this book now?
A. I really didn’t want to write a memoir, but there was a story in the New York Times business section about how did this girl get from point A to point B without a formal education? This agent from New York was really persistent about writing a book about my life.
No, I don’t want to do it. I’m too young. She just said you have a really great story, it will be a totally inspirational story.
So I wrote it, and it was really therapeutic. Thank God I kept journals from the time I was about 5. Q. Do you still keep journals? A. Oh yeah. I keep a journal because I’m traveling. I note what I see, what I taste. I always try to keep a journal.
What do you want people to take from your story?
Treat people with dignity and go
for dreams. what I you did want.it. I didn’tGo for think your I’d get that far, but I did it. Hopefully, it’s an inspirational book.
Q. How many cookbooks do you have in your collection?
A. Floor-to-ceiling shelves. I wouldn’t part with any of them. I have over 2,000.
Q. What’s a book you recommend for the home cook?
A. I love the Canal House cookbooks, “The A.O.C. Cookbook” by Suzanne Goin, and I recommend a book called “Patisserie Maison,” a beautiful pastry book that is doable.
Q. You’re now a member at St. Botolph Club, the exclusive club where you first waitressed alongside your mother. Is there anything that can intimidate you these days?
A. Oh yeah. If I had to cook for Joel Robuchon or Alain Ducasse or Thomas Keller, I’d still be nervous or intimidated for sure. I’m still insecure in ways, where I hope people still like my food.
Q. Is there a recipe you still make that reminds you of your mom?
A. I still make her meatballs, for sure. And her tuna fish, and sometimes her coffeecake, which was probably a Duncan Hines cake with walnuts and cinnamon sugar. Q. What do you want to be known for?
I always said I just wanted on my gravestone, “She was a great restaurateur, part of Boston history, and a great mom.” For me, it is being part of my community. My last three restaurants I built were part of this huge growth in Boston. I’m a part of that.
Q. What’s a recipe you want to be known for?
A. I’m known for the prune stuffed gnocchi at No. 9, and the butter soup at Menton.
Q. There are less than a dozen recipes included in the back of your memoir and no headnotes. How did you select them?
A. Those are part of my story: my first time in Italy, cooking for a wedding at Nancy Harmon Jenkins’ home.
Q. Was there anything off limits in the book?
A. I think I covered it all, and if there’s a television series, there’s more I would add. We covered enough to make it a good read. And hopefully, book number two. They want another one about my life now.
Writing this, I’m more confident now, I’m more me. When you’re holding all those secrets inside, you feel like you’re not a real person. I’m much happier and ready to take on the world now.