Background
Barbara Lynch was born on March 19, 1964, in Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in South Boston during the era of desegregation busing.
2009
552 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Restaurantuer and chef Barbara Lynch and a whole pig at The Butcher Shop in Boston's South End in 2009. Restaurantuer and chef Barbara Lynch and a whole pig at The Butcher Shop in Boston's South End in 2009. –Dina Rudick / The Boston Globe
1996
125 Salem St, Boston, MA 02113, USA
Chef Barbara Lynch At Galleria Italiana
1996
125 Salem St, Boston, MA 02113, USA
Barbara Lynch, chef at Galleria Italiana, 177 Tremont Street, poses with loaves of bread.
1996
125 Salem St, Boston, MA 02113, USA
Chef Barbara Lynch poses at Galleria Italiana on July 16, 1996.
1997
9 Park St, Boston, MA 02108, USA
Lynch in 1997 as she prepared to open No. 9 Park.
2003
550 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116, USA
B&G Oysters
2008
348 Congress St, Boston, MA 02210, USA
Barbara Lynch, at Sportello, one of her Boston restaurants, defied the odds in a high-risk industry.
2008
348 Congress St, Boston, MA 02210, USA
In fall 2008 Barbara launched a concept in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood: Drink, a bar dedicated to the craft of the cocktail.
2008
354 Congress St, Boston, MA 02210, USA
Lynch in the kitchen at Menton.
2009
Amelia Earhart Award
2009
552 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Restaurantuer and chef Barbara Lynch and a whole pig at The Butcher Shop in Boston's South End in 2009. Restaurantuer and chef Barbara Lynch and a whole pig at The Butcher Shop in Boston's South End in 2009. –Dina Rudick / The Boston Globe
2009
102 Waltham St, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Barbara Lynch, left, holds a demo class with Chef Molly Loveday, right, at Stir, in Boston, MA on Monday, August 31, 2009.
2013
James Beard Foundation Award
2015
354 Congress St, Boston, MA 02210, USA
Menton chef de cuisine Scott Jones and chef-owner Barbara Lynch pose at the restaurant’s new Gold Bar.
2017
550 Tremont St (6,833.62 km) Boston 02116
Barbara Lynch Gruppo
2017
In April 2017, Lynch released a memoir titled "Out of Line, A Life playing with Fire," in the memoir Lynch opens up about her personal life.
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Barbara Lynch
Lynch at age 7 or 8.
Barbara Lynch was born on March 19, 1964, in Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in South Boston during the era of desegregation busing.
Lynch did not complete high school. At the age of 13, got her first kitchen job cooking at a local rectory. It was in high school, however, that an influential home economics teacher and a job working with Chef Mario Bonello at Boston’s esteemed St. Botolph Club piqued her interest in one day becoming a professional chef.
During her early twenties, Barbara worked under some of Boston’s greatest culinary talents. After working with Todd English for several years at Michaela’s and Olives, Barbara traveled to Italy where she learned about Italian cuisine firsthand from local women. She returned to Boston and became the executive chef at Galleria Italiana, bringing national acclaim to the tiny trattoria when she captured Food & Wine's “Ten Best New Chefs in America” award.
In 1998, Barbara opened a restaurant of her own, No. 9 Park, in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The restaurant immediately received rave reviews from publications around the country and was named one of the “Top 25 New Restaurants in America” by Bon Appétit and “Best New Restaurant” by Food & Wine.
Barbara expanded her presence in Boston by opening two restaurants in the South End in 2003: B&G Oysters, serving exquisitely fresh oysters and New England classics, and The Butcher Shop, a wine bar and full service butcher shop. Barbara continued to grow her culinary empire by opening three unique concepts in succession: in 2005, Niche Catour, a catering company; Plum Produce in September 2006; and next door, Stir, a demonstration kitchen and cookbook store in 2007.
In fall 2008 Barbara launched two concepts in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood: Drink, a bar dedicated to the craft of the cocktail, and Sportello (Italian for counter service), Barbara’s modern interpretation of a diner. Her catering company, 9 at Home (formerly Niche Catour), relocated to Fort Point in 2008 as well. In spring 2010 Barbara and her team opened an eagerly anticipated third concept in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood, Menton, a fine dining restaurant.
Barbara's first cookbook, Stir: Mixing It Up in The Italian Tradition, was published by Houghton Mifflin in fall 2009.
As the CEO of Barbara Lynch Gruppo, Barbara oversees the operations of eight concepts and employs over 200 people.
In addition to running her company, each year she dedicates time and resources to several neighborhood organizations around Boston as well as a number of local and national philanthropic missions. In 2011, she and the Gruppo team launched an initiative dedicated to cultivating healthy, sustainable eating habits through hands-on learning in gardens and classrooms at Boston's at-risk schools.
Quotations:
Having a balance in life: “You have to separate yourself. I love my space, so there are times I don’t want to talk to anybody. A lot of my chefs are young, and if I’m with them all the time then I see the bad things. In order to create menus and innovate so we can grow, I can’t be in the eye of the storm. I have to be out of it.”
Building a successful team: “I love my team, I love my staff. I started with 30 employees, now I have 280, and they’re great! I call them “misfits.” It’s so powerful that, if you don’t love food, you don’t love hospitality, then you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb. You’re not going to work as hard as everybody else, and you’re not going to make it.”
The customer experience: “I hope there’s a wow factor with all my restaurants. I’m not an over-the-top kind of a person, so if you have dinner here, you’re going to notice that our silverware is beautiful but it’s not too extravagant and there aren’t so many of them that is too overwhelming. If Joe Schmo has never gone out eating before, he’s going to get luxury and elegance here but not be intimidated.”
On the brilliance of molecular food: “I’m not molecular, it’s not how I cook or how I like to eat. But I love Ferran Adria, I think he’s brilliant. But it would take me another 25 years to learn how to cook that way, because I don’t know science that well. I love what they’re doing, they’re pushing the envelope. I feel so lucky I get to witness molecular food, it’s like when haut cuisine became haut cuisine.”
Dealing with sexism in culinary industry: “There is some, timing is everything and I don’t play a game. Some people don’t come around, so it’s almost like being an artist. I can’t appeal to everybody, but I know I appeal to my staff, I know it resonates with them. I know I appeal to a lot of winemakers in the world, and that’s what makes me tick. For me, I’m confident enough in my industry with the people I like to surround myself with, good people with similar views and values. If I don’t get recognized, it’s okay, I’m happy with it. But the fact that I do get the recognition from people like Thomas Keller, who comes in for dinner. That means to me: I’ve arrived.”
Respect for an amazing staff: “I’m very proud to create a culinary profession, not a temporary restaurant job. I’m so proud of everyone that I work with, they are my success. I’m simply the visionary person, they’re the ones who believe in it. They sell it, they push it. Why wouldn’t you want to treat them with respect and dignity?”
She is a member of distinguished industry organizations including the Bocuse d’Or USA’s Culinary Council, Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, and Les Maîtres Cuisiniers.
Her favorite food is spicy hummus and cucumbers and lettuce. But she loves fried clams and French fries too.
Barbara married Charles Petri in 1997.