Few American chefs can match the impact of Barbara Lynch. Her Barbara Lynch Collective currently spans five restaurants, plus a craft cocktail bar and a cookbook shop with a demo space. She is the author of cookbooks as well as the acclaimed and wildly enjoyable memoir about her hardscrabble upbringing, Out of Line, published in 2017, when she was also named to the Time 100 List of most influential people.
No. 9 Park, her flagship in Beacon Hill, and Menton in Fort Point are two of the city’s most elegant restaurants, with Lynch finding common threads between Italian and French Mediterranean cuisine. It’s a theme that extends to her more casual spots, such as B&G Oysters and The Butcher Shop. At Sportello, billed as “a modern interpretation of the classic diner through an Italian lens,” Lynch has built a temple of comfort food in a contemporary setting.
Reached by phone recently, Lynch says that the recent turn of events in the world caused her to re-focus on her restaurants and to get back in the kitchen. She reshuffled her team at Barbara Lynch Collective and is trying a fresh start. “I say to myself, Go back to what you know, get in the kitchen, cook the food you love.” With that, Lynch shares the five Italian dishes that influenced her career.
Tagliatelle Bolognese from Sportello. Credit: Brian Samuels
Tagliatelle Bolognese
Like many of the dishes she names here, Lynch learned to make Bolognese during her first trip to Teverina in Tuscany, where her friend and fellow chef Sara Jenkins had invited her to the family farm. There, one of the home’s caretakers, Mita Antolini, taught Lynch, by then a rising star chef working under Todd English at Michela’s in Boston, how to make classic Italian dishes. Mita, who figures prominently in Lynch’s book Out of Line, showed Lynch how to make a lasagna Bolognese using “tons and tons of sage, chicken livers, veal, lamb and pork,” she recalls. “No beef, because she sold the cows for the milk. She taught me how to make pasta. I knew nothing really.”
Sportello's Strozzapreti with Rabbit. Credit: Susie Cushner
Rabbit With Olives and Rosemary
This classic Tuscan dish is another that Lynch picked up on her trips to Teverina. (Shortly after the first, Jenkins asked Lynch to come to cook at her wedding on the family property.) The influence shows up on the menu at Sportello, where one of Lynch’s signature dishes is strozzapreti with braised rabbit, green olive, and rosemary. “The rabbit sauce is from her,” Lynch notes, referring to Mita. “The pasta is more Abruzzese.”
Gnocchi by Barbara Lynch Collective. Credit: Leah Haydock
Gnocchi
The beloved potato-based dish makes frequent appearances on Barbara Lynch Collective menus, starring with lobster, peas, and a mushroom ragu at Sportello, and appearing as “prune-stuffed gnocchi” with foie gras, almond, and vinsanto at No. 9 Park. “Mita taught me how to make the gnocchi by ricing the potatoes and cooling them down completely, and then adding the flour and the egg,” Lynch says. It was in Tuscany that she first combined the gnocchi with Bolognese, and the dish is now a favorite at The Butcher Shop.
Ricotta gnudi from Barbara Lynch. Courtesy: Barbara Lynch Collective
Ricotta Gnudi
Also at The Butcher Shop, the ricotta gnudi with tomato and basil is another homage to what she learned from Mita in Tuscany.
Lasagnette from The Butcher Shop. Courtesy: Barbara Lynch Collective
Pheasant Meatball Lasagnette
Another standout on The Butcher Shop menu at the moment is this lasagnette, which riffs on a lasagna she first learned from Mita, with a “light and fluffy” béchamel. Talking about the dish, she says, “I used to make it with rabbit but now I have pheasant, so I’m making it with pheasant meatballs. I love the shape of them. They’re tiny, tiny. It’s delicious!”
Barbara Lynch photo by Michael Prince