Graduation Food Fest
My son David graduated with an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College this past weekend. Our family gathered in Wellesley outside of Boston, for the commencement. A celebratory dinner plays an important role in any momentous event, so food was front and center of our weekend planning.
Surprisingly, food also played the starring role at the graduation ceremony since the commencement speaker was Gary Hirschberg, chairman, president and CE-Yo (that’s for yo-gurt), Stonyfield Farm. In addition to Hirschberg, an honorary degree was bestowed on Irving W. Rabb, former vice chairman, Stop & Shop Supermarket Companies. I was pleased to see that Babson, ranked #1 for entrepreneurial excellence, recognizes successful food entrepreneurs with the same respect it gives to achievements in science, technology and any other fields of business.
Stonyfield Farm grew from a seven-cow organic farming school in 1983 to the world’s leading organic yogurt producer with annual sales of $325 million today, enjoying an annual compounded growth rate of 27.4% for the last 18 years. In 2001, the company entered a partnership with Groupe Danone, opening markets in Ireland, the United Kingdom and France, with more countries in development.
Hirshberg spoke passionately to the MBA graduates, encouraging them to embrace environmental social responsibility. And while altruistic, he illustrated how social responsibility engenders customer loyalty, resulting in increased sales and a more profitable bottom line. Loyal customers don’t switch brands, even when the brand is out of stock or when the competition’s product is on sale, he said, adding that companies who do good can do well because consumers don’t “check their values at the door of the supermarket.” Unlike the typical graduation yawner, this was a rousing, actionable speech to stir the graduates and the audience.
And now the important thing to all foodies — where we ate!
Our graduation dinner was at o ya, a hip, sophisticated Japanese restaurant located in Boston’s Leather District. The restaurant opened two months ago to enthusiastic reviews. I was confident it would be fabulous because I know the chef-owner, Tim Cushman. I’d had his food before when he worked as a consultant to Ketchum on menu ideation for clients. At that time, Tim was also consulting with restaurants around the world. We would fly him into San Francisco, where he would whip up amazing dishes using our clients’ products that would be turned into recipes and promoted to chefs and restaurateurs.
Tim has created an inviting space to showcase the food. The look is industrial, with a Japanese sensibility. The beautiful Japanese wooden front door sets the tone, welcoming you into a world of high ceilings, stylish lighting, rustic wooden beams, and a concrete and pebble floor.
This is not the place for someone who wants to gorge on food, but for anyone who appreciates the aesthetic — food impeccably prepared, beautifully presented, and every bite, just plain delicious. Since the menu of small plates is extensive and everything sounded too yummy to have to make choices, we opted for omakase, that is, to leave it up to the chef.
It was thrilling to see what exquisite morsel would come next — a clear chicken broth floating a perfect, melt-in-your-mouth dumpling stuffed with foie gras; a raw Kumamoto oyster with tiny watermelon pearls and cucumber mignonette; a few slices of fork-tender seared wagyu beef with a baby smoked potato, grilled onion and fresh wasabi. Lovely small bites framed on beautiful plates, carefully selected to compliment each dish.
My family raved about the perfect nigiri (small, hand-shaped sushi) of silky salmon tataki, torched tomato, smoked salt and onion aioli. And we were in raptures over the foie gras balsamic chocolate kabayaki, with raisin cocoa pulp. The unctuous glazed foie gras morsel sits on a little finger of rice and is topped with the raisin jam. The order comes with a sip of aged sake, an incomparable flavor match.
We are not sake connoisseurs so we were happy to have the guidance of Tim’s wife Nancy, the sake sommelier. Since we wanted to experiment, she suggested a glass of four different types of sake, from the very refined to the unfiltered, each with its own redeeming characteristics. The four of us sipped and shared around the table.
Desserts were equal to the meal. Shiso-infused cherries added a distinctive Japanese flavor to the warm chocolate pudding cake. Soy milk blanc mange was delightful, topped with Thai iced tea and Thai basil seeds.
It was wonderful to see Tim again and to meet Nancy. While neither are Japanese, they have created a perfect jewel of a restaurant that captures the Japanese aesthetic. It was a graduation dinner none of us will forget.
Where else did we eat over the weekend? The night before, we dined at the Blue Room, a Mediterranean restaurant in Cambridge, with talented chef Jorge Lopes at the helm. We had an excellent dinner of such appetizers as salt cod gratin, and ricotta gnocchi with spring peas, pea tendrils and proscuitto in a lemon-tarragon cream sauce. The whole branzino, wood-grilled with green olives, grapefruit, parsley and watercress salad, and pomegranate syrup was a winner.
And for our traditional New England food fix, we lunched at the Union Oyster House, the oldest restaurant in Boston, for lobster rolls and other seafood.
INSIGHT: From a provocative speech to some inspired meals, we enjoyed food for thought in Boston this past weekend. There is so much for foodies to learn and to taste, no matter where they go — it makes food just plain fun!
