Dan Barber

Last updated
Dan Barber
Dan Barber of Blue Hill.jpg
Born (1969-10-02) October 2, 1969 (age 54)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Education French Culinary Institute
Tufts University
SpouseAria Beth Sloss
Children2
Culinary career
Cooking style Farm-to-table, regenerative agriculture, ethical eating
Current restaurant(s)
Previous restaurant(s)
  • Bouley (New York City)
    Chez Panisse (Berkeley, California)
    Campanile (Los Angeles)
    La Brea Bakery (Los Angeles) [1]
Award(s) won
Website www.bluehillfarm.com

Dan Barber (born October 2, 1969) is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. He is the author of The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food.

Contents

Education

Barber is a 1992 graduate of Tufts University, where he received a B.A. in English, and a 1994 graduate of the French Culinary Institute.

Career

Barber operates Blue Hill in Manhattan's West Village and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, located within the nonprofit Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, in Pocantico Hills, New York.

Around 2009, Barber was involved in developing a more delicious butternut squash with squash breeder Michael Mazourek. Together with Mazourek, he created the honeynut squash, and later launched Row 7 Seed Company, an organic seed company that works directly with vegetable breeders to develop and sell seeds specially bred for enhanced flavor, nutrition, and regard for the environment. [6] [7]

In 2014, he published The Third Plate: Field Notes On the Future of Food, in which he advocates for a new culture of American eating where sustainable farming and good flavor intersect. [8] The book covers the history of the American food system leading to the rise of industrial agriculture and widespread monocultures, and proposes an ethic of ecologically and regionally informed eating, with chefs playing a pivotal role in defining new tastes. It is structured in four parts—"Soil", "Land", "Sea" and "Seeds"—each focusing on a specific farming system and their cast of farmers, breeders, and chefs.

In May 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Barber launched the resourcED program at both Blue Hill restaurants, which sold packaged ingredients from the Stone Barns farm and included directions for customers to cook the meals themselves. The boxes were intended to keep the restaurants and their suppliers in business when they could not host diners due to gathering restrictions. [9]

In August 2020, Barber implemented a Chef-in-Residence program at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Barber stepped down from the kitchen and instead, a series of visiting chefs led the kitchen for a five-week period at a time, interpreting the local produce through the lens of their own cuisine. The diversity-focused concept was a response to the Black Lives Matter protests bringing attention to structural inequities and diversity and inclusion issues in the restaurant industry. [10] As of 2022, Barber has returned to cooking at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

A 2022 Eater article alleged that Barber's Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant has a history of abuse toward its employees, a toxic work environment, and other issues, with a focus on Barber being ignorant of an employee's report of sexual assault. Through crisis & reputation management firm Trident DMG, as well as defamation law firm Clare Locke, Blue Hill denied all allegations. [11]

Recognition

In 2002, two years after opening Blue Hill in New York, Barber was named one of the Best New Chefs by Food & Wine . [1] He has received several James Beard Foundation awards, including the 2006 award for Best Chef: New York City, the 2009 award for Outstanding Chef, and the 2015 Writing and Literature Award for The Third Plate. In 2009, he was named one of the world's most influential people in Time magazine's annual Time 100. [12]

In 2010, Barber was appointed by the President of the United States Barack Obama to serve on the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and in 2011, was chosen as a member of the advisory board to the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment. [13]

Barber was featured in episode two of the first season of Netflix's Chef's Table series in 2015. [14]

Approach to cuisine

Barber is a proponent of regenerative agriculture and “eating the whole farm”, which recognizes the act of eating as part of an integrated system and encourages chefs and diners to support local farmers by creating demand for diverse, soil-restoring, and regional crops.

Barber was mentored by farm-to-table and California cuisine notables, including Mark Peel at Campanile in Los Angeles, and Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. [15] He has written on local food and agricultural issues for The New York Times , Gourmet , The Nation , Saveur , and Food & Wine .

At the 2008 TED Taste3 conference, Barber gave a talk on foie gras produced from geese raised in a natural dehesa system on a farm in Spain, without the use of force-feeding. [16] In 2010, Barber gave a TED talk where he outlined his personal discovery of extensively farmed fish at Veta La Palma. He spoke about how models of farming based in principles of ecology both improve the flavor of agricultural products and restore the surrounding environment.

Personal life

Barber lives in New York and is married to Aria Beth Sloss, a short story writer, novelist, and former food writer, with whom he has two daughters.

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References

  1. 1 2 Abdelnour, Salma (July 2002). "America's Best New Chefs 2002". Food & Wine . Retrieved May 3, 2009.
  2. ↑ "Best Chef: New York City". James Beard Foundation. 2006. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
  3. ↑ "Dan Barber". James Beard Foundation. 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Search Dan Barber James Beard Foundation". James Beard Foundation. 2009. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Dan Barber
  6. ↑ Whitney, Alyse (November 30, 2017). "Honeynut Squash Is a Tiny Squash with a Big History". Bon Appétit . Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  7. ↑ Enfield, Catherine (2017). "Rooted in Flavor". Edible Sacramento. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  8. ↑ Grimes, William (May 29, 2014). "A Chef in Search of a New Food Chain". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  9. ↑ Goldfield, Hannah (May 15, 2020). "Blue Hill in a Box". The New Yorker . Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Dan Barber Steps Away from Blue Hill at Stone Barns, with Pivot to Chefs in Residence Program". Food & Wine. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  11. ↑ McCarron, Meghan (July 6, 2022). "Chef's Fable". Eater . Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  12. ↑ Adrià, Ferran (May 2009). "The 2009 Time 100". Time . Archived from the original on May 3, 2009. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Advisory Board". Harvard Medical School, Center for Health and The Global Environment. Archived from the original on October 7, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  14. ↑ "Chef's Table (TV Series 2015– )". IMDb . April 26, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Six degrees of Campanile chefs". Los Angeles Times . September 29, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  16. ↑ Barber, Dan (November 2008). "Dan Barber: A foie gras parable". TED.com . Retrieved April 28, 2017.

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