“My grandmother was Italian, and she would sit and talk to me for hours about food,” Mr. White recalled. “She had a huge garden, and everything was always fresh. When I was going to spend the weekend with my granny, I would usually talk to her on Wednesday or Thursday, and we’d plan the menu for the weekend. She was my inspiration.”

Mr. White, whose Restaurant Jasper expanded Boston’s idea of elegant dining in the 1980s, and whose Summer Shack was just as memorable, if much more casual, in the past quarter century, has died.

Two of his close friends — Lydia Shire and Gordon Hamersley, both well-known chefs themselves — confirmed his death to the Globe. Additional information, including the age of Mr. White, who was born in 1954, was not immediately available.

“My real love for food is eating,” he told the Globe in 1997.

Generations of diners, meanwhile, loved going to his signature restaurants.

“I was part of a group of chefs that, in the early ‘80s, nationwide, started the American cuisine movement,” he said in 1997. “Prior to that, American chefs received very little respect from the American press.”

Restaurant critics praised his work and organizations conferred honors, including the James Beard Foundation, which named him the best chef in the Northeast region in 1991, when he was running his namesake Boston restaurant that became known simply as Jasper’s.

He also was a Beard Award nominee for best chef in 1994, and in 2001, the foundation named Summer Shack a best new restaurant nominee.

Writing in The New York Times that year, Nina Simonds noted that Mr. White was “considered the dean of American fish cookery by many.”

Before opening Restaurant Jasper in autumn 1983, Mr. White made the rounds of banks and lenders to secure financing. Then he renovated a space on Commercial Street in the North End.

With room for some 75 patrons, Jasper’s became so popular so quickly that weekends were soon booked a month in advance.

“If Jasper White, owner-chef of this restaurant, isn’t careful, Restaurant Jasper could end up among the best New England restaurants serving American haute cuisine,” Globe food critic Anthony Spinazzola wrote in a four-star review not long after opening night. “He’s certainly started out on the right foot.”

A decade later, Boston magazine anointed Jasper’s Boston’s best seafood restaurant in 1993, saying that “the quality is unbeatable and no one prepares it better than Jasper White.”

“Until Jasper’s, it was hard to find an elegant, fish-centric restaurant in town,” Hamersley told the Globe in 2018. “Jasper White’s food was very simple and very elegant, and I tried to cook this way when I opened my restaurant.”

In the 1989 Globe interview, Mr. White said he had broadened New England cooking “by not sticking to strictly Yankee cooking.”

“It’s certainly a part of New England, but besides the Yankees, there are the Portuguese, Greeks, Italians, Irish, Chinese, and Eastern Europeans,” he added, interviewed inside his North End dining room. “In addition, there are the migrations of people from Southeast Asia and Central America who are now bringing their native products into local markets.”

A son of Irish and Italian parents, Mr. White had little problem mixing cultures and cuisines.

He passed along his knowledge in the books he wrote, which include “Jasper White’s Cooking from New England,” “Lobster at Home,” “Fifty Chowders,” and “The Summer Shack Cookbook — The Complete Guide to Shore Food.”

In the late 1990s, he took a hiatus from running restaurants and was a consultant to Legal Sea Foods.

“He certainly enhanced our culinary operation — without a doubt,” Roger Berkowitz, former chief executive of Legal Sea Foods, said Saturday night. Mr. White encouraged Berkowitz to place chefs in every one of the chain’s restaurants, “as opposed to kitchen managers.”

Opening Summer Shack at the beginning of the 2000s, Mr. White created a different dining experience than his North End restaurant — launching first at a Cambridge location, a short walk from the MBTA’s Alewife Red Line Station. It was a hit that lent itself to expansion.

“Jasper White opened Summer Shack at Alewife in 2000 and expanded to the Back Bay and Mohegan Sun. Now there’s a Shack pop-up in Harvard Square outside the Charles Hotel,” Sheryl Julian, the Globe’s former food editor, wrote in 2021.

Summer Shack, the Globe’s Kara Baskin wrote in 2019, was a “family-friendly cavern, and his culinary celebrity helped to lure curious urbanites, older locals, and relieved suburban parents, delighted that there was finally a place — in Cambridge! Run by a real chef! — where children could romp among the lobster tanks and picnic tables while they ate a better-than-decent meal with their hands.”

Such a setting wasn’t entirely surprising, coming from a chef who developed his tastes in family settings.

“I wouldn’t call myself a traditional cook,” he said in 1989, “but I find myself going back to classic dishes and classic food combinations.”

Mr. White grew up in New Jersey, where en route to becoming a rock star restaurateur he crossed paths with a more straightforward rock star. He and Bruce Springsteen, a few years apart in age, both attended Freehold High School.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., Mr. White set off on a restaurant odyssey, telling the Globe that he cooked in nine states over the course 11 years.

In the roughly 48 months between his arrival in Boston and when he opened Restaurant Jasper, his chef duties included Cafe Plaza in the Copley Plaza Hotel, the Parker House, and Seasons in the Bostonian hotel, and his colleagues included Shire.

“Chefs such as Todd English, Gordon Hamersley, Barbara Lynch, Lydia Shire, and Jasper White created plenty of Boston buzz as they rose to renown,” Globe restaurant critic and food writer Devra First noted in 2018.

While he was at the Bostonian, he met Julia Child through Shire, and they became friends. “I was pleasantly surprised at the way she received us and how supportive she was,” he wrote in a 2011 essay posted on WickedLocal. And when he opened Jasper’s, “Julia and her husband, Paul, became regular customers, when they were staying in town.”

Jasper’s put him on the map locally, regionally, and nationally.

“Restaurateur Jasper White’s cuisine is daring in its simplicity,” Julian wrote in 1989 as she praised “Jasper White’s Cooking from New England,” which he published that year.

“Thankfully, White never suffered from the young chefs’ syndrome of having to prove all they know in each dish by presenting too many flavors,” she added. “Rather, he always understates his point, allowing the quality of each ingredient to shine, not interfering too much with foods that are splendid on their own.”

Mr. White closed Jasper’s in 1995, knowing that his restaurant would be trying to attract customers in the shadow of Big Dig construction. He also stepped away to spend more time with his family — his children in particular.

“I had overheard my 4-year-old daughter refer to me as ‘that guy’ as I was leaving the house one morning,” he said in 1997. “It was a slap in the face I think I needed.”

A complete list of Mr. White’s survivors and information about a memorial gathering were not available.

After closing Jasper’s, writing cookbooks, and serving as a consultant, Mr. White conceived of Summer Shack, which like so much else in his life harkened back to his own beginnings.

“I did fine dining for 25 years, appealing to a really limited audience,” he told the Globe in 1997, a few years before launching Summer Shack. “There’s a part of me, because I’m from a working-class family, that wanted to start cooking for other types of people and for children.”

Bryan Marquard can be reached at bryan.marquard@globe.com.

Taylor Wenczkowski will certainly remember her first goal.

The checking line forward netted the game-winner in triple overtime, as Boston defeated Montreal, 2-1, in a Professional Women’s Hockey League semifinal game Saturday night at Place Bell. Game 2 was played in front of a packed house of 10,172.

Boston leads the best-of-five semifinal series 2-0, with a chance to complete the sweep Tuesday night at the Tsongas Center in Lowell at 7 p.m.

“I’m just so pumped to go back to Boston with two wins,” said Wenczkowski. “It’s what we needed so I’m really excited.”

Boston goalie Aerin Frankel was again fantastic. The former Northeastern netminder originally set a PWHL record with her 53-save performance in Game 1. She shattered that mark in saving 57 in Game 2, none came bigger than a stunning left pad save off Sarah Lefort from point-blank range in the closing moments of the third, forcing the extra session.

Boston opened the series with a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory against Montreal on Thursday. Susanna Tapani was the OT hero in that affair, netting the winning tally at 14:25 of the extra frame.

Saturday night was Wenczkowski’s time to shine, as the Boston forward scored in front of the net at 11:44 of the third OT session against a determined Montreal squad.

“They’re a really good team,” said Wenczkowski. “They’re physical. I think we match up well against them, but it’s definitely a new rivalry in women’s hockey. It’s been a lot of fun so far. Hopefully the next one we keep it to three periods.”

Amanda Pelkey continued her puck luck against Montreal. Boston’s checking line forward scored the go-ahead goal early in the first period. Working from behind the net, the Vermont native pounced on a Montreal turnover. Taking the puck off an attempted clear by Catherine Daoust, Pelkey banked a shot in off Montreal goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens’ left pad for the goal at 6:48.

Known primarily for her hustle and grit, Pelkey is no stranger to potting big goals against Montreal. Her lone regular season goal came against the Canadian team, scoring a shorthanded game-winner in a 3-2 overtime victory, Jan. 13.

The fast start was a refreshing change of pace for Boston, which struggled to find its offensive footing over the first two periods in Game 1.

“I think the whole team just tries to build off momentum, whether it’s a little play or a goal,” said Pelkey, between periods. “We wanted to come out strong because the last game we were a little flat-footed. So that was our goal.”

Boston came out firing, outshooting Montreal 10-5 in the opening period, while holding a decided 10-1 edge after scoring the first goal of the game this season.

But Montreal wasn’t going down without a fight. The Canadian club battled back scoring on the powerplay to open the second period. Kristin O’Neill did the damage. Camped in front of the net, the forward swatted in a rebound of a Maureen Murphy drive at 1:59.

Montreal carried the play for much of the middle stanza, outshooting Boston 15-12. They continued to gather third period steam outshooting their opponents 11-4, but deadlocked at 1-1.

Desbiens was impressive in making 50 saves for Montreal, which held a 36-21 shots advantage heading into OT.

Boston forward Lexie Adzija was ejected from the game after being assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for a hit to the head on Laura Stacey with 13:40 left in the first OT extra session. Her team managed to kill off the major, despite facing ample pressure.

Who’s Playing

Boston Celtics @ Cleveland Cavaliers

Regular Season Records: Boston 64-18, Cleveland 48-34

Current Series Standings: Boston 1, Cleveland 1

How To Watch

• When: Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Where: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse — Cleveland, Ohio
• TV: ABC
• Follow: CBS Sports App
• Online streaming: fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
• Ticket Cost: $100.58

What to Know

The Celtics have enjoyed a three-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. On Saturday, they will fight it out against the Cleveland Cavaliers in an Eastern Conference playoff matchup at 8:30 p.m. ET at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The Celtics are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they’ve averaged 120.6 points per game this season.

The experts predicted the Celtics would be coming into the contest after a big victory against the Cavaliers, but they missed that call by a country mile. Instead, it was the Cavaliers who did the damage, beating the Celtics 118-94. While the oddsmakers failed to call the winner, they nailed the 212.5 point over/under.

The Cavaliers can attribute much of their success to Donovan Mitchell, who scored 29 points along with eight assists and seven rebounds, and Evan Mobley, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and ten rebounds. Mitchell’s evening made it five games in a row in which he has scored at least 30 points.

Having now played two games, the Celtics and the Cavaliers are on even footing with one win each. Check back here after the game to see who wins this pivotal Game 3 matchup.

Odds

Boston is a big 8-point favorite against Cleveland, according to the latest NBA odds.

The line has drifted a bit towards the Celtics, as the game opened with the Celtics as a 6-point favorite.

The oddsmakers are predicting a defensive showdown and set the over/under low at 211 points.

See NBA picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine’s advanced computer model. Get picks now.

Series History

Cleveland and Boston both have 5 wins in their last 10 games.

• May 09, 2024 – Cleveland 118 vs. Boston 94
• May 07, 2024 – Boston 120 vs. Cleveland 95
• Mar 05, 2024 – Cleveland 105 vs. Boston 104
• Dec 14, 2023 – Boston 116 vs. Cleveland 107
• Dec 12, 2023 – Boston 120 vs. Cleveland 113
• Mar 06, 2023 – Cleveland 118 vs. Boston 114
• Mar 01, 2023 – Boston 117 vs. Cleveland 113
• Nov 02, 2022 – Cleveland 114 vs. Boston 113
• Oct 28, 2022 – Cleveland 132 vs. Boston 123
• Dec 22, 2021 – Boston 111 vs. Cleveland 101