Boston, MA
Jasper White, inventive chef who helped put Boston on the culinary map, has died – The Boston Globe
“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.
Boston, MA
San Jose Sharks select Boston University center Macklin Celebrini with No. 1 pick in NHL draft
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The San Jose Sharks added a foundational piece to their rebuilding plan by choosing Boston University center Macklin Celebrini with the first pick in the NHL draft Friday.
Celebrini’s selection came as no surprise after the 18-year-old became just the fourth freshman to win the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player. He did so as the nation’s youngest player, too, finishing second with 34 goals and third with 64 points in 38 games.
The 6-foot, 200-pound player from North Vancouver, British Columbia, already has ties to the Bay Area. Celebrini played for the Junior Sharks program after his father, Rick, was hired to be the Golden State Warriors’ sports medicine director.
“Just a surreal feeling,” Celebrini said in becoming the Sharks’ first No. 1 overall pick. “I’ve dreamed about this moment ever since I was a kid, and for it to come true, it’s just an amazing feeling.”
Celebrini was undecided on whether he will return to BU for a second year, but he deepens a talented prospect pool on a Sharks team in the midst of its longest playoff drought, now spanning five years.
The Chicago Blackhawks took Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov of Belarus with the second pick. This marked the third draft to have college players to go 1-2, and first since 2021 when Michigan teammates Owen Power and Matty Beniers were chosen first and second.
Levshunov became the fourth overall player from Belarus to be selected in the first round of the NHL draft, and first since first since Montreal took forward Andrei Kostitsyn 10th in 2003. He also became the earliest selected player from Belarus chosen after defenseman Ruslan Salei went ninth to Anaheim in 1996.
Anaheim followed with what was considered a surprise pick in selecting Oshawa forward Beckett Sennecke, who could be seen mouthing “Oh, my God,” to his father upon hearing former Ducks star Scott Niedermayer announce the pick. Sennecke was ranked 12th among North American players by NHL Central Scouting after finishing with 27 goals and 68 points in 63 games last season in the Ontario Hockey League.
Columbus followed by selecting Medicine Hat center Cayden Lindstrom at No. 4.
Montreal created a stir by having French-Canadian pop star Celine Dion announce their selection of Russian forward Ivan Demidov with the fifth pick.
The Utah Hockey Club was set to pick sixth after the franchise relocated from Arizona to Salt Lake City in April.
Celebrini’s selection was announced by former Sharks star Joe Thornton — drafted No. 1 by Boston in 1997. Thornton opened by saying, “The San Jose Sharks are proud to select from Boston University,” before briefly pausing with a smile, and then said Celebrini’s name and pointing to him in the stands.
“I’m super excited he made the pick,” Celebrini said. “Obviously, a Sharks legend and an NHL legend, so that was real exciting.”
The draft featured the added spectacle of being held at the year-old Sphere, a globe-shaped venue over-looking the Las Vegas strip and featuring video screens on the inside and outside of its structure.
The 32 teams were gathered at tables beneath the wrap-around screen covering almost three-quarters of the curved wall broadcasting scenes from the draft to the crowd overlooking the floor and seated the multi-deck facility. The draft opened with the screen featuring pictures of more than 100 of the eligible prospects.
A small stage was erected in the middle of the floor, where Commissioner Gary Bettman was joined by teams to announce the selections.
Celebrini failed to register a point in just six games at BU. His production accelerated over the second half of the season by combining for 22 goals and 39 points in his final 17 games in helping the Terriers reach the Frozen Four, which they lost in the semifinal to eventual champion Denver.
An NHL Central Scouting report referred to him as being “a strong skater with fluid stride, elusive speed and quickness. … The go-to for one-timers on the power play. Plays a heads-up complete game.”
Whenever Celebrini turns pro upon consulting with his family, the Sharks and BU, he’ll join a Sharks’ youth movement that includes their two first-round picks last year, forwards Will Smith and OHL forward Quentin Musty. Then there’s the Swedish duo of Filip Bystedt, San Jose’s 2022 first-round pick, who made his minor-league debut last season, and William Eklund, who has 18 goals and 52 points in 97 NHL games since being drafted seventh in ’21.
“Having the first overall pick, it’s a big moment for the organization, to have someone hopefully that can be a big part of our core and play here for a long, long time,” third-year GM Mike Grier said earlier this week.
“It’s definitely doing a good job of laying (the foundation). I don’t know if it’s finishing the foundation,” he added. “It’s definitely an important time, an important draft, but we still got some work to do to kind of round things out and keep building up the prospect pool.”
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
BOSTON, MA — The Pryde, a first-of-its-kind 74-unit apartment affordable housing community for seniors over age 62, is set to hold its ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, according to Mayor Michelle Wu’s office.
The Pryde came to life in Hyde Park after the former William Barton Rogers Middle School was transformed into a mix of studio and one and two-bedroom independent living apartments “where LGBTQ seniors over age 62 can age as their whole selves,” its website says.
Mayor Michelle Wu and Senator Elizabeth Warren are set to appear at the grand opening Friday.
The project has been a long time in the making.
In 2022, The Pryde held a ceremony attended by elected and appointed officials from the city, state, and federal levels as well as representatives from public and private agencies who helped shepherd the development plan through the approval process, and who assembled the financing.
But finally, things are moving forward.
“Any week now we will be opening our doors and continuing to make history,” Gretchen Van Ness, executive director of LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc., told Boston25 News earlier this week. “We expect to be fully occupied by the fall.”
The Pryde building includes a 10,000-square-foot community center, a multipurpose space for neighborhood meetings and events, a learning classroom, a library, and an art exhibition space. There, it will host Portraits of Pride, a photography project that presents large-scale and intimate portraits of LGBTQ leaders through curated exhibitions and special installations, according to its website.
The grand opening ceremony will begin at 55 Harvard Avenue at 1 p.m.
We are just three days away from NHL free agency beginning on Monday (July 1) and the Boston Bruins and GM Don Sweeney have a lot of money that he has to spend to improve his roster for the 2024-25 season. He has a lot of needs including a center and possibly another defenseman.
Sweeney also has several of his own pending unrestricted free agents (UFAs) to consider re-signing, but it appears with each passing day, that it’s looking less likely that some of the players will be returning to the Black and Gold. One of the players who is a UFA is Jake DeBrusk. After Boston’s elimination in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Florida Panthers, he said he wanted to remain with the Bruins. Still, the player and team have yet to come anywhere close to an agreement on a contract. Thursday in Las Vegas, a day before the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, Sweeney touched on several topics, including DeBrusk and his comments sound like the door is closing on the 2015 first-round draft pick returning next season and beyond.
Sweeney spoke about DeBrusk and admitted that there have not been many, if any, conversations recently and it appears the 14th overall pick nine years ago is going to hit the open market.
“I suspect that Jake will head to UFA and test the market. Remain consistent that we have been in negotiations with Jake — haven’t had any productive talks in quite some time. At end of the day, that’s his prerogative to see what July 1 brings for him.”
– Don Sweeney
If DeBrusk does indeed hit free agency, there is going to be no shortage of suitors for him. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Seattle Kraken are all teams that could look to add him. One dark horse team to watch, is the Detroit Red Wings.
If DeBrusk does end up leaving, it’s going to be imperative that Sweeney signs a player that is equal to or better than DeBrusk, or losing him for nothing and not bringing in an equal replacement for him is not going to be a great look for the front office. This is, without a doubt, Sweeney’s biggest off-season as GM of the Boston Bruins.
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