By Keith Gamboa
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
Jim Rondinelli
Chef de Cuisine
Linden Ponds Hingham, Massachusetts
Training: “I’ve always firmly believed in a ‘hands-on’ philosophy regardless of what one pursues. So my approach to this field was very European, in the sense that I was more interested in a working apprenticeship, rather than a classroom culinary education.
“I had the opportunity to work very closely with extremely talented young chefs from Copenhagen, at a small-upscale restaurant in Cambridge, Mass. The owners also had a few other restaurants in their native country of Norway, so every six months a chef from one of their sister restaurants would come to America to head this operation in the USA. It was a great experience for me, in that the chef that actually hired me had worked with the famed chef, Roger Verge, of France.
“From there I went to downtown Boston where the style of cooking was even more refined. With a few recommendations I was able to work in some of Boston’s top kitchens of that time period, including the Four Seasons Hotel.”
What inspired him to become a chef: “Because of my Italian heritage and closeness to my grandmother somehow, I felt connected to their philosophy and affinity to the Old World. I remember helping her with her vegetable garden and can still picture in my mind the morning dew as it glistened on the zucchini flowers that I would pick for her to cook for our lunch.
“So in the late 70s and early 80s when nouvelle cuisine was all the rage and the second-generation French chefs were featuring stuffed zucchini flowers on their menus, I had an understanding and a feel of how and where that type of inspiration originated.”