Jasper White, a chef who put New England’s traditional foods on the fine-dining map in the 1980s and mentored a generation of Boston-area chefs, died on Saturday in Boston.
His death, at a hospital, was caused by a brain aneurysm, his wife, Kathleen White, said.
At Restaurant Jasper in the North End of Boston, which was open from 1983 to 1995, and later at Jasper White’s Summer Shack, in three locations, Mr. White’s cooking was relentlessly focused on New England ingredients.
“As a chef and as an advocate, he was more responsible than anyone for the revival of oysters and oyster bars in New England,” said Skip Bennett, the founder of Island Creek Oysters, an oyster farm and distributor in Duxbury, Mass.
At a time when Boston’s destination-worthy dishes still included cornmeal pudding at the venerable Durgin-Park restaurant and fish chowder at the upmarket chain Legal Sea Foods, Mr. White developed an elegant but accessible style, based on local and seasonal ingredients like oysters, corn, maple and blueberries.
Persons:
Jasper White, Kathleen White, ”, Skip Bennett, White
Organizations:
Jasper, Foods
Locations:
Boston, Jasper, England, New England, Duxbury , Mass
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