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Capehart

Rob Rubba on charting Oyster Oyster’s sustainable path

Capehart

The Washington Post

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.61.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this Washington Post Live conversation from Nov. 8, Rob Rubba — winner of the 2023 James Beard Award for outstanding chef — discusses his Michelin-starred restaurant Oyster Oyster, why he sees it as a “stepping-stone” for restaurants of the future and how sustainability is worked into everything from the food in the kitchen to the plate on the table.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Jonathan Kapart and welcome to Kapart. On November 8th, Washington Post Live hosted a panel of conversations in its ongoing series This is Climate, How We Live.

0:12.0

I kicked things off with Rob Rubin, winner of the

0:14.8

2023 James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, and a discussion of why

0:19.2

sustainability is the driving force behind his plant-based Michelin-starred restaurant Oyster

0:25.2

Oyster here in Washington.

0:30.6

So I made an admission to you that backstage that I'm very provincial. I rarely leave

0:39.0

Northwest when it comes to to my culinary habits.

0:43.8

So I'd never heard of Oyster

0:45.7

and your reaction was rather surprising.

0:48.3

You're like, that's great.

0:51.6

I'm so happy to hear that. Why? Explain why. Yeah, we've won a lot of accolades. We've got a lot of recognition, but they still hear that there's individuals out there that haven't been to the

1:03.1

restaurant or have any idea what it is. It gives us an opportunity for new

1:06.9

guests to come in and experience what we do and open the doors to sustainability

1:10.9

for them. So what was the catalyst for opening your restaurant?

1:13.8

Because you've worked for several Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and Chicago, Las

1:19.9

Vegas, Philadelphia, so why open your own restaurant? You have control to make the

1:27.4

the change you want and you want to see. I worked in a lot of those restaurants

1:31.0

for years and the status quo was what it was to be a

1:35.0

Michelin Star restaurant to be a restaurant of excellence and through some time

1:39.6

of researching and looking at things I realized those restaurants were far from

1:43.3

sustainable that was something I was very close to me and I wanted to to implement and

1:47.8

it's hard to do that with other people pulling the strings. And so then talk more

...

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