 I did not drink you under the table by the way We were even Equal My god, but thank you so much because I would have never came here if he did not actually talk me into it or just and he wrote me this three-page email like two days later after Aspen and I'm just a sort of a hermit I like to I love traveling and I love meeting new people But I'm I'm extremely shy, so you're gonna have to be patient with me on this speech also dyslexic So I go all over the place, but I'm gonna try to rain it in Thank you again David, thank you Renee what an opportunity I just can't even believe I'm here I drove from Cape Cod the typical Cape Cod yesterday morning to get to the airport I got here at 7 a.m. And I'm still in shock, but You guys this whole room inspires me And the mad team bad-ass mad team is is wonderful All right, so I've gotten so many questions Asked to me about my sanity and my crazy As I was opening up Actually my first restaurant, which was 15 years ago I Was that crazy I needed to raise two million dollars Well, I was living in a housing project with my mother the last of seven. I Ode the IRS seventy-five thousand dollars. God knows why Who the hell would open a butcher shop when she doesn't even know how to butcher and put a retail a meat retail case in a wine bar in Boston Who would open what would be the most luxurious fine dining restaurant in the city of Boston doing the during the worst? economic downturn in decades Me I Think I'm all right I'll always say to myself is this luck luck luck because everyone's like oh, she's so lucky. You're so lucky You're so lucky or what do I have guts? That balls But what I really think it comes down to a couple of things right here. It says three I love that word honesty honesty be honest with yourself Anything that you do don't lie You're cheating yourself Have clarity Your vision it's your vision. So when you want to have your vision played out Don't listen to anybody else Put that tunnel vision on because it's always worked for me. I don't give a shit what anybody else in this world is doing When I started opening my own restaurants, I really had that tunnel vision You get to have guts but with humanity and humor You have to be authentic too you should be so original because it's it's you think about you Like I said when David first asked me to be here He's like oh, it's all about guts. You got guts and I'm you know a couple of glasses of wine in I'm like, yeah All right. I I got guts. All right. I'll give this another thought My whole mantra in my life has been I'm not scared like I will talk myself out of everything That in the shittiest times the stupidest things I've ever done. I'm not scared and I would go through it and It worked But from the time I was a kid I must have been hardwired to take any dare that would come my way. I would do anything I stole an MBTA bus when I was 13 Oh, my mother bought me a Mary Poppins umbrella and I really thought I could fly when I was seven So I climbed up a roof and jumped and that didn't work So Very little people know me here. So for the most of you, let me just I'm gonna just Share a little bit about myself just to let you know why I am who I am I was born and raised in a South Boston housing project Next door to whitey bulger, by the way, I don't know if anybody knows what he bulger. Yeah, it's interesting I Was the youngest of seven children my father died a month before I was born She worked three jobs to keep us off welfare to feed us I never graduated from high school was forced busing in Boston was awful was like a war zone Um And I really just couldn't learn it I just couldn't retain information in a classroom But I did have one oh, and I was a bookie I was a bookie in high school. I Was so good at it. I was so good at it. I Wouldn't even call the numbers in and I'm putting the cash in my pocket And then I'm going shopping and then I'm like this. This isn't gonna last Especially living next to whitey belger was not a good idea doing that And I'm telling you if a if a psychic told me 20-something years ago that I would have eight different restaurants in the city of Boston run a 24 million dollar company I Would say yeah, you can go shove that shit somewhere, right? But I think running numbers was really helpful in the entrepreneurial part But my home Mac teacher she became a mentor. There's no home Mac anymore. What happened to home Mac none But she you know I think it was the first time because my mother was so busy that she actually showed interest in my passion or The ease of my cooking we had a she had a great little Culinary program in high school. That was the only class I went to And then in my mid-20s I had lots of dead-end jobs and my best friend talked me out of one of them and I went on vacation with her I came back. I didn't have a job. I got a job at a telephone company for two days Thank you for calling John Hancock mutual life insurance. How may I direct your call and then Kerry was on the phone the next Person I picked up and I'm like I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you I gotta get up. I gotta leave so I moved to Martha's vineyard and she came with me She quit her job. I went to go and interview for a position on a dinner cruise I think I was 22. Yeah, I was 22 and The owner of the cruise the dinner cruise Was like well, we don't need a host and we don't need a server and I said no no Oh, I want to cook because you want to cook. I was like, yeah, I want to cook He says well, what kind of experience do you have? I Told this guy everything he wanted to hear I'm making co-hog chowder. You should see the doble soul like at I worked. I was a server at the same bit off club and I'm like dover soul Sweet breads under a bell I'm from the project. I haven't even read a cookbook yet, right? So Oh, I'm making a refined Zab I own sauce He's like wow, okay. I Must have convinced him because I got the job and Then two days before this cruise was gonna go out to Falmouth and around the chef quit And so the owner asked me well, do you think you can you can do this job? And I'm like, yes shit. Yes I'm in balls guts You name it. I went to the library on Martha's Vineyard, which isn't really that big and not a really great selection of books Like not a lot of good porn food books at all It was just like I needed to know how to filet a tenderloin how to even cook a tenderloin I never did this before how to kill a lobster how to store food in a galley kitchen. I Did it I did it. Oh my god. It was so successful. I had so much fun My friends are all like, where is she I'm like, I'm cooking on a boat. They're like, no, you're not I'm like I am they're like Who do you think you are Julia child? Like no, but wouldn't mind being that So then eventually I left the vineyard. I came back to Boston and I You know, I worked around town. Oh, I worked for yeah some crazy chefs and then Throughout that there was a lot I learned from other restaurants Restaurants that don't take reservations. It's stressful. You never know how many Guests you're gonna be cooking for Etc. Etc. What I did I put my head down. I worked my ass off Disciplined myself. I've never had discipline Discipline is so key in perfecting anything you want And I learned as much as I could possibly very fast all by cookbooks Even the French cookbooks I had to get a dictionary and translate So that's how I got inspired and that's how I learned Five years ago Montaigne opened. This is a it's a relaying Chateau property in Boston. That's fucking unheard of And Received four star review from the globe that restaurant critics said I must have canels of steel To pull this project off and that was the best compliment I ever ever got I actually had those like fake tattoos made canels of steel So I I sort of I liked being ball I liked being called ballsy or knuckles lynch or whatever they were calling me But it's it's just not about that I mean we can all be reckless, right? that the challenges to combine the guts your feelings your Instinct Make it personal whatever's inside you you got to make it personal authentic And go for what you want you have one life go for it So all right what role have guts played in my career? What do I want to tell younger chefs? I hate this part because I always find this when I hate when young chefs come in and they have a Notebook and I go oh my god open it up. Let me see your vision. What do you want? I don't have one yet. What designer did you use? Where'd you get your China? Etc. Etc. I don't mind sharing that knowledge at all because I think that is another key Very key thing to do once you have that knowledge. We need to share it. We need to share everything so that we can continue Programs like this or symposiums like this and for every one of these young cooks To get out there and cook but don't fucking come to me with an empty book because I'm not it's your vision It's not mine And once you have that vision and then I'll I'll always follow up with them. I'll check in how you're doing and You know the ones with the vision usually make it I Love that word. No a lot of people say you can't do it that way. You can't do it that way But I can't do it any other way like I can't do it However, there if there's a rule and this is the way you do it. I can't follow that. I don't I Just don't I don't know why this is when we started cracking up When we were out and I kind of always think outside the box I love it when they when you hear these programs about children and your parents are saying color in the line color in the line Inside the line get outside that line do whatever you want. It's your creation Get out of the box Then you know, you know breaking through barriers. That's tough When I opened my first restaurant of 15 years ago, I had two partners. Well, I gave a Third and a third to two guys one's a general manager one was my business partner business manager and they Literally treated me like I was a kid from the projects. I knew nothing I'm a plumber basically get back in the kitchen, you know, nothing about numbers, etc. So I took that Then I got I self-taught myself. I write about it. I got it. I understood it I changed the whole P&L system to the way I could read it. I don't want a yearly P&L It's too late. I need monthlies by weeklies if it's not working well And then I got rid of them But they were you know, they were good for when I started because I literally opened a restaurant on You know, basically self-taught chef. So I did spend like two hard years Cooking in that kitchen and I couldn't worry about management. I hate managing So was I was I reckless was I gutsy? Yeah, but you're gonna go through those things This is life you're gonna evolve and you better get some balls if you don't have them you have to get you have to trust your instincts It's it's you I'm I might have grown up poor and I might have grown up not educated But I knew what my restaurant should be like I knew I knew what I could cook I knew what I could handle I couldn't go over that that would be too overwhelming So this don't don't take on more than what you don't think you can handle Because life's gonna come down with a lot more. Make sure you know what you do You know don't open a 250 seat restaurant and think that you're gonna make mega bucks You're gonna have the same headache if you do that and you open up a 10 seat joint It says here don't open up shit you can't handle so we skip that part Um Be honest with yourself. That's a key one take inventory of your strengths and your weaknesses. I never did this I was so insecure. I was so afraid to ask for help That changed I think When I went and I it was on my fifth restaurant and now and I knew I couldn't do it all I was like suicidal And my weaknesses are management and I'm I'm I don't like a micro management. I'm a group person I love building teams. I love having my Like it's called Barbara Lynch Grupo, you know, I don't have barely have turnover Sometimes we gotta get them out because it's costly and we all know that but You know, I've had my same my wine director and I've been together for 25 years. We started when we were puppies So they don't really leave and that's a really important part because turnover in your kitchen or in your front The house is gonna cost you a shitload of money. There's a lot of training a lot of wasted time So if you're not strong at trying to build a culture and trying to you know, work with management rethink that one Having nothing to lose could be a good thing it worked for me. I had nothing I had an Azuzu trooper And I would like like drive it and pretend that I was like in a Range Rover was awesome Like you like it I'm the one I was living with my mother I owe the IRS money and here I am trying to raise money on Christmas Eve in Boston from my first restaurant But what did I have to lose right? Nothing. I got Two million. I got one phone call 500,000 Christmas Eve And he said all my other friends. Well, they're Jewish, but they're away for the holidays So maybe when they get back, they'll call you and I'm like, okay, great I knew nothing. I had no financials. I had no background. I had a vision a white tablecloth restaurant 70 seats. I Was very Low on the check average so that I knew I could climb up and I trusted and I listened to my investors You know, I didn't have the menus written too small. I listened to their advice I went to lunch maybe once a month and these investors who helped build Boston their old Brahmin Bostonians And I'm like, wow, how'd I get here? This is just crazy But I wanted to succeed because you know what somebody believed in me. They're giving me money. I was a bookie crackers But it made me want to work harder it made me want to figure it out It made me want them to be proud of who they invested in eight restaurants later They make a lot of money off me But I love it Money and ego are the two things you don't want To think that that's what's gonna run your restaurant. You don't passion passion passion You can only fake Shit for so long passion Okay, here we go. Sorry. I told you I get lost Ted talk was awful. I had to do a Ted talk. It was awful Know the value of patience timing and intuition intuition is key I've always trusted my intuition I think women have a stronger intuition so they have to really trust it Patience and timing I've gotten everything right one. Oh, I have one concept that failed I had a little store called plum produce is a cutest little thing 250 square feet right next to the my butcher shop and then I have a cooking demonstration bookstore called stir and I'm like, well, I should be my own neighbor. I really don't need anything but alright I'll put a produce shop there. I was like the prettiest produce shop ever. I think people were afraid to come in But I wanted to show the public that we can have great porcini mushrooms or truffles in the squash The window display My stuff was really mad because that command I'm just spritzing the lettuces and they're like chef I think you have more things to do than this. I'm like, no, but I really like it here It's really nice You know, I didn't do my homework though Where I am in the south end young urban they cook on the weekends So I really wasn't moving the produce and every night I would dehydrate and I was dehydrating everything like then I was making powders and salts Then the health department came in and he's like miss Lynch. You're just you're crazy. You can't dehydrate. I had ten Those the quip dehydrated is on the floor. He's like, you need a commissary You're gonna be like the Heinz ketchup lady. I'm like, I hope not but So There is I was making money and all the dehydrated stuff. It was access. It was food They no one had to peel or chop or throw away kids would come in they're eating bananas and pineapples raspberries blackberries So I listened to the health department I didn't want a commissary because I had just signed on to 15,000 square feet of space To build three other restaurants. So I had to put that one on the back burner But I knew I was on to something in the timing. Thank God the timing wasn't right Five six years ago. So I'm starting that company like in a month. It's it's dehydration. It's instant food It'll be in vending machines. It'll be in airports. It'll be in hospitals. It gives you a healthy choice, right? So now I'm focused on that But anyway, I don't want to bore you anymore. So canels of steel. Oh My god, this do cost here because I just sat in a seat for a minute I always always I wanted to be a lane to cost or Joel Rubish on I'm telling you that doesn't like that was my carrot I've finally come to the point. I'm so happy to be Barbara Lynch