"My job is to teach the younger generation what I've learned," Chef Benjamin tells me. I had the honor of interviewing remarkable Chef Bobby Benjamin of Butchertown Grocery as my ninth interview. Chef Bobby Benjamin was born March 18, 1980 in Providence RI, into a Canadian/ French family. Chef Benjamin's Meme and Pepe are French and came from Canada to the United States. Chef Benjamin came from a family that didn't have a lot, so he started working early and was introduced to food early. Growing up in the North East, Chef Benjamin was influenced by the seafood around him and made lobster with his Meme. Chef Benjamin even trapped animals as a kid and would tan and hide the animals and sell them to a pelt company. When he was around 10 or 11, Chef Benjamin used to clean out smokers and make barbecue sauces. By the time he was 12 years old Chef Benjamin helped prep food and by the time he was 14, he had a job as a dishwasher. By the time he was 16, Chef Bobby Benjamin knew he wanted to be a chef and by the time he was 18 and 19, he became more passionate about cooking. When he was 16, in late Spring after baseball season, Chef Benjamin would cook and work and prepare breakfast lunch and dinner. Chef Benjamin has preppared food all over, he has cooked in New York, Chicago, and even Beverly Hills at Osteria. Chef Benjamin attributes much of his own success to Chef Priscilla Jackson who showed up one day when he was 18 or 19 with a milk crate full of James Peterson cookbooks for him to have and keep.
Chef Benjamin now has his own restaurant, his "baby" that he opened little over a year ago in 2015, right around Thanksgiving. He tells me at Butchertown Grocery they, "Make everything... well except for the bottles of ketchup." Chef Benjamin's favorite dish to prepare is whichever dish he's working on in the moment.
Photo by Caroline Hatchett