Blue Hill

Dan Barber began farming and cooking for family and friends at Blue Hill Farm. It was here that he was first introduced to and gained respect for locally grown and seasonal produce.

Since May 2000, Dan has seen Blue Hill grow from a noted neighborhood restaurant to receiving a 3-star New York Times review. In the summer of 2002, Food and Wine Magazine featured Dan as one of the country’s “Best New Chefs.” He has since addressed local food system issues through op-eds in the New York Times and stories in Gourmet and Food and Wine Magazine. His writing has been incorporated into “Best Food Writing” in 2004, 2006 and 2006. Dan has been featured in the New Yorker, Gourmet Magazine, CBS Sunday Morning, House and Garden, Martha Stewart Living, Breathe, and received Bon Appetit’s “Chef of Merit” Award in 2007.

The Spring of 2004 signaled a new chapter for Dan. In May, both Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture opened their doors. As the restaurant’s chef/co-owner and a member of the Center’s board of directors, Dan focuses on the issues of pleasure, taste and regional bounty and how these imperatives are threatened. Dan helped create the philosophical and practical framework for Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and continues to help guide it in its mission to create a consciousness about the effects of everyday food choices. Frank Bruni of the New York Times awarded Blue Hill at Stone Barns 3-stars, saying “The time and physical distance between their (peas) harvesting, preparation and consumption was almost as brief as imaginable. This is the point and, in large measure, the glory of Blue Hill at Stone Barns …”

Both Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns have received Best New Restaurant nominations from the James Beard Foundation, and in the spring of 2006 Dan was awarded Best Chef: New York City.

Dan serves on Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment advisory board, and has been working with such organizations as the Kellogg Foundation, New York City’s Greenmarkets, and Slow Food USA to minimize the political and intellectual rhetoric around agricultural policies and emphasize instead the appreciation of eating good food.

Along with his brother David, Dan has begun to reestablish Blue Hill Farm in Great Barrington, MA. In addition to the cows, pigs, and chickens moving onto the farm in 2006, the recently renovated milk barn will be the future home of Blue Hill Farm cheeses.