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When the James Beard Award winners were , the head chef at Oyster Oyster in D.C.鈥檚 Shaw neighborhood had to wait until the very end to find out if he would be named Outstanding Chef.
For chef Rob Rubba, the agony was worth the wait. The winner of what’s described as the “Oscars of Food” seems almost nervous about talking about it too much. But make no mistake, if you dine at his restaurant, he wants to make the most out of everything there; and if it can live on with you for years, that’s even better.
鈥淚鈥檝e been in this industry for 20 years, and about six years ago, I came to this reckoning that I wasn鈥檛 really happy with the direction restaurants were going, some of the things I was taught,鈥� Rubba said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very wasteful, both for the culture of restaurants and the way we were using ingredients.鈥�
He鈥檚 using Oyster Oyster to change that. The mission there is sustainability.
For one, that means the restaurant composts as much as it can at the end of every night. There are no single-use plastics or containers, including to-go containers (they will wrap up leftovers with aluminum foil, which is recyclable), as well as no single-use cans or bottles for drinks. Even the candles on your table started off as something else.
鈥淲e use our leftover cooking oil to turn into wax that burn tableside,鈥� Rubba said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very cool, reuse of something in our menu that would normally become biofuel, but given an opportunity to be something else on the table.鈥�
The candleholder is an oyster shell that will eventually get recycled back to oyster reefs. His staff spends about an hour a day making those candles.
The menu is even made of recycled paper and embedded with wildflower seeds that you can take home and plant in your garden. He got the idea years ago when someone gave him a business card made with recycled paper that had flower seeds embedded into them.
Rubba said he planted the business card in a community garden plot, 鈥淎nd guess what? It worked. We had flowers.鈥�
鈥淲e never wanted to have menus we have to throw away every night because they get grease on them or people鈥檚 hands touch them,鈥� Rubba said.
For Rubba, there鈥檚 no compromise when it comes to sustainability efforts, and he鈥檚 not willing to cut corners to save a few bucks. But he said he鈥檚 not here to preach to you about anything either.
鈥淚t can be very doom-and-gloom, and that鈥檚 not an approach we want to take,鈥� Rubba said. He鈥檚 not going to preach environmentalism to you, but he said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e in an environment where we need change. We鈥檙e seeing that with climate change. We鈥檙e seeing that with what鈥檚 going on in our food systems.鈥�
Winning the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef requires more than just cooking awesome food. There are also expectations.
The awards committee described Rubba as someone who 鈥渟erved as a positive example for other food professionals, while contributing positively to their broader community.鈥� And sustainability matters to the judges.
鈥淢y hope is that getting an award like this isn鈥檛 something novel in a few years, and this is just commonplace and everyone is doing it,鈥� Rubba said.
