I’ve never really understood the whole “celebrity chef” phenomenon.  Why people should be regaled just because they make food slightly better than most other people is beyond me.  And yes, I am aware that the purpose of this blog is to regale chefs that make food slightly better than other chefs.  But after watching Amadeus and toiling in obscurity for most of my life, I find it objectionable to just thrust glory on people that probably don’t deserve it (Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey are despicable people).  Despite this, I do actually like the concept behind Parish Cafe, a restaurant that specializes in sandwiches designed by celebrity chefs.

Apparently, the general trend for celebrity chefs is to make sandwiches with meat, as there are only two sandwiches that are vegetarian (none are vegan).  I decided to go with the Pudding Portobello, created by Debra Hughes of Upstairs in the Square, which includes portobello mushrooms, casa de roma cheese, onion marmalade, and a walnut pesto in focaccia.  This is a very simple and delicious sandwich, despite it being over $10, and it comes with a huge portion of white bean salad (which are really just lightly salted and lemoned white beans).

Part of the reason I don’t like celebrity chefs, is that there are very few celebrity chefs that specialize in vegetarian cuisine.  My annoying meat-eating cousin loves celebrity chefs and he always quotes some obnoxious chef that I don’t remember who said “being vegetarian is like painting with only 50% of a color palette.”  Which is fine, but I would love to see how tasty meat would taste without the benefits of vegetables.  Part of any business is accepting that the customer is right, which is why I’m always baffled by restaurants that refuse to acknowledge that some people are vegetarian.  This is especially true in celebrity chef-run establishments, which is why I don’t like celebrity chefs.

So, my bias against celebrity chefs aside, the portobello sandwich at Parish cafe was pretty good, not $12 good, but good nonetheless.  If I had a high paying day trader job, I would definitely consider coming here regularly, as that seemed to be the crowd that was dining there for lunch.  The offputting high price and lack of vegetarian options compels me to give Parish Cafe two and a half cheese sandwich.  Perhaps they can rotate the sandwich creations more often and have concepts created by more different chefs (perhaps including chefs that aren’t all obsessed with pork products)?

Parish Cafe
361 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116 
(617) 247-4777