With room for some bar pizza and salt and vinegar chips in between.
By Kara Baskin Globe Correspondent,Updated November 5, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
Sean Lizotte, 45, has spent the past almost 20 years at Henrietta’s Table and the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, but his love for food got started eating at Kelly’s Roast Beef before family trips to Cape Cod and watching Julia Child on his parents’ rabbit-eared TV set. His tastes remain humble: When he’s not working, he’s enjoying bar pizza at Venus or O’Toole’s not far from his house in Whitman.
Tell me about your job.
I’m the executive chef at The Charles Hotel and Henrietta’s Table. I’ve worked there for almost 19 years. I started out as a low-level sous chef and came up through the ranks. I took over for Peter Davis about 2½ years ago, when he retired. I oversee Noir’s food; banquets; room service; Henrietta’s Table; the cafeteria, of course, for our wonderful employees, which are very important to the hotel. Without them, we wouldn’t be who we are. We also have a little small sandwich shop called Pronto. I oversee the menu there also.
I cook breakfast. I cook lunch. I’m not afraid to work a station, even though I’m in charge. I’ve washed dishes when somebody’s called out — I love my team. I want them to be able to fully understand what I put into it so that, hopefully, I get the same in return.
Let’s talk about your beginnings as a chef. How’d you get started?
I moved around a lot, but all within Massachusetts. I grew up in Winthrop and Revere. We always summered on the Cape. We were lucky enough that before my dad got married and had children, he bought land, dirt cheap, and he built a house when I was about 3 years old. We would spend weekends, school vacations, and summers on the Cape, which was awesome. We’d go to Kelly’s Roast Beef on Friday nights, and we’d get either fish and chips or sandwiches, and then we’d drive to the Cape.
My first job was at Bayberry’s. Now I think it’s Lambert’s — a small mom-and-pop restaurant where they did everything from scratch. We cooked turkeys in-house to slice for sandwiches. We made our own soups, which was pretty unheard of for these little, tiny restaurants. They did breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They used to do like 800 to 900 covers for breakfast.
My father’s father, my grandfather, was an amazing cook. Unfortunately, died in his 60s. But all I remember when I was a kid is: I was the first male grandchild on that side — the whole nine. I would show up at his house, I want to say 3 years old, and he’d have me in the kitchen on top of a stool stirring pots while he was making gravy. We were always at his house. I just remember my parents freaking out that I was going to fall into a pot at one point.
He was French-Canadian, and everything was classic French-style all the way through, from heavy butter in mashed potatoes and a little bit of cream to help it out, and then just turkey being stuffed with stuffing, the old-school way.
My mom used to sit me in front of the television. We had a simple color TV with rabbit ears. I’d watch Julia Child, and I think that was my driving force behind a lot of the cooking. I used to watch that daily, and I can always remember my mom coming in and being like, “I think Julia may have had a little bit too much today!” She’d pull me away from the TV at that point.
What’s your favorite meal of all time?
My dad made a French meat pie, and unfortunately, I probably haven’t had it in 12 years. It was ground pork, cooked slowly for 12 to 16 hours, just simmered down with either chicken stock or he’d sometimes just do water, just salt and pepper, super slow, and then he would bake it inside of a fresh shell. There are variations where people add potato, too, but we never did potato. That was his big selling point. Potato was cheating. If you cook the meat right, it should bind correctly.
What about food that you can’t stand?
Oh, man, that’s a tough one. You know, you go to certain restaurants and they have something that definitely makes no sense to have on their menu. I live on the South Shore, and there are some restaurants that say they’re a steakhouse, but they have sushi. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not going to order sushi at a steakhouse. But I try to have a pretty open mind.
What do you wish could improve about the Boston or Cambridge dining scene?
My thing right now is that I think there are sometimes too many restaurants that do the same thing. I’m a big fan of tapas. My wife and I traveled to Spain years ago. I like the opportunity to try a lot of different items. I think there’s a lack of those restaurants.
Where do you eat when you’re not working?
I live in Whitman, which is south of Boston. It’s next to Brockton, Bridgewater, Abington, and Hanson. It’s funny: We ordered pizza last night on the way home. Otto Portland just opened up in Weymouth; it’s a small chain. I love bar pizza too. In Whitman, there’s Venus that does bar pizza. There’s O’Toole that does bar pizza. Phenomenal. At Otto, though, my daughter really likes the mashed potato, bacon, and scallion pizza.
In Plymouth, my wife and I like Cork and Table. I’m really bad. I spent a lot of time in the city. My wife and I lived there for a little while before we bought a house and had children. But we don’t tend to drive to the city too much anymore, unfortunately, just because of the fact it’s an hour drive each way, minimum.
You have two teenagers. How do you balance family life with working life?
It’s not always easy. I won’t lie about it, but I’m very lucky. My wife currently works overnights, and I work mornings, so I usually go in between 4:30 and 5 in the morning, and I’m usually out between 4 and 6 p.m. depending on what’s going on. Sometimes it’s later, but not usually.
I’m usually off Monday and Tuesday, or Tuesday and Wednesday, or Monday and Wednesday. I try to always be off on Tuesday because my son has hockey that night, so at least I get to go to the practice with him, and my daughter has soccer usually, too. So I’ll try my best to drive her and her friends one way or something like that. I always look forward to them having night games, which is awesome, because 90 percent of the night games, I can make.
Would you ever encourage either of your kids to go into the culinary field?
My daughter loves being involved in cooking. Something we don’t do at the restaurant is homemade pasta, because there’s an Italian restaurant in the hotel, Enza. But I’ll make gnocchi, homemade pasta, at home with my daughter, whenever I can. Sometimes her cousin will come over, her friends will come over, we’ll make pasta for dinner. I’ll go through the whole process with them. They enjoy rolling it out and being involved in that way.
She loves the pastry chef at the hotel. His name is Dan Angelopolus. He’s phenomenal. He makes everything from scratch. He works incredibly hard. I always look up to him, because it seems like he always has the right answer for any problem — he’s the person you can just go to.
He’s making homemade Pop Tarts right now for Sunday brunch. So I brought home a brown-sugar-glazed one, and she was like: “This is the best thing ever!” Also, she swears by his chocolate croissant. I’m afraid that this is what she’s going to want to do for a living.
What makes you afraid?
The worst part about doing this and having children is missing so much. I mean, they really respect and love coming to the hotel. They love coming to the restaurant. And they really enjoy my days off. I mean, my wife is a wonderful home cook; I’ll never take anything away from her. But they always look forward because they know that’s what I do for a living. A lot of their friends like to come over and stuff like that, so I do my best. This morning was a little hectic, but I usually ask them what they want for dinner, and I’ll try to do it for them.
Which celebrities have you served?
Tommy Lee Jones was in the other day. He’s in a lot. John Lithgow has been there recently. What’s his name? Not Matt Damon; not Ben Affleck. Casey Affleck — he’s been here recently. There’s always somebody coming in: Ben Affleck and J. Lo stayed [at the Charles] not too long ago, before they divorced.
Lastly: What’s your favorite snack?
I do like salt and vinegar chips. That would be my guilty downfall, probably. If my son goes to the store, he’s going to tell me to buy Lay’s. I’m not a fan. I like Cape Cod. I grew up on Cape Cod. It reminds me of the beach during the summer.
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