Executive Chef, Oyster Club
With a passionate focus on local ingredients and a serious position on equality in her kitchen, Renee Touponce is raising the bar on delicious food at 85th Day Food Community (the restaurant group that Oyster Club is a part of) in Mystic, CT, shining a light on ingredients and people.
Touponce joined 85th Day Food Community in 2017, rising up through the kitchens of Oyster Club, Tree House, Grass & Bone, and Stone Acres Farm. In 2021, she was named Executive Chef of Oyster Club.
Touponce’s multicultural background influences both her cuisine and her view of the world. Her upbringing is a blend of Italian and Puerto Rican, with memories of rice and beans on the stove, a lasagna in the oven, and the emphasis on the family together around a big table of food from these two prominent cultures. With her inventive, locally-sourced, sustainable cuisine, she pays homage to the rich, coastal heritage of Southern New England, investigating the ingredients of her region of Mystic and surrounding communities while inventing and recreating the flavors of her youth with products she has access to.
Touponce attended the New England Culinary Institute(NECI) in Essex Junction, Vermont, graduating in 2007. The institute ran a number of restaurants, garnering Touponce constant exposure to the industry. She interned at Apricots in Farmington, where she really fell in love with the kitchen. Touponce worked at Firebox in Hartford, quickly moving from Sous Chef to Executive Chef. There, being a part of the Billings Forge nonprofit, which formerly housed Firebox, brought her closer to farmers, artisans, and people from the community, helping her understand the importance of really knowing where your food comes from.
At 85th Day, her passion for butchery grew, and she threw herself into learning about sausage making, head cheese, paté, breaking down whole animals, cuts, stocks, etc. The same passion for meat butchery shifted her mind toward working with whole fish in a different way at Oyster Club. She focuses on curing fish, aging, sausages, charcuterie, and utilizing what’s otherwise considered waste. “The importance behind using the whole animal inspires me to continue this skill in everything that we do, from the ground to the sea - whole vegetable, whole animal, whole fish. Practicing zero waste and preserving what the world gives us makes me really appreciate all the hands that it connects with along the way.”
Touponce will also be the first to say that “there's no gender in food,” but admits to a time when that wasn’t the case. She says that "for me, as a queer woman, everything is moving and changing for the better. The industry is becoming more aware and educated. In my position now, I can create an environment that is healthy, equal, and safe, where no one has to feel out of place.
