Matzo ball meat pies, anybody?

Trisha Pérez Kennealy, proprietor of the Inn at Hastings Park and culinary educator in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish girl who's on a mission to convey new culinary strategies to her dwelling within the Boston suburb. She opened her boutique resort on this American historical past mecca in 2014 to be a middle for meals and neighborhood and has since woven multicultural delicacies into the storied house, which dates again to 1888. Journey + Leisure caught up with the hotelier on how she's put a lot of her multicultural upbringing into Boston's solely Relais & Châteaux property.

Trisha Pérez Kennealy of Inn at Hastings Park and a plate of matzoh ball soup Credit score: Courtesy of Inn at Hastings Park

Pérez Kennealy's inn encompasses 22 good-looking lodging that seamlessly meld Lexington's momentous heritage and centuries-old structure with a contemporary aesthetic. "The resort celebrates being keen about totally different points of your life," she says. "The farmers who stood their floor on the Lexington battle inexperienced to start out the American Revolution had been keen about their freedom," she elaborates, referencing one of many first navy fights of the American Revolutionary Battle, which came about in Lexington in 1775.

Exterior view of Inn at Hastings Park Credit score: Courtesy of Inn at Hastings Park Inside of Barn Suite at Inn at Hastings Park Credit score: Courtesy of Inn at Hastings Park

Above all, her cultural roots are what floor her — and inform the ethos of her inn. "I beloved rising up in Puerto Rico in an urbanization (that’s what they name them!) generally known as El Remanso, which is within the Rio Piedras district in San Juan. My paternal grandparents, who’re from Guayanilla, each beloved to cook dinner. I’ve very fond recollections of spending time with our prolonged household of their yard whereas my grandparents cooked a whole lot of meat pies at a time, my grandmother selecting contemporary ardour fruit from her timber to make juice, and the sounds of ivory dominoes being combined on the desk for folk to play," she recollects.

Although Pérez Kennealy moved to Lexington as an adolescent, to today, she makes use of that very meat pie recipe she discovered in Puerto Rico on the inn. And since there have been all the time further seats for whomever got here via the door throughout her childhood, she cultivates that very same power on the Inn at Hastings Park. (When she's not welcoming folks in actual life, she's fielding "kitchen questions individuals are too afraid to ask" on her private Instagram account to assist encourage a extra inclusive culinary neighborhood on-line.)

Paying homage to the welcoming spirit in Puerto Rico, considered one of Pérez Kennealy's favourite tales includes a visitor who got here to the inn for the primary time when her daughter-in-law was having twins. "It occurred to be throughout the Jewish excessive holidays. They had been going to the hospital and I noticed that they didn't have a vacation meal. I personally made matzo ball soup for them to take to the brand new mother and pop," she says, noting that the then-new mother is now considered one of her closest pals, and the twins (now age 7) usually pop into the inn.

Outdoors her work on the inn, Pérez Kennealy is the chairman of the board of advisors for the Friedman Faculty of Vitamin at Tufts College in Medford, MA. She turned concerned on the college due to their New Entry Sustainable Farming Undertaking, which is devoted to coaching the following technology of farmers and dealing with them to construct thriving, lasting companies. "I’m significantly pleased with the work that we do with immigrant farmers to convey a few of their indigenous vegetables and fruit to the agricultural scene in Massachusetts," she says, noting that this system additionally helps present contemporary fruit and greens to folks in deprived areas.

Whereas the pandemic has introduced challenges for these in journey and hospitality, this passionate culinary educator used the hardships it created as gas to double down on her efforts to advertise the native ecosystem. One such effort which she has spearheaded are the non-public and personally significant Immersive Cooking Weekends, which she hosts on the inn for her friends. Some highlights embody an agrarian historic tour going to 2 various kinds of close by farms, making chowder with native produce, and a excessive tea on Saturday afternoon, a hat tip to Pérez Kennealy's culinary schooling in London. Lately, most friends of the resort are from Massachusetts, whereas there's additionally a robust displaying of tourists hailing from Connecticut and Rhode Island.

"I spend shut to twenty hours with contributors in these applications. I like when contributors e-mail me with follow-up questions or share the outcomes of their work," she says of the significant small group experiences. "I keep in mind bumping into a few of my contributors within the native farmstand proper after they left, as they had been desirous to strive among the issues that they’d discovered."

Trisha Pérez Kennealy works within the kitchen at Inn at Hastings Park Credit score: Tom Curry

Lately, Pérez Kennealy has had enjoyable including touches from her tradition for vacation and particular occasions on the property, together with mofongo together with that notorious matzo ball soup. "Mofongo is a really conventional Puerto Rican dish made with fried plantains, pork crackling, and garlic. It’s generally served with caldo, or rooster broth," she says. "We did a Puerto Rican-inspired menu for a fundraiser for my temple, and the mofongo matzo ball soup was featured." For Hanukkah, the inn provides sufganiyot (a standard, Israeli jelly-filled donut) and stuffs them with guava jelly or ardour fruit as an homage to Puerto Rico. The resort has additionally featured her household's empanadillas (meat pies) and pastelillos de manchego (cheese pastries) on their menus.

Along with honoring the property's origins and her personal upbringing, Pérez Kennealy's dedication to serving to others has additionally remained throughout this tumultuous chapter in historical past. In lieu of in-person fundraisers, the innkeeper has labored together with her synagogue and different organizations to rearrange fundraisers wherein folks purchase takeout dinners from the inn that profit native charities. Most lately, a proportion of income from their to-go meals have benefitted MAZON: A Jewish Response to Starvation (a nationwide group combating to finish starvation amongst folks of all faiths) and New Entry Sustainable Farming Undertaking. She has additionally completed a collection of on-line cooking courses to assist anchor occasions for varied organizations similar to Cary Memorial Library (the primary department of the general public library in Lexington) and Tufts College.

She attributes the success of those ventures to 1 factor: curiosity. "The factor that units business leaders in hospitality aside is that they’re innately curious — inquisitive about all points of operations, inquisitive about folks, and curious concerning the world," says Pérez Kennealy. "I believe the simplest hospitality leaders are folks [who] have had multicultural experiences, whether or not working with a various workforce or touring world wide."