Chef Jennifer Backman Comes Full Circle at Castle Hill Inn

Chef Jennifer Backman is a glutton for a challenge. Once she accomplishes one goal, she’s ready for the next one. This personality trait describes her entire trajectory as she made her way through Johnson & Wales University’s School of Culinary Arts, and launched her career two decades ago as a lead line cook at Castle Hill Inn, and then came full circle by being named executive chef of the Inn’s entire culinary operations earlier this year.

While still in school, the Seattle native started out cooking at the Gatehouse, before it was Waterman Grille, followed by a stint at the Marriott and Rhode Island Country Club, which turned into her first sous chef position after graduation. When one of the vendors she worked with described Castle Hill as the perfect place for her, she was intrigued to learn more about it.

Castle Hill Inn.

“One of my purveyors was like, ‘I know a great place where you would fit in and really enjoy.’ He said, ‘Castle Hill.’ I said, ‘What’s that?’ He’s like ‘It’s a hotel in Newport.’ I was like ‘Where’s Newport?’” Backman said on a recent sunny summer morning outside on the Castle Hill patio. “I had never been here. It was my first introduction into this part of the state, and that’s really when I fell in love. It was love at first sight, honestly.”

As sailboats and windjammers glide past the Lawn at Castle Hill Inn on Narragansett Bay, Backman waxes poetic about the place where she truly feels at home, in a job that allows her to provide management and mentorship experiences, while also giving her chances to jump on the line and cook whenever she needs to step in or feels compelled to the kitchen. She can walk down to the inn’s sprawling garden to pick her produce, herbs and flowers for the day, then head into the kitchen to guide and train newer cooks on cutting techniques and plating. She’s running the show with executive sous chef Andy Taur at the Lawn at Castle Hill, while making sure the Forbes Four-Star fine dining restaurant Aurelia run by chef de cuisine Dylan Cadrette is operating smoothly, and that the catering kitchen is plating courses in a timely fashion for weddings.

Cadrette was also her sous chef back when she worked as chef de cuisine at the Ocean House, but it’s just a coincidence that they both ended up at the same place. “There are people here who were here twenty years ago when I was here the first time,” Backman says. “There’s the heart of the Hill, and there’s people I’ve worked with throughout the last ten years that are also here. It’s a collective family of almost my entire time in Rhode Island.”

Shrimp curry at the Lawn at Castle Hill Inn.

Backman has a history with Newport Restaurant Group as well as with the Ocean House. While she began the early stages of her culinary career with Castle Hill, after five years of getting promoted from line cook to sous chef to executive sous chef, she moved on to help open the Ocean House restaurant in 2010, back when it was named Seasons.

“That was like the next big thing. I wanted to spread my wings and go check that out,” she says. “I went in and saw the property, and I thought it would be a great thing to be a part of.” She started out as sous chef there, and spent a year and a half in the role. After chef de cuisine Eric Haugen stepped down, she was moved up to executive sous chef, which meant she helped run Seasons as well as culinary operations for the whole property. The hotel earned Relais & Chateau status, as well as Forbes Five-Star ratings for the hotel, restaurant and spa, in addition to AAA Five Diamonds.

When Ocean House Management decided to open the Weekapaug Inn, Backman went on to earn the executive chef position for opening that restaurant. “That experience was very near and dear to my heart. It was closer to me like how Castle Hill was; the size and dynamics of the team, and it was a bit smaller than the Ocean House,” Backman says.

She led the team at Weekapaug Inn for four years, then approached the managing director of the Ocean House at the time, Daniel Hostettler, for a new challenge. Ocean House Management had just taken on Spicer Mansion in Connecticut as a contract to manage the property and Backman took on the executive chef position there, creating elaborate tasting menus based on ingredients sourced that day. Then, when Ocean House wanted to rebrand its Seasons restaurant, Hostettler brought Backman back to launch the new concept under the name Coast by Jennifer Backman. She tackled one challenge after the next.

“I like to do something I haven’t done and conquer it. Then do something else, and conquer that,” Backman says. “I quickly get bored with doing the same thing, over and over.”

After that, it was back to Newport Restaurant Group, to test out high volume service as executive chef at the Mooring. “At this point, I had tried casinos, hotels, independent restaurants, catering, I had done everything except high volume, so I thought the Mooring would be a great opportunity to put that feather in my hat,” Backman says.

She seized that opportunity for four-and-a-half years, then wanted to get back to the basics of focusing on food and exquisite plating, so she was off the Waterman Grille for fifteen months. It was then that chef Lou Rossi, now Director of Food and Beverage at Castle Hill Inn, approached her about returning to her roots at Castle Hill.

“I didn’t know that opportunity would ever present itself to me,” she says. “It was a hard yes. This is my true love.”

Now she’s overseeing the entire culinary operation at the Inn. “It’s different departments, and different chefs, and my job is to collectively make sure the entire operation is running properly, and that people are trained, and that the food is up to standards,” Backman says.

It’s a job that starts at 8 or 9 a.m. with guest breakfast service and often ends at 9 or 9:30 p.m. with last rounds, as she bounces between pre-service meetings and service hours in each of three separate kitchens throughout the day, jumping in as needed. She takes the pulse of each operation and can identify any needs or concerns and step in if necessary. She enjoys going down to the garden to see what’s growing that day, including nasturtiums in bloom, squashes, fresh herbs and lettuces. She also takes the time to teach young cooks. “I love the mentorship, I love the development of people,” she says. “This way I have an opportunity to develop multiple people simultaneously.”

The garden at Castle Hill.

But by working twelve- or thirteen-hour days, there’s not much time for anything other than work. She says that you want to try to find balance, but realistically, it’s hard to find. When she’s not working she enjoys paddleboarding and bicycling, but ultimately, she finds joy in her work.

“The key is making sure that I am in a place that I love and that I’m doing the things that I love,” Backman says. “For me, that balances out enough that I don’t have burnout.”

Backman does what she loves, and she doesn’t work a day in her life.