Renee Touponce

The Path

Culinary fundamentals were formalized at New England Culinary Institute, where Renee Touponce trained before building range through work as a server, prep cook, and dishwasher at elderly community kitchen and restaurant. Those roles put the mechanics of hospitality in view from more than one station: the back-of-house repetition, the front-of-house timing, and the shared reliance on clean work. Mystic, Connecticut, became the working context for the next stage of that formation. Renee Touponce joined 85th Day Food Community at 85th Day Food Community in Mystic, Connecticut (from 2017), then worked at Grass & Bone and Stone Acres Farm. Within those kitchens and food spaces, sourcing, preparation, service, and community contact were not abstractions; they were the daily terms of the job. Restaurant leadership followed through accumulated station work and local continuity. Renee Touponce is Executive Chef of Oyster Club (since 2021) and Executive Chef of The Port of Call (since 2022), carrying the same line from Torrington to Essex to Mystic: family technique, formal schooling, and earned responsibility inside service.

The Work Today

Coastal kitchen leadership at Oyster Club in Mystic, Connecticut, has been part of Renee Touponce’s work since 2021, where she serves as Executive Chef and also holds the Chef/Owner title. The role is practical before it is expressive: setting standards, translating decisions into service, and keeping a kitchen’s output coherent plate after plate. Ownership at The Port of Call in Mystic, Connecticut, extends the work beyond the stove. As Chef/Owner and Executive Chef, Renee Touponce carries responsibility for the room, the team, and the restaurant’s identity as well as the cooking. The through-line is the same: family practice, culinary school, and hands-on work inside Mystic’s food community gathered into present leadership. “I’m so proud of myself and my team and this space and the journey – it’s just a culmination of everything that has gotten myself and the phenomenal people I have with me to this moment."

Signature

The empanadas hold the clearest line back to the Torrington kitchen; the other dishes place seafood, terrine work, and seasoned pork inside the same vocabulary without treating them as separate identities.

In Their Words “It’s such an unbelievable thing and such an honor. I’m so proud of myself and my team and this space and the journey – it’s just a culmination of everything that has gotten myself and the phenomenal people I have with me to this moment.”

Acclaim

Recognition has come through James Beard Awards Best Chef: Northeast semifinalist (2023), James Beard Awards Best Chef: Northeast nominee (2023), and Chef of the Year (2022). The record sits on a hands-on base: making empanadas with her mom, training at New England Culinary Institute, working as server, prep cook, and dishwasher at elderly community kitchen and restaurant, joining 85th Day Food Community at 85th Day Food Community in Mystic, Connecticut (from 2017), and continuing through Grass & Bone, Stone Acres Farm, Oyster Club, and The Port of Call.