Inside the Kitchen: Seven Questions with Oyster Oyster's Rob Rubba

An eggplant parm from somebody in my home state of New Jersey who knows how to make it right. I like it as a cutlet with spaghetti or bucatini, and red sauce.

Along the Black Horse Pike in New Jersey, where I grew up, there were produce stands every 15 miles or so. One summer, we stopped at one, and I got some plums. I remember sitting in the back of our Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme biting into this plum, still warm from the sun, and it almost exploding in my mouth, it was so juicy. That’s still the most delicious fruit I've ever had in my life. I don't know if anything will ever match it.

Fine dining isn't what a restaurant looks like, it's the quality of hospitality, which can come in many forms, as long as you feel like you're being taken care of. The sourcing and preparation of the ingredients must be at the highest level. That doesn't mean the most expensive stuff. It just means there's a real dedication to the quality of the product you're getting, and the care you take with storing and preparing it.

To continue being a steward of this world we live in and inspiring others to take care of this world.

I want to go to Silo in London, because they’ve done fantastic things in the Zero Waste world, and I love the thoughtfulness of what they're doing. Plus, I think it would just be a very educational dinner.

Big flavors but keep it simple. I don't like things that are overly fussy, because then you lose flavor.

Hot, steamy rice with a few drops of good quality sesame oil on it. That's it.