Film tells story of legendary restaurateur

A screenplay written by a former Maplewood resident about a South Orange resident who transformed the restaurant business is making waves on the independent film circuit.

Donald G. Boudreau’s screenplay, “The Restaurant Man,” was awarded Best Feature Script at the Swedish International Film Festival. It was also named an Official Selection at the NICE International Film Festival in Nice, France.

All of this put Boudreau “over the moon” and he said he’s “been up in the clouds ever since.”

“The Restaurant Man” has received a total of 17 best script awards at film festivals worldwide. It’s based on the life and career of former South Orange resident, Joseph H. Baum (1920-1998), the noted restaurateur and innovator who has come to be known as “the father of the modern American restaurant.”

Baum was renowned for having made dining in America a form of entertainment.

Baum’s New York City restaurants included The Four Seasons, La Fonda del Sol, the restored Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, Mama Leone’s, Tavern on the Green and Windows on the World atop the north tower of the World Trade Center.

“This story burned in me for years,” Boudreau said. “I had to tell it. It’s a story worth telling. When you go to a restaurant and waiters introduce themselves to guests, Joseph Baum created that. This is now all over the world. “In New Jersey, you have Restaurant Week, Restaurant Month. You’ll never question who created it. Joseph Baum and Mr. Tim Zagat created it in 1992. It is now around the majority of the world.

“When you have your salad in front of you, a waiter asks, ‘Would you want some freshly ground pepper?’ Joseph Baum introduced the pepper mill. These are the types of contributions to the food world who made him who he was,” Boudreau said.

Boudreau, who lived in Maplewood back in the 1960s and graduated from Columbia in 1971, was 13 years old when he got a job washing dishes at the Newarker Restaurant at Newark Airport. He learned this was Joseph Baum’s first theme restaurant.

“It had beautiful artistic paintings of scenes from Newark’s history,” Boudreau said. “It had floor to ceiling windows. The dining experience he created was theatrical. Absecon oysters were taken off the coast of Absecon Island. The restaurant became very famous. A lot of celebrities came. People would travel from hundreds of miles to dine.”

As time went on, Boudreau learned more about Joseph Baum. He wrote a book, “Joseph Baum and the Newarker Restaurant.”

Boudreau explained, “Many people think the idea of eating locally grew out of California in the 1960s. The truth is, Joseph Baum was doing local in the early 1950s. New Jersey fruits. New Jersey vegetables.”

Through the introduction of a mutual friend, Boudreau had the opportunity to meet and speak with Baum back in the fall of 1989.

“As the years unfolded, I became fascinated with his genius,” Boudreau said. “One of the ways I could best express his work was through a screenplay.”
Boudreau has dined in all of Baum’s famous restaurants and favors a veal scallopini dish that was offered at The Newarker.

Now living in Calabash, N.C., near Myrtle Beach, Boudreau likes to spend his free time reading a lot, writing a lot and being on social media. He has several other screenplays in progress.

  Maplewood, South Orange