Tom Berry's appetite for travel has become the architectural blueprint for COJE's expanding restaurant portfolio. The Boston-based group's Chief Culinary Officer channels his global journeys directly into menu development and concept design across eleven distinct restaurants, each reflecting authentic regional cuisines rather than diluted, mass-market interpretations.
Berry's approach reflects a shift in how restaurant groups operate. Rather than impose a singular house style, COJE allows each property to maintain its own identity while benefiting from centralized culinary leadership. His role transcends typical CCO duties. Berry doesn't simply approve menus from afar. He travels, tastes, and translates those experiences into actionable kitchen directives.
This model addresses a persistent challenge in multi-unit restaurant operations. Scale often demands standardization, which flattens flavor profiles and erases regional authenticity. COJE's structure inverts that logic. By anchoring menu decisions to Berry's firsthand knowledge of global cuisines, the group maintains culinary integrity across locations while achieving operational efficiency.
The eleven-restaurant portfolio spans varied cuisines, each reinforced by Berry's documented travels to source regions. This isn't performative localism. The distinction lies in execution. A restaurant built on Berry's firsthand experience of Moroccan spice markets operates differently than one conceptualized in a Boston boardroom.
This staffing model also influences hiring. Chefs working within COJE kitchens inherit not just recipes but cultural context. When a chef understands that a dish emerges from a specific geographic and cultural moment that their CCO witnessed firsthand, execution sharpens.
For diners, the effect manifests in authenticity without tourism. COJE's restaurants deliver regional cooking informed by deep familiarity rather than abbreviated research. The competitive advantage lies in hiring leadership with genuine culinary curiosity, then structuring operations around that expertise rather than despite it