Ryan Kowalski is no ordinary guy. By the age of eight he was ordering an amuse bouche-sized tortellini dish for $24 at LA's hot spot, Spago, on a family vacation. In his early teens, he received Charlie Trotter's cookbook from his father and experienced his very first chef's tasting menu at the eponymous restaurant in Chicago on his twenty-first birthday. It was at that moment when he stepped into the shiny kitchen and saw all the young cooks with their toques and copper pots, that he knew he wanted to be one of them.
In May, Ryan Kowalski joined Cedar as the Sous Chef, reuniting with Executive Chef Andy Kitko after four years since he worked as a fish cook at San Francisco's Michelin two-star Aqua, where Chef Andy was then the Sous Chef. With this common background and the powerful synergy in their working relationship, the two chefs have built the Cedar kitchen to reflect the Californian sensibilities of using quality seasonal ingredients, as well as the rigor and energy of a classic fine dining kitchen.
The Ryan I work with is a human jukebox, an expert of all things '80s, and a lover of French and American cuisine. It is no surprise that my interview questions would be answered with the kind of passion, determination and humor that is so apparent in his demeanor. Here in his own words, we can learn about what drives him, what makes him really tick. (~A.W.)
I will always remember my first taste of a fresh apricot when I was an intern at Le Moulin de Mougins, a 2-star Michelin property in the hills above Cannes, France, during the summer of 2004. There were gardens and fruit trees everywhere, and one day when I was working with the pastry team, the pastry chef told me to go get him some apricots off the tree and they handed me a basket. Until that point the only apricot I knew was the dried or canned ones (I grew up in Virginia). So naturally, I was excited and I reached for the first one that was ripe and bit into it, and since it was hot from the Provençal sun, the juices exploded in my mouth and I had a rush-sensation that I can still recall.
The first dish I cooked for a girl that I wanted to impress was two different preparations of Chesapeake female blue crabs: hot & cold. I made a parfait with the claw meat layered with avocado, jalapeno, and garden sweet 100 cherry tomatoes with purple and Thai basil for the cold. For the hot version, I made a powerful jus with the [crab] shells and dropped some fresh linguine and tossed it with the lump meat and parsley chiffonade. I was blown away, as was she.
My most embarrassing favorite food would probably be the baby crabs that live inside the oysters we shuck for our pan roast. It sounds gross, but I worked in a seafood market for three years in college and worked a lot of oyster roasts, and was educated that it's like a local delicacy. The cooks know to save them for me, and I roast them for a few minutes in butter, and they are like these crunchy/sweet/intense crab-flavored morsels.
Some foods I struggle with are okra, turkey, catfish and factory processed boneless skinless chicken breasts. My favorite dishes are anything with shellfish and refined, complex soups.
If you come to Cedar, you should order the oyster pan roast. It is one of the signature first courses and it emphasizes the vision of Cedar. We shuck fresh local oysters from the Chesapeake estuaries or the Atlantic coast, and the garnish changes with the season. And it's delicious.
My career basically started when I arrived in Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu after college, immersing myself in French cuisine and the life of Parisians through the seasons. I had the opportunity to work for 3 months at a famous property on the Mediterranean that taught me a tremendous amount about new ingredients. I came back to the States and got a job in the pastry department at Michel Richard Citronelle in Washington, the premier fine dining spot at the time. I decided to move to San Francisco to experience California cuisine and spent three years as the fish cook of two Michelin rated properties, Aqua and Fleur de Lys, respectively. Then, I moved to Miami to get a change of scenery and flavor, and was the sous chef of a four-diamond French restaurant at a luxury resort. Now, I'm back in the capitol, the best place for me to highlight my style of cuisine.
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