A SEAT AT THE TABLE: A CONVERSATION WITH CHEF RYAN ROSS

By: Connor Duszynski

Chef Ryan Ross, the founder of Lovage & Co., is a private chef and culinary artist who has flourished in the realm of bespoke dining and food-centric events over the past decade. Born and raised in Warrenton, Virginia, Ryan returned to her Hunt Country roots just a few short years ago, after a journey that took her around the world, honing her skills and developing her unique culinary style. She most recently relocated back to Hunt Country from Bow, a quaint town in Washington state’s Skagit Valley overlooking the picturesque Samish Bay. She continues to occasionally fly out to Washington and throughout the United States to serve clients for gatherings of all kinds and sizes.

Ryan’s journey into the world of food began at a very young age. Her mother owns and operates The Natural Marketplace in Old Town Warrenton for over thirty years, a local organic health food store, which undoubtedly influenced her approach to ‘food as medicine.’ Ryan went on to attend the Natural Gourmet Institute of NYC and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, further solidifying her commitment to health-supportive, festive, organic, sustainable, foraged, and local food. “I went to New York straight from dancing for years. I always knew that I needed to do something outside of dance as art. I had always had an interest in food and health and wellness. Of course, health and wellness starts with food; food is medicine. It was there that I was learning how to integrate food into every kind of lifestyle. I was having the best time,” she mentions.

Ryan continued to dance with a number of Manhattan and Brooklyn based artists and companies for her time in New York. It was also there that she met her husband on the Q Train traveling from her Brooklyn apartment into Manhattan. Casey Rigney, a professional skateboarder and a current performer for Cirque de Soleil. Shortly after meeting, the couple flew to Nicaragua’s Little Corn Island, where Ryan had gotten a job helping to open Yemaya Reefs’s plantbased yoga retreat. "We were there for six months. It was fantastic! Casey spent a great deal of time in the gardens solidifying his love for soil science and botany and I spent my time in the kitchen, often without electricity on the one mile x one mile paradise, grinding nuts into flours, sun drying fruits and herbs and so on. After that stint on Little Corn we eventually moved out of the city, because what we had in common was outside the city. We knew we wanted to be a bit closer to nature. We love to travel, see different landscapes, eat different foods, and experience life as it is lived in other parts of the world. Hunting down project-based work that enabled us to travel was our sweet spot. Living and traveling that way is probably why we are just so fulfilled now with a home and two children. I feel like we waited for so long to put down roots and it’s pretty fun to create a home base together," she explains.

Ryan’s culinary philosophy is try to eat close to home and within the season whenever possible. "Front loading your day with whole, minimally processed foods as a great goal. Sourcing meat, dairy and produce from local and restorative farmers where you know what they are feeding to their animals, and how they tread on the planet. Choosing vegetables and plants, and growing your own, preparing your own food is the best way to feed your body and soul. Easier said than done right?! We live in such a fast-paced age where priorities have been greatly shifted from nourishing ourselves this way. Convenience is certainly king. I have to actively fight this norm to maintain a bit of what I truly believe in." This philosophy is evident in the offerings of Lovage & Co., which are designed to infuse everyday life with a healthful kick and relationship to your food.

However, perhaps most importantly, Ryan believes that food should be prepared with love. Reflecting, she recalls that her foundation for and love of the culinary arts began in her youth. “I think about it sometimes. When I was a child, I remember all the food I ate as a form of nourishment and love. I was always seated at a table to eat; the food was always prepared by someone I loved and someone who loved me. My mother and my dear friends’ mothers were really gifted in the kitchen. I think it was inevitable that I was destined to be in the food space; I wanted to feel that lovely nostalgic feeling of family and comfort.”

When asked about the moment she made the decision to go into business for herself, Ryan explains that she never intended to work the line forever. Hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, she has always been inspired by those closest to her who paved their own lanes and ran their own businesses. "Everywhere we’ve moved, I’ve taken the time to work the line for a bit because each location is so different. It’s important to have a pulse on the local food scene, because no two food communities are the same. Restaurant folk know exactly what I’m talking about. The owners were more than happy to let me shuck oysters for a few years or build salads, really whatever they needed. It was always really exciting for me to work private events too because most of the restaurants I worked in didn’t have private chefs for dispatch, and there I was! This was interesting to me because it was clearly pretty valuable, even to a restaurant, to be able to offer that service. There was clear demand. It also reinforced my thinking that more and more people are trying to return to their home tables, a more intimate scene and not limited to a perhaps seasonless menu. More currently, I do see many restaurants gravitating towards seasonal eating. A lot of restaurants in and around Hunt Country are doing a great job of creating this sort of ‘hybrid’ dining experience, making it more nuanced and personal for the guests that care."

Ryan and the work she does through Lovage & Co. is one of these forces in Hunt Country transforming the local dining experience. “While I am just one person, I established Lovage & Co. as a label that houses anything food-centric. So, if a bride would like to see something beyond just a private chef, I am capable of creating a team for the event. In the Hunt Country area in particular, there’s a lot of quaint dinner parties that I’m capable of working by myself. Lovage & Co. is reserved more for those larger parties that have a lot of moving parts,” she elaborates.

With her emphasis on personalizing every dinner party and gathering she joins, it’s no surprise that she has garnered not only national recognition, but a rolodex of loyal returning clients. “The clients I really enjoy working with are the clients who love to host. They put their energy towards their guests and their friends, giving them their personal time and opening their home. Hearing them laugh and talk and seeing that they’ve given their attention to their guests by hiring me is so awesome to see. This kind of client values the art of gathering. I love being able to give them the space to host the way a host should. It’s such a gift of me to be of service in this way. It’s like a love language,” Ryan shares. In this way, Ryan not only ensures that the food being prepared is delicious and served on-time, but she also ensures that the gathering runs smoothly. Having operated as a private chef for over a decade, she’s extremely intuitive when it comes to navigating foreign kitchens, so that the hosts might relax and unwind with their guests, without worry that there will be any kind of backup of flow in the kitchen.

Ross’s approach to food is not about dieting or restriction but about celebrating the bounty of nature and nourishing the body with organic, non-polluted, mineral-rich foods. She regularly sources the produce for her gatherings from local farmers markets, her mother’s store, or through collaborations with larger local restaurants who provide Ryan with their resources. Among the many things Ryan loves about Hunt Country’s food community, she is especially grateful for the local farms that produce eggs, animal proteins, and fruits and vegetables. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to sourcing her produce because it’s all about working with the season at hand.

Ross's culinary expertise extends beyond just creating delicious meals. She is also a recipe writer, product developer, and food stylist, having consulted for plant-based restaurants in Washington state, New York City, Nicaragua, Munich, and Paris. Her talent, creativity, and culinary expertise led her to win the Food Network’s “Light Makes Right” episode of Chopped on Season 24 and co-hosting the finale episode of Joel Gamoran's first season of SCRAPS on the A&E network.

Ryan was at her friend’s heirloom blueberry farm in Bow, Washington (which served as the local food hub for all the surrounding farmers) when she struck up a conversation with an unassuming customer, who turned out to be one of the food writers in Seattle. He later asked her if she would apply to the show, he had it on good authority that they were looking for Seattle based chefs, Ryan sent in her application and interviewed with the production team. Once the team eagerly accepted her application, she flew back to her earlier stomping ground of NYC to film in Chelsea Market and the rest was history. "It was a sixteen hour day of production for the show. I got lucky, they mystery ingredients were akin to something like a typical Tuesday night grocery haul for me! I worked with Wild King Salmon, ground bison, rainbow carrots, and a number of other items that I love working with on the reg. The experience of being on that show, that I had created as a huge challenge in my mind ended up being incredibly smooth and seamless. I don’t believe being in competition with food, but I believe in saying ‘yes’ to things that scare you a little bit," she reflects.

As if these accomplishments weren’t already evidence of Ryan’s love of the culinary arts, she’s also extremely conscious of sustainable practices, preserving and storing food, and responsibly sourcing and harvesting produce. "It’s so important to eat leftovers, follow sustainable eating habits, and consider getting into freezing and pickling properly. Especially in the gardening season, when everyone has zucchinis comic out of their ears, it’s critical not to let food go to waste as much as possible. It’s an ongoing education and practice in our house. We are not perfect, and don’t necessarily aim to be."

Ryan had the opportunity not once, but twice to appear on Joel Gamoran’s SCRAPS a show on FYI and A&E about utilizing food wastes. "It was beautifully shot and a show with the best mission I can think of about creativity and acknowledging food waste. As far as teaching about food, I think you can give the gift of cooking methods; if you can learn how food acts, when you add an egg to this it will stay together, when you add a little mustard to this it will emulsify, the good looking scraps make a great stock and here is how you use and store that stock, and so on. An entire world will open up to you in the kitchen."

Despite her success, Ross remains grounded and connected to her community, perhaps now more than ever before. She can often be found throwing a dinner party for up to forty guests in a picturesque Hunt Country field or cooking for private clients. Her passion for food and community is evident in every dish she creates and every event she hosts. To learn more about how to connect with Chef Ryan Ross as a private chef for your next intimate gathering or to connect with her through Lovage & Co. for larger parties, see her links below. Don’t miss her “All Seasons Tart” recipe on the next page, perfect for this late summer/early fall season.