Interace: Tim Ryan

Tim Ryan, president of The CIA, on leadership and the future of culinary education

By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/1/2003

The man who holds the power to shape America’s next generation of culinary leaders no longer wears a toque or a starched white chef’s jacket.

Rather, Tim Ryan dresses in a tailored suit and tie, a classic power uniform that belies his 20-plus years’ experience as an accomplished culinarian and certified master chef. It’s only fitting that the president of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), widely acknowledged as one of the most influential culinary institutions, seamlessly blends business acumen and educational rigor with kitchen arts.

A CIA alumnus himself, Ryan did not envision a future in academia when he graduated in 1977. After a period abroad, he returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh, serving as assistant chef at Ben Gross’ Restaurant in Irwin, Pa., for a year before opening La Normande in Pittsburgh as executive chef.

In 1982, then-CIA President Ferdinand Metz recruited Ryan to return to the school to run the newly opened American Bounty Restaurant as a chef-instructor.

“I thought it was going to be a cool little thing I might do for two or three years, and then I’d be back out on my adventure,” says Ryan, sitting in his well-appointed office overlooking the CIA campus, a compact but picturesque property nestled alongside the Hudson River in Hyde Park, N.Y. (The school also operates The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, Calif.)

What Ryan didn’t count on was the strong and lasting connection he would form with the school and especially its students. Two years stretched into five, then 10, then 20. In 2001, Ryan was named the CIA’s fifth president, the first alumnus and first faculty member to rise through the ranks to the institute’s top position.

“What’s kept me here all these years has been the power we feel at the school,” he says. “We really feel that we make a difference in these young people’s lives. It’s tangible here. And through our alumni we make a real difference in the profession.”

Indeed, few in foodservice would dispute the CIA’s influence on the evolution of the American culinary industry or the school’s growing global reach, not just in fine-dining restaurants but in all sectors of the business. Ryan points to several instances in the school’s 57-year-history that illustrate its foresight.

Four-year culinary degrees were nonexistent when the CIA introduced its bachelor of culinary arts management and baking and pastry arts management programs in 1994. Since then, nearly 20 schools have launched similar bachelor’s degrees of their own, Ryan says.

Another first came with the debut of the American Bounty Restaurant in 1982. Opening an American-themed restaurant, a now-commonplace occurrence, was controversial at the time, raising questions about the validity of American cooking.

“In some quarters of the industry, people asked, ‘Why would you do that? There is no such thing as American cuisine,’” he recalls. “Today students look at me like I’m out of my mind because in 20 years we have made up so much ground. It seems obvious to them that American chefs would have a place of prominence in the world.”

Ryan points to this shift in power as one of the greatest changes in culinary education in recent decades. Though French chefs and cuisine once ruled the culinary world, today the United States has become a center of global influence. Experiences CIA students once traveled abroad to discover now are available at home.

“We encourage students to travel, but do they need to go to France to see things in the way we needed to in the 1970s? No. Students can gain top-quality experience all over the United States, and that’s something we can be very proud of,” Ryan says.

The transition from a menu- and recipe-driven curriculum to a focus on fundamental tools and techniques represents another significant change in culinary education, as do the challenges presented by increasingly global kitch-ens and diverse ingredients. To address these issues, the CIA continues to expand its specialty-class options and to place greater emphasis on nonculinary topics such as communication and interpersonal and business skills.

It’s a vastly different landscape from when Ryan embarked on his own culinary training in the early 1970s. Growing up with his parents and two younger sisters in Pittsburgh, he had no experience in foodservice until taking a job as a dishwasher in his early teens.

“As soon as I was in that kitchen, it seemed like the most dynamic, exciting place I had ever seen,” he says. “I couldn’t believe it, and foodservice was my destiny from that point on.”

Arriving at the CIA in 1975, Ryan aspired to become “the American Paul Bocuse,” the legendary French chef Ryan and his contemporaries looked up to as the equivalent of “Elvis, The Beatles and God.” He traveled to France after graduation to study under the country’s top chefs—including Bocuse himself.

“In those times it was almost a religious experience,” Ryan says. “Today students have 24-hour food television networks, and chefs are celebrities. Back then, we Americans had some feelings of inferiority.”

The young chef and his cohorts learned two main lessons while abroad: that product quality and variety were far greater than at home, and that, despite the mystique, the craft of cooking held no great secrets.

“It wasn’t rocket science. They used the techniques we were learning at The Culinary Institute of America,” Ryan says. “That inspired us after we came back. We thought, ‘We can be the best in the world.’”

After his return and subsequent recruitment by Metz, Ryan moved quickly through the CIA ranks. In 1985 he became department head for culinary education, overseeing curriculum and instruction for the evening session. That same year, at age 27, he earned the title of certified master chef from the American Culinary Federation, the youngest to do so.

Ryan was promoted to director of culinary education in 1986 and also served as captain for the U.S. team at the first Culinary World Cup Competition. His team took grand prize and was named champion for the next four years. Three promotions later, Ryan sits at the helm of the institute he helped put on the map. Those who joined him on the journey find little surprise in his success.

“Tim always presents himself as a leader, whether heading a small team in a kitchen or a large staff and faculty like the institute’s,” says Mark Erickson, CIA vice president and fellow 1977 graduate.

“The great thing about having a [CIA alumnus as] president is that he’s more than just committed to the job, he’s emotionally committed to seeing the institute change people’s lives and set them up for success in the future.”

True to his philosophy of lifelong learning, Ryan has continued his own studies as well. In May, he was awarded a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

He views the challenge of carrying the CIA into the future as a mixed blessing in which he must avoid the trap of complacency.

“Ultimately, I think my legacy will be that I continued in the great tradition of the institution,” Ryan says. “All the presidents have been able to move the institute to the next level, and I hope to do that as well.”