Gourmet Cooking In the 2008 Olympics With Chef Ryan

Chef Ryan (center) with some of his production crew in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He describes that the Dining Hall for the Olympics is as big as a football field with humungous kitchen and with a duck room being built for the “Traditional Peking Duck” with closely guarded recipe and a chef coming from the Imperial restaurant. With his daring sense of taste for culinary discovery, it will not be surprising that Chef Ryan will be able to uncover the “secrets” of this traditional gourmet food and will be able to improve upon with an ever more desirable version.

Daring and brave: Chef Ryan tasting scorpions, one of Chinese exotic delicacies.

In Nirvana: Jerry Madriaga (center) and Agnes Perez-Bartolome had the privilege of enjoying Ryan's gourmet cooking in Southern California.

His boldness and bravery to his creations extends beyond the traditional and very much in play with more exotic foods. In fact, he is courageous enough to try some of the Chinese exotic foods sold in the streets of Beijing. Wait and see how it ends up as part of his new culinary experiments.

After the Olympics, he will return to the US, managing the University of California Irvine cafeteria where he is the Executive Chef. His “untraditional” and delicious cafeteria dishes, some with distinct Filipino touches, are loved and enjoyed by the students, not only by Asians.

Ryan graduated from University of the Philippines at Los Baños, where he joined the UP Varrons as part of Batch ’84. He immigrated to the US in 1991. He obtained his Diploma in Culinary Arts in California a few years after.