For Greg Ryall, excelling in the kitchen has always come naturally. “I intuitively seemed to understand, even at a young age, that success was all about timing,” he says, recalling a meal he created for his family when he was 10. “I prepared a familiar menu but in a way that was unlike how my mom made it; everyone in the family could taste the difference.”
Chef Ryall got his start at age 14 in the kitchen as a dishwasher/busboy at Peterborough Ont.’s Miss Diana Restaurant. “I would look through the service window and watch the cooks; it was like they were performing magic and their careful dance intrigued me,” he recalls. “Within two months I was working on the line and I absolutely loved it. There was no turning back.”
The young chef went on to spend a year studying hospitality management at Fleming College in Peterborough before being recruited by CP Hotels (precursor to Fairmont Hotels & Resorts) at age 21, to cook at its Jasper Park Lodge. The experience inspired Ryall to push himself further, leading him to return to school to complete his training at Calgary’s Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, the Red Seal chef began cooking his way through local regional cuisines with stints in Quebec’s Charlevoix region at Manoir Richelieu, the Delta Pinestone Resort in Haliburton, Ont., and the Crowne Plaza Ottawa.
Ryall admits he intentionally focused on working in the hotel industry because it afforded him opportunities for travel and work/life balance. “Some of my happiest times are when my wife, two daughters and I are cooking together,” he shares.
As executive sous chef at the Shaw Centre (formerly the Ottawa Convention Centre), Ryall is at home in Ottawa’s largest kitchen — an environment where consistency is key. “We’re booking events six months or even a year out and the huge quantities of food we deliver at each event have to look and taste precisely as they did at the client’s tasting event,” he explains. “It’s nothing like cooking in a restaurant.”
With the wide range of events hosted at the Shaw Centre, from 10-course meals for a dozen people to banquets for thousands, the menu changes regularly. Though hand-picking ingredients isn’t always possible in a convention-centre environment, the chef prides himself on the quality and imagination of what is produced at the Shaw Centre. For example, Ryall and his team undertake a six-day preparation process in order to deliver their slow-braised local beef shortrib. “This can be a challenge during our peak business levels; however, our custumers appreciate it,” he notes. “I relish the chance to do what is unexpected, theatrical and extremely memorable.”
The kitchen invests in infrastructure and staff to increase its ability to produce more desserts in-house, an initiative Ryall helped spearhead. When the centre couldn’t source a cheesecake that suited its vision, for example, the chef developed a scalable maple cheesecake recipe, which has now become a regular item on the dessert menu. “A lot of people aren’t doing that anymore, especially in a convention- centre atmosphere,” he notes. “It’s not a small feat for someone to make 1,500 cheesecakes. To be able to commit to something like that, over and over again, is awesome.”
Volume 48, Number 7
