Executive Chef Thomas Ryan joined the Biltmore in the summer of 2011 to oversee the hotel’s enormous culinary department, which encompasses banquets, four bars and restaurants and room service.  With an approach that aims to elevate the stylish Biltmore banquet facilities’ menus and services to a true American Classic Cuisine, Ryan’s culinary goals for the hotel will see it hearken back to its earliest days when food was locally-sourced, seasonal and fresh, and dishes accessible, inspired and elegantly-presented.

Chef Ryan’s love of cooking stems from childhood, but unlike many chefs, he didn’t learn the craft from his mother – in fact, she couldn’t cook!  Instead he became the family chef by necessity, and as his family spent summers in Billings, New York – just down the road from the Culinary Institute of America – his skills and passion for the kitchen grew over time until he finally enrolled himself.  

Ryan’s extensive experience spans more than two decades and includes serving as an executive chef and opening team member with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and  being invited twice to cook at the famed James Beard House in New York as a Guest Chef.  As president and corporate chef of Restaurant & Hospitality Consultants, Las Vegas, he led a team of top professionals in the development and opening of restaurants.  Most recently he served as Executive Chef for The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach and Montage Hotels in Deer Valley, Utah.

Ryan is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York and is working toward becoming a Certified Executive Chef (CEC) with the American Culinary Federation.  He also boasts a variety of other training from noted culinary programs including the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany and wine training with sommeliers at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.  He has participated in six annual Food & Wine Classics in Aspen, CO and is a member of COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts.

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