Welcome

     Welcome! This is my first blog ever so let me introduce myself. My name is Ryan Dwyer. I am 24 years old and from Kenosha, WI. Kenosha is a city of about 100,000 people right in between Milwaukee and Chicago. I am an aspiring chef/foodie who has worked in some of the best restaurants that the city has to offer. My love for cooking began in my childhood, watching my Sicilian uncle cook for family get-togethers and has done nothing but become an obsession. Please check out my uncle's blog at www.alla-tavola.blogspot.com. I started cooking for a living when I was 18 at a restaurant called "Mangia Trattoria e Pizzeria," which is an Italian eatery actually owned by James Beard Award-winning chef, Tony Mantuano of "Spiaggia" in Chicago. I started as a dishwasher and worked my way up to line cook, so I value and appreciate hard work. I took a job as sous chef at an Irish pub called "Ashling on the Lough" in downtown Kenosha. This is where my creativity as a chef took off. I had the benefit of working with some truly outstanding ingredients during my time here. The Kenosha Harbor Market was stationed outside our door, offering wonderful, fresh produce and a variety of other artisinal ingredients. We also were sourcing our seafood from The Honolulu Seafood Co. who had the fish to your back door within 24 hours of being caught. I am trying to get some cooking classes started up and also trying to get my name out there to host dinner parties as well. I am comfortable in most world cuisines, but I prefer French, Italian, or some combination of the two. My personal style of cooking uses only the freshest ingredients (preferably organic), I believe simplicity shows sophistication, and I like to use all of a particular food item. Each day I hope to blog about an area of food that particularly interests me (and hopefully you) as well as post some of my original recipes.