Ryan Littman: 'We're Doing Things Differently'
Acclaimed by Food & Wine magazine as a Best New Chef in 1997 and honored with an array of 'Best of.' awards from publications such as Esquire magazine, Travel & Leisure, Saveur and Bon Appétit, Laurent Tourondel has changed the approach of fine dining by creating accessible menus prepared with the finest ingredients and presented in a casual, comfortable dining room. His latest creation, BLT Market at The Ritz-Carlton New York Central Park, adheres to his belief that ingredients should be stellar, food simp
By Staff -- Hotels, 8/31/2007 11:00:00 PM
 Chef Ryan Littman |
Named Marriott’s Chef of the Year for 2006-2007, and recently invited to cook at the James Beard House, Ryan Littman, 35, is using fresh, local ingredients—from tepary beans to saguaro fruit—and embracing the flavors of the Southwest to make a name for Tucson’s JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa.
HOTELS: What got you interested in cooking for a living?
Littman: I started as a dishwasher at a suburban Pittsburgh deli. How it began is one of the line cooks didn’t show up to work, so the chef comes up to you—you are the next logical choice, because it’s more important to get the food out than the dishes cleaned. So guess what? You’re working the line now. I was just thrown into it, and I guess I was fairly good at it, because I got another promotion, and at 16, I was a lead line cook. My chef there encouraged me to go to culinary school—he said I had an eye for detail and the commitment and love for it. That’s where it began.
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HOTELS: After culinary school, you got your start with Marriott, and you’re still working for the company today. Why stick around for all these years?
Littman: I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding people—some great chefs. Some people feel that Marriott is just your basic suburban properties, but if you get into the resorts, you are working with world-class culinarians—people with outstanding resumes and backgrounds. If you go to the big resorts, there are five to seven restaurants in them, and you can move around. It’s almost like changing jobs completely, but within the same infrastructure.
HOTELS: What has been the defining moment in your career thus far?
Littman: I really think my career took a complete turn when I moved to Palm Desert, California, to the JW Desert Springs (where I was a restaurant chef, banquet chef and then executive sous chef over the course of seven years). You get to see all these different things without having to leave the company. You can work in different restaurants, in banquets, and it’s always busy—it’s a destination resort with outstanding F&B and very talented people. I think I really took off with my career at that resort.
HOTELS: You recently received Marriott’s Award for Culinary Excellence and you also were selected to cook at the James Beard House. Why you?
Littman: I think it’s because we’re doing things differently than other Marriotts. We’ve changed a lot about how the stereotypical corporate Marriott operates. We do everything from scratch here. We make our own bread, our own pastries, and most hotels don’t. We are making soup stocks and buying whole carrots and onions—not bagged, chopped, pre-peeled or julienned. We don’t buy all that convenience stuff. A lot of places do to save on labor.
We have our own little butcher shop—we’re not buying pre-cut steaks. We’re buying whole fish—sometimes we get 400-pound halibut in.
We really try to embrace local agriculture as much as possible, to work with local farmers. That’s an important part of doing business, to use who’s around you, in your area. We try to impact our somewhat large carbon footprint as little as possible.
So we make everything, and we get great feedback from our guests—our guest scores are fantastic. And the financial results we’re getting are great as well.
 JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa chefs (left to right) Thorsten Leighty, Danny Perez, Ryan Donaldson, Chris Johnson and Ryan Littman |
HOTELS: With these types of honors coming your way, recognition is inevitable. Do you aspire to become a celebrity chef?
Littman: No. People that know me know that’s not me. I’m not a showy person—a lot of people say to a fault. I don’t like talking about me, I like talking about my team and what everybody has accomplished. I just like coming to work, doing a good job, keeping my team happy and taking great care of our guests. That’s what it’s all about. I’m perfectly happy with that.
HOTELS: What do you think about celebrity chefs and the consumer’s new obsession with both these people and their food?
Littman: The Food Network has definitely contributed to that. The Food Network has over-glamorized our industry. It’s not glamorous; it’s extraordinarily hard work. It’s terrible hours, it’s working every holiday and weekend, it’s dealing with different personalities—it’s very hard work. It’s rare that a chef is out at the market first thing in the morning picking a ripe tomato or hand-selecting herbs.
HOTELS: What are some key ingredients currently in your kitchen that you could not live without?
Littman: Definitely the Southwestern spices and ingredients, because that establishes our identity. The Native Americans grow a tepary bean—we use a lot of that. And different chiles, like green chiles from Hatch, New Mexico.
HOTELS: What about the one vital piece of equipment?
Littman: I love our smoker. It’s fun, it’s messy, it produces great results—it’s a great cooking tool. It’s not fast—you put stuff in there and you’re not dealing with it for half a day or a full day. You put half a pig, briskets or ribs in and get amazing results. The temperatures are so low—the slow heat, the moisture and the smoke break down all the fats, and turn [items] into something phenomenal. There’s no other way to cook a lot of these items.
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HOTELS: When you don’t have to cook, what is your favorite type of food or meal to eat? Where do you like to go?
Littman: I like going to all types of restaurants—I don’t have one favorite or style. Anything from Indian cuisine to Chinese food and regular new American cuisine. I can really appreciate good cooking in every aspect. Even if I go out for spaghetti at a hole-in-the-wall joint—I can appreciate the entire spectrum.
HOTELS: What was the last restaurant you went to that just blew you away?
Littman: The last great place I went was to Bouchon, Thomas Keller’s restaurant in the Venetian in Las Vegas. I went there with some work friends and I was blown away. The service, the food, the timing of the meal, the atmosphere… every aspect was perfect.
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