Pilot Project Chef Ryan Gill is tapping into his fine dining experience for new beer dinners
Chef Ryan Gill's culinary path has taken him from working in the kitchens at Tripoli Country Club with his dad (also named Ryan Gill) to working his way through kitchens across southeastern Wisconsin.
Gill’s family roots are in Barbados, and Caribbean influences are never far from his mind. Yet his training in fine dining kitchens with European influences helped him build technique and reach.
During his early years, he worked his way through the restaurants at Potawatomi Casino Hotel and a stint as an apprentice at The Chef’s Table with David Magnasco. At Lake Geneva’s Opus at the Belfry House he became even more comfortable with perfecting his technique and fine dining cooking. He’s held executive chef roles at the Milwaukee Art Museum followed by Artisan 179 in Pewaukee. Each step built his skills, and in December he was hired at Pilot Project Brewing's Milwaukee taproom, 1128 N. 9th St., where he’s now executive chef.
Working alongside his father, he also operates Yes Chef, a private chef and catering service. Now at Pilot Project he’s hoping to bring together the best of all his interests, launching coursed pairing dinners, starting with an Oktoberfest dinner this month.
Pilot Project's Oktoberfest dinner at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 features a five course meal paired with Pilot Project seasonal beers from its incubator brands, including Azadi Brewing, Funkytown Brewery and Brewer’s Kitchen. Dinner tickets are $75, available at pilotprojectbrewing.com/milwaukee-events.
Gill recently talked about his career and what to expect at the beer dinners.
His food roots and culinary path
I am mainly self taught as a chef. My dad has been in the industry since I was little. He is also currently a chef in Milwaukee. We share the same name. Growing up in the industry, a lot of people either knew me or my dad. Learning from him and working my way up, he’s from Barbados, so I have a bit of Caribbean flavor I like to put out in some of my dishes, but for the most part I am classically trained in Italian cuisine.
The appeal of Pilot Project
What drew me here was I heard about the first location in Chicago. I became really intrigued by the idea of food and beer and to come up with fine dining, elevated bar and beer-pairing foods. At first I was sticking hard with the Italian theme (set by predecessor Gemma Foods), but the owners really let me branch out and touch upon global cuisine and dig deep in recipes.
Come for the beer, stay for the food
My knowledge of beer has grown exponentially as I started working with Pilot. The base of our revenue is the beer. That is the main focus. When we were working on the restaurant and menu it was understood that it is beer first.
I have competition here, so the food has to be on the same level. It meant getting close with the brewmasters and brewers. It is like they are sommeliers in a way. The flavors they use in the beers are so complex, sometimes subtle, sometimes straightforward. I think about acidity versus sour beer, or light beers and how they pair.
I also find when I do beer dinners, I find I like to use it in the cuisine, like a beer tiramisu — “a beeramisu” — or beer cookies. I base it off the knowledge of the brewers here and then go forward with pairing food and certain herbs and spice.
What you need to know about this dinner
It is our first beer dinner, so five courses and five different beers. I want to take people from light to heavier as far as the beers as well as the menu itself. We go from light ABV and lagers to stouts later on, maybe finish with a kombucha or dessert pairing. I am utilizing local ingredients, working with local farmers. I work closely with Pink Teepee and source local goods. That is important to do justice to the beers we are serving. For instance, one that comes to mind is Homecoming, a celebration beer by a Black-owned brewery (Funkytown). I want to showcase the highlights, to show you can enjoy beer with some fine dining aspects.
What he hopes to see in the space
We are utilizing the event space, where we do weddings and banquets, to showcase the dinner. The goal is nice linen and to make it feel as if within Pilot Project you’ve walked into another restaurant. You can see right through the glass and see guests dining but at the same time, I want to start utilizing that space to have nice, fine dining coursed dinners, or even chef table dinners. That would be amazing, but with this first one the goal is to nail it.
The first dish he mastered, and how it made him a better chef
Frutti di mare, a seafood pasta. I was like 16 at Potawatomi and there was just something about cooking each piece of seafood differently. They all have to be perfectly executed — the scallop, the calamari, the mussels, the clams. That made me really fall in love with cooking. Cooking is a stage for art.
What he watches when he’s not working, and what inspires him
I’m one of those chefs who is deep into all the culinary TV shows, Top Chef, all of it. I tried to be on Hell’s Kitchen twice. I made it as far as a Skype interview.
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When I was younger, I was into watching Gordon Ramsay, and my dad. Those are the people I look up to still, and Chef David (Magnasco). Then watching those old Julia Child shows is always good. But Marco Pierre White is my favorite chef to this day. It makes me feel old in the kitchen. I’m 28, but all my staff is younger than me.
Hitting his stride
This dinner is a new aspect of Pilot Project. For guests and customers that have dined with us before, seeing our menu currently with so many options and a range, but nailing that fast service if you’re in a hurry to go to a concert or something, our normal day-to-day and ala carte service, I think we’ve hit our stride there.
If we can do this more frequently, these coursed dinners will be showcasing ... that yes you can have a really nice beer and a very nice coursed dinner and a fine dining setting at the same time here.
What he drinks
I’m a beer person. I like a good michelada, to be honest, but my go-to beer choice if not Pilot is a Blue Moon.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pilot Project chef taps fine dining experience for new beer dinners