Industry Night: Ryan Ratino on Michelin Stars, Muscle, and Leading with Grace
Ryan Ratino holds more Michelin stars than almost any chef in America, and he spent years running a DC food empire while his body was quietly falling apart. This is the episode where the chef interview podcast goes somewhere it almost never goes.
Nycci Nellis taped this one at Equinox Wisconsin Avenue at City Ridge, which tells you everything about where the conversation was headed. Ryan Ratino is the executive chef and owner of Hive Hospitality, home to one-Michelin-starred Bresca, two-Michelin-starred Jaunt, Michelin-starred Moss at the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale, Michelin-starred Omo by Jaunt in Winter Park, and his newest Georgetown concept Oxen Olive. He leads over 200 people across multiple restaurants and holds the Michelin Guide Young Chef Award. And at 30 years old, he looked in the mirror at 206 pounds and 30 percent body fat and decided to treat his body the same way he treats his kitchens. With obsession, data, and zero shortcuts. This is the Washington DC restaurant insider conversation about what it actually costs to sustain excellence at the highest level of the hospitality industry. The discipline, the bloodwork, the cortisol spikes, the 400 biomarkers, the kilo of Japanese short-grain rice, and the Bulgarian split squats he hates. If you have ever wondered how the best in the DC dining world actually keep going, this one is for you.
What You Will Learn
Ryan Ratino grew up in a working class union household in Ohio and knew within two months of arriving at Le Cordon Bleu in Florida at 17 that cooking was exactly right for him.
He opened Bresca at 27 in the old Policy nightclub space on 14th Street intentionally before launching two-Michelin-starred Jaunt upstairs, because he wanted to earn the neighborhood's trust before asking them to celebrate there.
At 30 years old and 206 pounds with 30 percent body fat, Ryan cycled through doctors until he found a specialist who ran 400 biomarkers, identified barely-functioning adrenal glands, and built a protocol that finally let him fall asleep at night.
Ryan says the cleaner his body feels, the more grace he brings to leading his team. He greets every single person when he arrives and thanks every single person at the end of the night, and he credits the health journey with making that consistency possible.
