Chef Ryan A. Stipp is the Pastry Sous Chef of Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa in Dallas, Texas. He was one of the 4 incredible finalists in our 2025 LA Chef Con Center Stage competition! We recently interviewed him to learn a little bit more about his culinary journey. Read the full interview below and don’t forget to follow him on Instagram!
Tell us a little bit about your culinary journey and how you got to where you are now.
Well, my journey is a little unorthodox compared to most. As many great culinary journeys incarnate, mine also began in the kitchen of my mom and grandma. Seeing the love and effort they put into everything they made really resonated with me. So much so that I ended up “hosting” my own cooking shows – I was either making classic tuna salad/egg salad or “elevated” ramen – with the audience being our family cats. Little did I know, that core memory would be the foundation of my career path nearly 2 decades later. Growing up, I was deeply involved in the arts – sketching, painting, pottery, graphic design, and music. I didn’t fall into the illusion of “having to go to university” right after high school. I took a couple of years off, worked, saved money, and sought after what would make me internally happy. I remembered the joy that I felt of creating my own dishes, my own food, cooked my way, and the smiles – the nods of enjoyment – that came with others trying my food over the years. I remembered that core memory of cooking to my audience of family cats. That was the decision maker for me. I found a local culinary college in Bristol, TN/VA. I started off strictly savory, and once I took my first mandatory baking class, it was game over – I had to have a degree in pastry as well. Heck, why not have a restaurant management degree, too?! Yeah, I’m a glutton for punishment, so I adjust my degree path to encompass all three degrees in one fell swoop. I wanted to be as prepared as possible going into this industry so that I could always be useful in some aspect of the culinary field. The rest was history.
I did my internship at a local country club – The Blackthorn Grille – Jonesborough, TN, and was hired on full time afterwards thanks to the amazing Chef James Allen. He really believed in me, even with me being as green as I was, and mentored me then, and even to this day – 14 years later. After a few years there, I spread my wings and got ready to cut my teeth on opening and running a new concept in the Tri-Cities, TN area – a wine and dessert bar. Of course, it needed some savory elements, and I was equipped to bring those to the table. We did bistro-esque menus for lunch, and more tapas style menus for dinner. After a couple of years there, some former bar regulars of mine had enough capital to open their multi-million dollar dream brewery, and they wanted me on the ground floor with them to help bring it all to life. So, I did. After a couple of years there, my itch for Pastry was not satisfied, so I found a chocolate shop that was opening in Orlando, FL, and joined the opening team there as an Assistant Chocolatier. Plot twist, the Executive Chocolatier was dismissed between the time I did my tasting, and when I got moved down there, so I was quickly fitted for the role of Executive Chocolatier. I was way out of my element because I moved there to learn, but fortunately we had a consulting executive pastry chef on retainer that I was able to absorb as much training and information from until I was equipped for the role. We provided to Disney Cruise lines and a multitude of other high-end hotels in the Orlando area for a couple of years until we unfortunately had to close our doors. I took a month off to reassess my life choices, and still I wanted to be involved in the industry. This is how I found that hotels and resorts are where I kind of really get the best of all my fascinations. It’s never a dull moment in a resort, so I’m constantly thrilled with whatever projects are placed in front of us. I joined Omni Hotels & Resorts in 2018, was quickly recruited to start doing task force at other properties to assist them, managed to open a couple of hotels for the brand, spearhead everything desserts for one of our bi-annual GM’s conferences, and found my new home here in Texas while on task force to open our brand-leading, luxury property – Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa. It’s been nearly 8 years that I’ve been with Omni, and it’s the happiest I’ve been with any company thus far.
Why were you originally drawn to start working in pastry?
Honestly, the things that appealed most to me were the correlation with science and chemistry, the artistry, and the OCD-ness about pastry as a whole. Savory is very “add a little of this, add a little of that”, while pastry is very formulaic. I love consistency, and I love dialing in the perfect formula to yield perfect results over and over again. Having formulas standardized to my liking is what helps me train the teams to be more efficient and effective, and most importantly – consistent. Another thing I love about pastry, is the fact that I can bend the rules to create new ones for how certain ingredients work, so that’s probably my chaotic culinary side speaking.
A few years ago you started the National Pastry Conference. What inspired you to start this event and what impact do you hope it will have on the industry?
What inspired me and my best friend/business partner – Justin Fry, JF Chocolat – Charlotte, NC, to create National Pastry Conference (PastryCon for the trendy and vibey) was a little bit of selfishness, really. That sounds a little inconsiderate, I know, but when I say “selfishness”, I’m talking about how we, the pastry community, hadn’t had a place to convene, connect, and inspire since about 2016. We missed that, we missed our friends, and we missed the community, but also – we wanted to be able to curate a place where the former, the current, and the upcoming generations could all connect. So, we started planning out how we could bring that to fruition. We knew we wanted a place where people could be inspired by those competing. Justin and I both are huge advocates of competing to push ourselves as professionals and individuals, and we wanted that to be available for others like us. So…8 options of categories to compete in it was. We noticed that the cake people all have their conferences and competitions, the cookie people have theirs, the chocolate makers have theirs, and the bread people are way off in the corner somewhere having their own event. We wanted to ensure that we were a place for EVERYONE in the industry to enjoy – the bakers, the cakers, the platers, and the chocolate makers. Everyone is welcome to enjoy the experience that is National Pastry Conference. We also knew we needed some demos and stage events/presentations, but we also wanted to introduce live-recorded podcasts, which to our knowledge is something that hasn’t really been ventured yet. On top of that, we were able to provide the opportunity for those of us that must be ServSafe certified to get recertified on site during the conference.
Honestly, the industry is what really inspired us to bring this event to everyone. It’s been so kind and generous to the both of us, that we knew we must pay it forward, and give back to the up and coming generations that will be carrying on the legacies we all have set forth. Fortunately, we were able to partner with Johnson & Whales, and a multitude of other culinary colleges in the surrounding area to help expose their students, and even their staff, to what’s currently going on in the world of pastry. Those students were able to connect with phenomenal Chefs such as Adriano Zumbo (Australia) the cast from Netflix’s Bake Squad, and tons of other iconic pastry legends that we all know and love. In terms of impact, and what we expect from PastryCon – we’ve had such outrageously positive feedback for our inaugural run, and everyone is even more excited for PastryCon 2026. We’re currently in our sponsor acquisition phase, and we’re looking to elevate the offerings and up the ante to impress even more than year one. As we grow, and the show grows, we want to start having the conference take place in different cities, and eventually go international. Fun fact: Our sculpted cake winner was an international competitor from Nigeria, and our VIP ticket giveaway winner was from Guatemala. So, the international interest is there, and we are excited to embrace it!
What is your favorite or most rewarding part of working for OMNI Resort and Hotels?
My favorite and most rewarding this about working for Omni Resorts & Hotels is the empowerment. Our properties believe in us, corporate believes in us, and even all the way up to the top with ownership – they believe in us, and it makes is so easy to do the right thing for the guests, the associates, and ourselves each day to provide elite service and experiences that matter. My second favorite would have to be the fact that we all so well connected that we are essentially family, so when someone at my property or someone I know from another property asks, “how are you/how’s your day?”, I know it’s coming from a place of sincerity. I spend more time with the people I work with than I do my own family, so by default…they are my family, and I’ll always treat them as such.
When creating a new dish or pastry, where do you draw inspiration from?
Nostalgia is a big inspiration for me. There’s been enough time that’s passed since the 90’s that EVERYONE is craving it, so it makes it easy to tap into those fonder memories, and reinvent them on a plate. You should ask me about my Doritos and Mountain Dew macaron. Also, I think about things that either make me giggle, bring a smile to my face, make me feel some sort of way, or a way to trick/troll someone into eating these things I’m imagining in my head. For instance, I thought it’d be funny for an event recently if we made a napkin for a mug of hot cocoa to sit on be edible by having it be a thin marshmallow. The guests had no idea until we told them, and the sheer wonder that overcame their face was worth the trolling. During that same event, we had them light a candle to begin the hot cocoa ritual, they partook in the ritual, and once we were done, we had them blow out their candle, and closed the ceremony by letting them know they could now enjoy their last course – the candle. The entire table of 24 lost their minds at the unexpected delight. Things like that really drive me to keep doing what I do, and making those types of experiences for everyone I cross paths with.
What piece of equipment in the kitchen is your must have?
Oh boy, I’d say number one is my Pilot G2 0.7mm black pen. If I can’t write smoothly and clearly, then I can’t get my day started to my liking. I know it’s a tiny item, and most people gloss over it, but being able to write/communicate cleanly is a must for me. I despise a pen that can’t live up to my expectations. For ACTUAL equipment, a blast freezer is a must these days. We don’t always have the luxury of advanced notice, so if I get a pop up request, and need something chilled quickly, or set quickly – my standing Irinox blast freezer is my savior. Also, a micro-scale because without it, I cannot make the fun foams, gels, airs, or any of the molecular stuff I love dabbling in to elevate our dishes.
