Chef Ryan Whibbs

BA, MA, PhD, RSE

Chef, Systems Thinker, Food Scholar

-Calgary, Alberta-

I ate my first camp meal over thirty years ago, cooked by Gwen Walton (1931-2024) the beloved longtime Head Cook of Camp Ponacka, Highland Grove, Ontario! If it weren’t for Gwen’s cooking, and later her daughter Bev’s famous meals, I might not have stayed at camp for all those years! I attended Ponacka as a camper for 12 years, and as a staff member for 8 years (CIT, Counsellor, and after time away, returned as Assistant Head Cook).

I began cooking in 1996 at Th’ Electric City Gardens, Peterborough, Ontario, and was inspired by the restaurant’s Chef, Toby Tyler, to train overseas. I completed training in Canada, Ireland, England, France, and Scotland, and returned to Canada to earn the Red Seal in 2002. Upon completing the Red Seal, I began studying History at Trent University (Peterborough), completing my BA there, and going on to earn the MA and PhD in History at York University (Toronto) in 2015, focusing on food history. To pay for my undergraduate studies, I spent summers managing the kitchen at Ponacka as the Assistant Head Cook.

I am an educator, currently working as a Research Assistant on a SSHRC grant at St. Mary’s University, while completing my B.Ed. there. After being approached numerous times by camps for guidance, I decided to put my years of camp food experience to work by opening The Kitchen Dr., and to package my support in a more tangible way for Owners/Directors/Chefs. Noticing that camps were experiencing difficulties with caterers and associated costs, and being a lifelong supporter of camping myself, I put this business together to provide camps with the same in-house knowledge I relied on when I was a camp chef. My goal is to come into a camp knowing I will not be there long-term, and develop systems to document knowledge in an updatable way that stabilizes operations once I am gone, and during future staff absences.

The Kitchen Dr™ is a federally registered and insured business, operating from the Province of Alberta. Named certificate of insurance, criminal record check, and vulnerable sector search obtainable upon request.

Feel free to check out my current research at Google Scholar.