[Baz]

Just ran across a FB post about a new local restaurant - I hadn't been there so I checked out the reviews and most were the usual "I had this dish and it was great - nice to have a nice eatery in town, etc, etc."

Then I saw this one:

While dining here I overheard chef Ryan claiming to have attended the Culinary Institute of America. My nephew attended that school, as have most every famous chef you've ever heard of. This was a pretty big claim, so I looked into it. I called the registrar of the school and no one matching his name [save for a much older gentleman] was anywhere in their system. Not even an application. So essentially, the chef here is a charlatan and a liar. The poke is fantastic, the food is good overall, but "chef" Ryan is a phony.

Then another person replied and said he was being rude by posting this and he could be wrong.

So he followed up with these 3 posts:

Wow, ignorance. No, I am not stalking the chef, I promise you he is not that intriguing. But the idea that a little restaurant just opening up on Flager would have a CIA grad was interesting, so I looked into it. The only graduate of the CIA in this town *that I know of* works at The Spanish River Grille.

AS FOR the claim that his "taking a few classes" wouldn't have been on record to the registrar, this is something I specifically asked about. They have no record of him even APPLYING, or stepping foot into the institute, and they would indeed have record of him taking a few classes because he would have to be ENROLLED to do that. He never enrolled. Call for yourself if you would like to know the truth or not:
800-245-2433
(845) 452-9600

People in general have an overly cavalier attitude about the people who prepare their food when they dine out. I take it seriously. This restaurant and this chef prepare foods that could very easily make a person sick without a thoroughly trained or experienced individual behind the wheel, with rare meats and raw seafood being central to some of the dishes. The place is beautiful, the staff is very friendly, and the food is good, but it's unsettling that the chef here is a person that would lie about something like that. Time in a culinary school is not required to be a great chef, in my opinion. So if you weren't formerly trained, fine, you may be an autodidact and with enough time and experience in the field, that's just as good if not better than time in a culinary school. But don't tell fibs to impress people and come off as something you're not, it isn't necessary, and it is very gauche. If I'm not mistaken, they have an HACCP protocol in this restaurant. There is a lot of documenting, timekeeping, temperature control, etc involved in an HACCP. I would hate to think that someone who was willing to lie about whether he went to the Harvard of culinary schools is in charge of an HACCP. It would be much easier to LIE about whether the temperature on stored raw fish had elevated half a degree above the safety boundary than record it truthfully and dispose of all that inventory. Not accusing anyone in the kitchen of doing this, but if the chef is a dishonest person, I have reason to worry about things such as this. Sorry to be such a stickler.

This was back in May and the owner has since posted in this section (reviews) so he must have seen them.

I wonder if he is just ignoring them or if the chef really was lying about his CIA credentials.

On one level I think it's great that someone actually checked the guy out. But if he's wrong it seems the chef or owner should say something about it - maybe clear the air.