Ryan Ratino
Chef Owner
Chef Ryan Ratino is the Executive Chef and owner of two starred Michelin concepts – One MICHELIN-starred Bresca and Two MICHELIN-starred JÔNT, and the newly opened MAASS at Four Seasons Hotel and Residences in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is also the recipient of the MICHELIN Guide 2023 Young Chef Award for D.C.
Bresca is inspired by the European movement of “bistronomy”, a movement characterized by a vibrant, experimental and informal approach to cooking where the focus is all things culinary, bold flavors and the feelings that these combinations evoke. His first solo project and restaurant after having worked in some the nation’s capital's most exciting concepts (Ripple- where he received RAMW’s 2017 Culinary Rising Star of the Year, the renowned L’Auberge Provençale in White Post, Virginia, etc) resulted in Michelin Guide One Star for 2018 (retained currently), a nod in the Washington Post’s Fall Dining Guide, as well as OAD’s Top 100 in 2020, plus other noted accolades.
JÔNT is a Two MICHELIN-starred restaurant inspired by the simple culinary principle of “time” – the beauty, leisure and satisfying process of making a great meal. With time-centric elements including dry-aged meats, vinegars, lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables, and more, Chef Ratino and his team challenge the seasons, navigate beyond the limits of time and break with tradition— getting playful with process and tricky with techniques at the intersection of place and possibility. The restaurant opened during the pandemic, and a short time later in 2021, received its two star accolade from Michelin Guide, and in 2022, was named a World’s 50 Best Discovery Restaurant.
At 33 years of age, he is one of the youngest chefs in America to hold a two-starred Michelin restaurant and two Michelin starred concepts under the same roof.
Chef Ratino owns a diverse set of skills and a passion for cooking built in some of the most lauded restaurants in the country. During several years in New York City, he was the Executive Sous chef at the Michelin one-star restaurant Caviar Russe, which consequently earned three stars from The New York Times. His fast-track career also landed him several stage opportunities including Wylie Dufresne’s innovative, norm-challenging WD-50 as well as Dovetail NYC and minibar by José Andrés.
A native of Medina, Ohio and a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Orlando, Florida, Ratino launched his culinary career as a junior sous chef at Shula’s Steak House at the Four-Diamond AAA award-winning Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resort. After a three-year tenure working under Todd English at Bluezoo where he advanced quickly to serve as the destination restaurant’s executive chef. Under his direction, the restaurant was named one of the “10 best foodie spots in Orlando” by USA Today.
An advocate of environmentally-friendly practices, in 2018 Ratino enlisted Bresca as the first and only carbon neutral restaurant in the nation’s capital by joining ZeroFoodprint, the nonprofit organization aimed at helping restaurants and diners reduce their climate impact. As part of this initiative, Chef Ratino and the team work to interlace sustainability into the daily practices of restaurant operations such as recycling, composting and sourcing products from purveyors who prioritize sustainable practices.