Confessions of Brendan Ryan

Brendan Ryan, director of food service for Framingham (Mass.) School District, loves Champagne, wants to visit the dinosaur age and wishes he weren’t “too fat to fly.”

Q. What is the best part of your job?

Seeing kids eat my food.

Q. What is the worst part of your job?

Seeing kids throw my food away.

Q. What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

We have a school farm that we serve kids from.

Q. What is the most unusual foodservice/catering request you have ever received?

When I worked at the Waldorf we did Burmese chicken feet.  

Q. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’m too fat to fly. 

Q. Which living person do you most admire?

Sam Moloof. He’s a woodworker in California. He’s devoted his life to doing one thing and doing it well. 

Q. What is your favorite meal?

Scallops.  

Q. What is your guilty pleasure?

Any fine Champagne. I always say, “If you say no to Champagne, you say no to life.”

Q. What will people always find in your refrigerator?

Duck fat. I have a fat theme going on. 

Q. What food fad do you wish had never started?

Nouvelle cuisine in the ’80s.

Q. What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?

Eye of yak in Yemen honey. 

Q. Are you a morning or evening person?

I’m on 24-7. There’s no off switch on me. 

Q. What are your words to live by?

You’re born, you live and you die and 99.9% of the world never knew you were here, so enjoy as much as you can.  

Q. If you had a time machine what historical event or era would you visit?

When there were dinosaurs. I’d look like a fat hors d’oeuvres to them.  

Q. What would be your dream vacation?

Any tropical island, with my fat butt on a beach. 

Q. What is your most treasured possession?

A Claddagh ring my parents gave me.