Life at SAIT
Dr. Ryan Whibbs, PhD, joined SAIT in 2023, previously working as a culinary educator and administrator in Ontario and Manitoba.
He teaches various courses in the Culinary Arts program, including Quick Service Cooking, Nutrition, Breakfast Cookery, Trends & Technology, and Culinary Diplomacy & Anthropology, among others.
Dr. Whibbs is also an active researcher of cooks & culture, publishing on both historical and contemporary questions related to the nexus between cooks and the cultures they serve. His published work can be found in various peer-reviewed, scholarly, and industry publications.
Ryan’s philosophy of teaching and research sees the “industry as lab,” drawing case-based, ethnographic, and mixed-methods research into the course material, encouraging students to see both the practical and cultural significance of their roles as future cooks and culinary leaders.
Education
Dr. Whibbs earned the Red Seal, Cook designation in 2002 after apprenticing in Canada and Europe.
He is a graduate of Sir Sanford Fleming College’s (Peterborough) Cook apprenticeship program. In 2006, he earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Trent University, Peterborough.
Moving to York University, Dr. Whibbs earned his MA (2007) and PhD (2015) degrees, focusing on cooks working in late medieval French and English aristocratic households.
Professional accomplishments
Chef Whibbs brings a wealth of experience to SAIT, both from industry and academia. Ryan apprenticed and worked in Canada in various restaurants and hotels including Splendido (Toronto) and the Fairmont Royal York Hotel (Toronto). Additionally, Ryan apprenticed at Chatsworth House (England), Floors Castle (Scotland), the Château de la Flocellière (France), and Kylemore Abbey (Ireland).
Before coming to SAIT, Ryan’s background in culinary teaching and administration included teaching culinary labs and theory courses, managing campus restaurants, co-developing one of Canada’s first culinary undergraduate degrees, publishing research about cooking and culinary education, and sitting as the Ontario delegate for the development of the national Red Seal Occupational Standard (RSOS) for the Cook trade.
Ryan has previously held faculty positions at various Canadian universities and colleges, teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels. Having gained teaching experience that spans the apprenticeship, diploma, bachelor, master, and doctoral levels of education, Dr. Whibbs enjoys bringing the best of these perspectives to his pedagogical practice at SAIT.
On 15 August 2023, Governor General Mary Simon recognized Dr. Whibbs’ contributions to culinary research and education in Canada through a grant of personal heraldic emblems.
Multi-year funded projects
- Co-Investigator, "Tasting the Global City: Multicultural Histories of Toronto's Cuisines," Principal Investigator: Prof. Jeffrey Pilcher, University of Toronto Scarborough, SSHRC Insight Grant, Spring 2016-Spring 2020.
Scholarly societies and board service
Culinary Historians of Canada
- Member, Board of Directors, 2018-2019, 2023-Present
- Member, 2015-present
Red River College Polytech Research Ethics Board
- Member of the REB, January 2022-2023
Prairie Research Kitchen
- Member of the Advisory Board, November 2021-2023
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
- Member of the Editorial Board, 2016-2022
- Completed peer reviews: 7
Brandon Food Council
- Member of the Board of Directors, 2019-2021
- Interim Chairperson, 2020-2021
Canadian Association of Food Studies
- Member, Board of Directors, 2015-2018
- Member, 2014-present
Ontario College of Trades
- Subject Matter Expert, Provincial Cooks’ Apprenticeship Trade Board, 2014-2019
- Member, Provincial Cooks’ Apprenticeship Curriculum Committee, 2018-2019
Publications and presentations
- Ryan Whibbs. (2023). "Gens Experts & Non Suspects: Apprenticeship in the Cooks', Charcutiers', and Caterers' Guilds of Paris, 1475-1599", The Recipe from the XIIth to the XVIIth Centuries. Europe, Islam, Far East, eds. B. Laurioux and A. Paravicini Bagliani (Florence, Italy: Edizioni del Galluzzo), pp: 81-93. ISBN 978-88-9290-262-6.
- Linda Gillis, Ryan Whibbs, and Amanda Li. (2020). "Future chefs’ beliefs on the role of nutrition, diet, and healthy cooking techniques in culinary training: A cross-cultural and gender perspective", Journal of Culinary Science & Technology, 18(4). pp: 1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15428052.2020.1808138.
- Ryan Whibbs and Mark Holmes. (2019). "Food Network’s Food-Career Frenzy? An Examination of Students Motivations to Attend Culinary School", Canadian Food Studies, 6(2). pp: 101-116. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.255.
- Ryan Whibbs, (2014) "Travelling Tools and Mobile Kitchens: Great Household Cookery Arrangements During Periods of Travel, 1400-1600", Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2013, ed. Mark McWilliams (Totnes, UK: Prospect Books) pp: 354-365. ISBN 978-19-0924-840-3.
- Ryan Whibbs. Book review in Food & History, 21.2 (Spring 2023) pp: 204-206 of Giannetti, L. (2022). Food Culture and Literary Imagination in Early Modern Italy. University of Amsterdam Press, 2022, p: 310. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/J.FOOD.5.134746
- Ryan Whibbs. Book review in Renaissance and Reformation, 39.2 (Spring 2016) The Italian Baroque Table. Cooking and Entertaining from the Golden Age of Naples, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Tempe, AZ: ACMRS, 2014. Pp. xii, 297. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33137/rr.v39i2.26861.
- “Qualifying Taste: Strategies for Assessing Taste” at the Taste and Knowledge Research Group, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge, U.K., 23 February 2022 virtual conference.
- "Gens experts & non suspects": Recipe Transmission in the World of Professional Parisian Cooks, Charcutiers, and Caterers, 1475-1599” at The Culinary Recipe from the XIIth to the XVIIth centuries (Europe, Islam, Far East), a virtual conference being held on 17th to 29 May 2021 at the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, Université de Tours, France.
- “What’s in a Historic Recipe? Cooking Recipes vs Cooking Practice” at The Culinary Recipe from the XIIth to the XVIIth centuries (Europe, Islam, Far East), a virtual conference being held on 17th to 29th May 2021 at the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, Université de Tours, France. Co-presenter: Merit Hondelink, Univ. Groningen, NL.
- “In the Garden of the Ancestors: Preserving Traditional Indigenous Medicines and Culinary Plants in a College Garden” at the 22nd Annual Indigenous Knowledge Symposium: Indigenous Plant Sovereignty, Office of Indigenous Initiatives, Queens University, Kingston (virtual). 7 November 2021. Co-presenter: Dr. Poonam Singh, ACC.
- “In the Garden of the Ancestors: Preserving Traditional Indigenous Medicines and Culinary Plants in a College Garden” at Everyone at the Table: The Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Food Studies, held at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, May 31-June 2, 2020. Abstract accepted February 28, 2020; conference cancelled due to COVID-19 March 27, 2020. Co-presenter: Dr. Poonam Singh, ACC.
- “An Apple Pie for Colonel Sam: The Cooks of Parkwood Estate, Oshawa, 1917-1973” at Everyone at the Table: The Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Food Studies, held at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, May 31-June 2, 2020. Abstract accepted February 28, 2020; conference cancelled due to COVID-19 March 27, 2020.
- “Jeanne de Bourbon Through her Kitchen: The Compte de Bouche of September, 1508” at Making Stories in the Early Modern World: An International Conference in Honour of Elizabeth and Tom Cohen held at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, November 2, 2019.
- “Cuisiniers, Rôtisseurs, and Charters: The Legislative Environment Surrounding Private Feasts and Entertaining in Paris, 1599-1664” at Early Modern Cultures of Hospitality, a conference organized by the Toronto Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium, University of Toronto, October 26, 2018.
- “Renaissance Repasts on the Road: Feeding Nobles During Journeys” by invitation at the Toronto Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium, January 16th, 2018.
- “Food Network’s Food Career Frenzy?: An Examination of Motivations to Attend Culinary School” at the 12th Annual Assembly of the Canadian Association of Food Studies (CAFS), Ryerson University, Toronto, May 28th, 2017.
- “Fish, Fridays, and Fasts: Great Household Fasting Habits after the English Reformation, 1500-1670” at On the Eve of the Reformation: A Conference an the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, hosted by the Toronto Reformation & Renaissance Colloquium, Centre for Reformation & Renaissance Studies, Victoria College, University of Toronto, October 22, 2016.
- "Food Studies while Studying Food?: Suggestions for Incorporating Food Studies Scholarship into Canadian Culinary Curricula” at Scarborough Fare: Global Foodways and Local Foods in a Transnational City, The University of Toronto, Scarborough, June 23, 2016.
- “The Alchemist’s Cookbook and the Gastronomy of Taste” in conjunction with an exhibition of the manuscript Liber de secreti naturali [1438], Othmer Library of Chemical History, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, April 3, 2015.
- “Fabulous Fricassees: A Short History of the Dish and its Evolution over the Centuries” at the Restaurant School, Walnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA, April 2, 2015.
- “Culinary Mashups: Combining Skills Training and Theoretical Learning in Ontario Post-Secondary Curricula”, a luncheon address given at the offices of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, Toronto, October 16, 2014.
- “Travelling Tools and Mobile Kitchens: The Role of the Batterie de Cuisine in Shaping Grand Household Foodservice Organization, 1400-1600” at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, “Food & Material Culture”, St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, July, 2013.
- “Grand Cooks: Cross-Regionalism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Aristocratic Culinary Labour, 1400-1600” at Foodways: Diasporic Diners, Transnational Tables, and Culinary Connections hosted by the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto, October 5, 2012.
- “Did Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Late Medieval Aristocratic Culinary Labour” at the 43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI., May 11, 2009.
- Co-supervisor for David Cleary’s Doctor of Business Administration dissertation, Understanding Customer Loyalty in a Service Recovery Paradox, School of Business, Athabasca University. Expected completion 2023.
- Second reader for Luciana Godoy’s Master of Arts thesis, University of Toronto (OISE), entitled Teaching Sustainability to Culinary Students: Graduating Sustainability-Minded Chefs. Completed October, 2019.
Oki, Âba wathtech, Danit'ada, Tawnshi, Hello.
SAIT is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7 which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Îyârhe Nakoda of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney.
We are situated in an area the Blackfoot tribes traditionally called Moh’kinsstis, where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. We now call it the city of Calgary, which is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.