Editor’s note: This article was published in Grand Traverse Scene magazine’s Summer I 2023 issue. Pick up a free copy at area hotels, visitor’s centers, chambers of commerce or at the Record-Eagle building on Front Street. Click here to read GT Scene in its entirety online.
Chef Name: Matt Ryan
Business: Martha’s Leelanau Table, 413 N St. Joseph Street, Suttons Bay, MI 49682, (231)-271-2344
Position: General Manager + Chef
Background in the food industry: Ryan began his culinary career at The Bluebird in Leland, working during the hectic summer season with a friend. Subsequently, he served as the manager of a pizzeria in Lake Leelanau for over five years. After swearing off the culinary industry, a family connection brought him back to the business. His mother, Martha Ryan, the former school food service director in Leland of over 20 years, helped open a café in Leland before deciding to open her own restaurant.
“We had a friend of ours that I had worked with back at the Bluebird many years ago, and he was helping her open Martha’s. I had no job, so I was hanging out at the restaurant — running errands. He said, ‘why don’t you put an apron on?’ That was 15 years ago, and I’ve been here ever since. I started out as the head daytime cook, because when we opened the restaurant in 2008, we did breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
How he forms his menu: “We have three appetizer options, and for the past two or three years, I’ve been trying to incorporate a vegan option for an appetizer and entree — to give those customers an option.”
Besides the vegan option, one side of the menu has meat-focused entrées; the other side is fish-focused. This summer’s menu includes beef cheeks (inspired by travels to Spain), a Leelanau cassoulet with venison sausage, scallops (Ryan’s signature dish), and vegan chile rellenos.
“Generally, I change the menus in the spring and in the fall, and I’ve been doing that for the past six or seven years.”
The impact of local ingredients: “We try to use as many local things as possible — the problem is, our growing season here is really only June to September, since half the year, it’s freezing and there’s snow out. There’s not a whole lot of produce you can get year-round. When it’s available, we usually use a local farm — Meadowlark Farms. We use Cherry Capital Foods to get some local ingredients.
In the summer, we do whitefish; the whitefish is from Carlson’s in Leland. They make a really good smoked whitefish pâté, and smoked whitefish sausage. We do a local fish and cheese board. We really love them. That was actually my first job; when I was 12 years old, I worked at Carlson’s Fishery.”
Finding recipes and determining what to offer: “My mom has four shelves of cookbooks, and we’re always getting new cookbooks from all over the world. For over 20 years, she has been doing trips over to Europe every spring and fall. They’re mostly focused on food. […] We were just in Spain, and in the north, they have tapas — small plates — and in the north, they are called pintxos. When we were over there for two weeks, everywhere I went, I would try their beef cheeks. Everywhere would do them a little differently.”
Ryan sources his recipes from his travels, cookbooks, and from online recipes, tweaking them as needed for the restaurant’s needs. “One thing that we do well here, I think, is my mom and I both have similar taste in reading a recipe and saying, ‘I think a majority of people would like it.’ Sometimes what sounds good to you doesn’t sound as good to other people.”
Takeout options: Martha’s Leelanau Table continues to offer takeout options of many of the menu mainstays — an offering that served them well during COVID.
“For a couple of years, I had wanted to do takeout and delivery in the wintertime, to supplement some income. I had it all planned and set up, and when COVID hit and they said, ‘you can’t serve people inside anymore,’ we were all set up for takeout. The very next day — we didn’t miss a beat. We were doing takeout delivery from day one of when COVID shut everybody down. […] We had a great outpouring of support from the community.”
What Ryan hopes people experience at Martha’s Leelanau Table: “Strong, good flavors — a variety. […] I try to keep the menus fresh and new with what’s going on in the country. It keeps our cooks and our prep people engaged in new things and new food. I hope people see that and appreciate that — where they might come and have my scallops [a mainstay on the menu], they might find something new that they’ll love as well.”