PERRYSBURG — Don’t let the greenish tinge throw you off. It’s supposed to look that way.
Ryan Pierce’s Chili Verde (also called Green Chili) gets its distinctive color from the tomatillos in the
recipe.
Almost more of a stew than a soup, his Chili Verde made its first appearance at Penta Career Center’s
Taste of the State in October.
The senior in Penta’s culinary arts program picked Colorado for the event, then he went looking for a
soup.
“The chilies just stood out to me. Green chili as soup. What’s up with that?” he remembered asking
himself.
He found the recipe on the Cooking Channel website but tweaked it by braising the pork shoulder overnight
and using poblano chili peppers instead of Anaheim chili peppers.
The poblanos “add a deep, smoky flavor.” He blackened them on a gas burner to soften them.
His offering for this story had just enough of a bite from the chilies to make it interesting.
Pierce admitted he likes spicy food and he “had to hold back” when making this dish.
The senior has been accepted into the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. His goal is
to own his own restaurant. He’s not ready to commit to one region, although Pierce is drawn to the East
Coast.
“There are so many different places to be,” he said.
“It always just seemed fun,” Pierce said about why he’s choosing cooking as a career. “I enjoy creating
stuff. It is more of a creative art.”
For a recent dinner, his mom Karen was fixing chicken, and Pierce said he just “threw in some spices and
made my own thing.”
Better yet, “I’ve gotten my brother (13-year-old Tyler) to eat some stuff he’s never tried before.”
He enjoys cooking but not baking.
“It’s such a science. There’s so much that goes into it. I don’t like to be that precise with something.”

He will follow the recipe when it suits him, but uses them for ideas and ways to do things.
At his home school of Perrysburg, Pierce plays trombone in the pep and marching bands. He attends Penta
in the mornings then heads to Owens Community College for a couple of College Credit Plus classes.
One of the biggest things he has learned in his classes is how to work with Saran Wrap, he laughed.
Instructor Janea Makowski said she has been impressed with Pierce’s quiet leadership “and his passion
toward culinary arts.”
He’s “100 percent dedicated to culinary arts,” she said.