Sometimes you have those moments in your life that you know will become instant memories. Such was the case when I walked into the dining experience that is “The Steak and the Egg” which made me want to write about it.
The softness of dusk began as we left the shore to head over to the rolling farm lands of Howell, and we landed at a small farm in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t know if I was in the right location until I saw the well-dressed people with their heels, walking over the pea gravel to a giant greenhouse with 30+ foot ceilings.
An antique tractor greets you as you walk into this beautiful space filled with hydroponic vegetables glistening in health from floor to ceiling, with tables tucked in between them. It was magical.
Tucked away in the center of it all was a makeshift kitchen, with a busy, young chef and crew ready to serve. Walk outside and the experience continues, as a line of Adirondack chairs beckons you to sit and watch the sunset, which oddly reminded me of sitting in Newport, watching the sailboats float by, though we were far from the shore.
Next to the perfectly placed chairs is this incredibly large handmade “rig” filled with all types of outdoor cooking mediums like an Argentinian grill, pizza oven, rotisserie, and smoker, all in one welded, super cool vehicle. It’s the kind of project that only a talented and handy father/son duo would concoct or could create. And that is exactly the power behind “The Steak and the Egg”; it’s a father/son journey into the passion that changed a son’s life.
Ryan Walker, 35, is the culinary creativity behind this concept, and his father, Scott Walker, is the host, taste tester, and DJ for the club dinners. Ryan’s Mom, Christene Walker, also chips in and gardens with him to help grow some of the produce he uses, and she also helps make it all a beautifully designed experience. What Ryan has created is an ode to his family. He’s a Millstone Township, NJ kid, who started his culinary journey seven years ago at the age of 28, after years of battling a serious drug addiction.
But even in his darkest times, Ryan always had a vision of himself that was healthy, in shape and happy. At 28, Ryan started to take a different approach to life, and he made a commitment to get clean. He opted out of the rehab route, although he does not admonish that for anyone who chooses that, but for Ryan at home detox with his family is what worked for him, and he has been clean ever since. During his time of healing, Ryan developed a view that he wasn’t “fighting” his addiction on a daily basis, but instead “channeling” it to positive outlets. He not only got sober but he became healthy.
On that journey, Ryan discovered the flaws in our food system, finding it oddly similar to the pharmaceutical system that contributed to his addiction. He soon realized that the same companies making medicines were making pesticides and poisoning our food supply. It was then that Ryan started cooking and it was off to the races from there. Ryan’s focus was on healthy, sustainable, whole foods. He started paying attention to the preparation and nutritional aspects of the foods he was cooking. That segwayed into the food club.
Ryan named that club “The Steak and the Egg” because he felt those two foods were often vilified in the food industry. Still, he felt that steak and eggs are two of the healthiest things you can eat. It’s the food conglomerates that lie about their nutritional value, and “bastardize” ingredients like these in the media due to the financial needs of the food system’s controlling forces and the profits that fuel them. However, whole, basic foods like beef and eggs are outside the control of the top food processing companies, and Ryan wanted to create a movement to show people what is going on in our food supply and the big business that it truly is. Ryan feels that his food club name lends to his vision of educating people on how the food system is working in our country.
At the food club, Ryan celebrates the beauty of these whole foods and the necessity of the organic movement. He also wants people to realize that Avocado and Olive Oil are not seed oils. Seeds oils are canola oil, vegetable oil and grapeseed oil. Those oils are heavily processed to extract the oil from dense materials, making them unhealthy. The process to create seed oils is unnatural, he explained.
Ryan first started cooking for others when he started cooking for his family. He did family dinners and loved to work with outdoor cooking techniques like the family barbecue. After that, he created the private dinner club “The Steak and the Egg” in 2023 as a platform to showcase his talents. Master Chef called prior to that in Fall, 2022 based on his instagram account showing his passion for cooking. At the time, Ryan had a great career in construction and almost declined the invite due to his success in that career. But he took a chance and went out to California and competed in Master Chef. He feels he was eliminated early because of his focus on healthy foods and didn’t promote the processed foods and the companies that create them, some of whom he believed were sponsors of the show. But that experience only enhanced his desire to cook for others.
Ryan soon learned how to make handmade pasta and desserts and started surprising people with his creativity. His Dad Scott and he started building his “rig” soon after Master Chef. The first food club was in Ryan’s backyard in the Summer of 2023. He put a menu together, including his now-famous “bone marrow compound butter,” he slathered on the grilled meat and soft sourdough bread, which was a big hit with members. He gets his meat from Dutch Hill Farms and JR’s Cattle ranch in Millstone Township, and tries to keep all of the produce local as well.
The “food club” itself is a private members association. Ryan explains that people reach out via Instagram and explain who they are, where they’re from, and he makes the decision on whether or not to grant membership into the club, since he can only cook for so many people at each menu, and he does a different menu each season.
After 2024, Ryan started exploring pop-up dinner places, and did a pop-up with Stax Cafe in Marlboro and at Beyond Organics in Howell, where my dinner was, a beautiful farm owned by Teresa Reed. Ryan looks for places that feel reminiscent of being in the backyard with his family. Soon he was rolling in his rig to Beyond Organics and created his first menu there this past Spring, featuring a delicious fresh salad with a citrus vinaigrette that I absolutely loved, fresh spring rolls filled with wholesome vegetables with a nice, fresh dipping sauce, grilled tasty steak with rice, and several desserts showcasing Ryan’s love of creating sweet endings to his experiences.
Ryan is preparing his Fall menu now and plans on staying at Beyond Organics for some time. Why a private food club? The “private members association” or “food club” runs on donations, which are “recommended”, and it doesn’t and can’t accept everyone due to its limited capacity. To get in is mostly referral-based from current members, and Ryan accepts new members when he can. If you are granted membership, you receive a text offering you certain days and times available, and then you choose one, and a few days before the dinner, you’re given the address of the dining location. Ryan’s Summer menu is being launched in mid-August at another secret location and will feature homemade tortillas. Ryan said it will be “smokey, goaty and fresh!”
Ryan adds that many of his members have food intolerances which he thinks is mainly the result of the chemicals in the foods they’ve been eating. He said when they eat with him, however, they do not feel bloated and stuffed. They’ve explained to him numerous times that they feel well after eating his dinners. Ryan attributes this to how he cooks and cares about the food he serves, because he wants to not only feed people, but to nourish them.
Ryan has a good-sized garden he tends with his Mom, and is in the process of creating “Bone Butter Farms”, a place he envisions will bring even more delicious ingredients for his farm-to-table concept. He loves using the herbs he grows for his skincare products as well as his cooking. Ryan also developed a “beef tallow balm” through his company “Bone Butter Farms”, a moisturizer that leaves the skin silky soft.
You can follow “The Steak and the Egg” on Instagram and if you message Ryan, you just might find yourself with a seat at one of his tables.
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Maria O’Donnell is a food and wine writer at the Jersey Shore and you can follow her @foodwritergirl on Instagram and @CookingwithMaria on Facebook
