Though Scott Ryan has never appeared on the Food Network's Chopped, he's familiar with mystery ingredients. The executive chef at The Country Club in Pepper Pike was named the American Culinary Federation's 2012 Chef of the Year after out-cooking three other regional winners at a national competition in Florida. In a new twist this year, the chefs had one hour to prepare four dishes using a mystery protein — flat iron steak. "They said the flavors were dynamite," Ryan says of the judges. We spoke with Ryan about bringing the title to Northeast Ohio.