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Craig Polignano knew he wanted to be a top chef.
He knew the Ryland Inn in Whitehouse Station was a “culinary mecca.”
He also knew he had a lot to learn.

That was clear when he was a culinary student in search of an internship and he glanced at the restaurant’s menu.

“I realized I didn’t know any of the words listed,” Polignano said. “I decided that it would be a great opportunity for me to learn and progress.”

The sous chef at the Ryland Inn at the time helped Polignano land an unpaid, internship working for then-Executive Chef Craig Shelton — a name now recognized worldwide.

“I’ve definitely taken the fast track to where I am,” he said.

Polignano’s days of stumbling over the menu have long since passed, but the Ryland Inn remains one of the most revered restaurants in the state.

And it is because of the Basking Ridge native who spent two decades diligently working to fill his mentor’s shoes in 2014.

Today, Polignano, 35, takes his role as executive chef at the Ryland Inn seriously, making sure to continue not only the restaurant’s historical reputation for excellence but also the mentorship opportunities that have helped him get to where he is today.

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Polignano had started working in Jersey pizzerias at age 13 in order to help pay for hockey.

Little did he know then that his side job, meant to fuel his childhood ambition to become an NHL superstar, would eventually become his true passion.

After attending the University of Connecticut for a year after high school to study business and art, Polignano realized it wasn’t what he was interested in.

“I missed the kitchen,” he said.

Back to the brick ovens he went before he realized cooking was his true calling and began studying at the Culinary Institute of America in New York.

Polignano was given the opportunity to intern at the Ryland Inn in 2001, just one year after Shelton had earned the best chef in the mid-Atlantic region from the James Beard Foundation.

“I learned something new every day working for Craig Shelton,” Polignano said. “He is an amazing teacher.”

He wasn’t the only one. Polignano credits the chefs working under Shelton — Raj Dixit, now executive chef of the Mina Group, and Scott Anderson, now executive chef and co-owner of Elements in Princeton — as huge influences in his growth in the kitchen.

Upon graduation from the Culinary Institute of America, the star intern returned to a paid position with the Ryland Inn and worked his way up to sous chef within five years.

“It was the best decision of my life and career coming here,” he said.

And going back there.

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The former 220-year-old stagecoach stop, which was transformed into a dairy farm and then once again into a family-style restaurant through the 1980s, was the most celebrated of New Jersey dining establishments when the internationally acclaimed Shelton ran it from 1991 to 2007.

Then a water main broke and forced the establishment to close due to flooding.

Polignano had left just a month before to become the sous chef to Copeland in the Westin Governor Morris in Morristown and, shortly after that, the chef de cuisine at the Bernards Inn in Bernardsville.

He then decided to try living and working some place new.

He went to work as the executive chef of the Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Hotel in Dana Point, California, staying there for a little over a year, when he saw some interesting news in 2011.

The Ryland Inn, which had remained closed all that time, was purchased by Frank and Jeanne Cretella, owners of Landmark Hospitality. They were planning to reopen the restaurant in 2012.

“I’ve always had a love affair with the Ryland Inn. I grew up here, I learned a lot and I knew the ins and outs of the property,” Polignano said. “So I sent an email to then-Executive Chef Anthony Bucco and said something along the lines of, ‘If I were in the area, I’d be sending you my resumé.’ He replied and said, ‘If you ever decide to come back, let me know. I’d love to work something out with you.’ ”

Polignano took Bucco at his word and returned to New Jersey to work as the chef de cuisine at the Ryland Inn when it reopened.

“I wanted to come back to experience its amazing kitchen again and try to bring it back to success by making my mark on the restaurant and having an impact on the cuisine,” Polignano said.

Just two years later, Bucco, who previously worked at Uproot in Warren and Stage Left in New Brunswick, left to work alongside Chef Jonathan Waxman at 1 Hotel Central Park in New York City.

Thus elevating Polignano to executive chef of the Ryland Inn in August 2014.

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Under Polignano’s leadership, The Ryland Inn has achieved exceptional Zagat ratings, with food, service and décor all ranking over 25 out of 30, and has continued its excellence as a four-star destination restaurant.

“I like to think of our food as comfortable, familiar flavors presented in a different way. We are not reinventing cuisine here; a lot of flavor combos have already been done,” Polignano said. “It’s just a matter of taking the freshest ingredients and slightly manipulating them to enhance their natural flavor and let them speak for themselves.”

Polignano has had a multitude of tools at his disposable, including three beehives and half an acre of farmland on the property that produces unique herbs, lettuces and vegetables from April until December.

“I really enjoy washing the dirt off of lettuce and digging produce up,” Polignano said. “There is something to be said for the soil you can taste in the food and the amount of flavor that it imparts.”

Featuring, whenever possible, a seasonal, locally sourced modern American menu, prices range from a $13 mixed market greens appetizer to a $54 dry-aged New York strip steak.

“Our menu is very diverse. We have everything from foie gras to a burger,” Polignano said. “People come to the Ryland Inn for everything from a quick drink and a bite to eat at the bar to tantalizing their palette with a chef’s tasting menu for up to 12 people.”

The Ryland Inn is also widely known for its sold-out events, the most recent being a farm-to-table three-course family-style dinner paired with wine from Alba Vineyard.

“I don’t think success is necessarily based on reviews or stars,” Polignano said. “I think it’s based on how a guest leaves. If we get repeat customers, then, ultimately, we are successful in what we do.”

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Much has changed. More will still.

The Ryland Inn currently consists of a full-service bar, a dining room, an outdoor patio and bar, a chef’s room for tastings and two state-of-the-art rooms for business meetings and corporate parties. A grand ballroom capable of accommodating up to 300 guests for large celebratory parties and weddings was added in 2013.

By 2017, the Ryland Inn will have added thousands of square feet, a new rustic-style banquet hall and conference center, additional gardens including a hydroponic farm and accommodations within two newly renovated historical cottages with 12 total rooms.

Polignano is not very concerned with the increase to his workload.

“We are not close to many things in Whitehouse Station. It just makes sense for us to have accommodations right on our property,” he said. “It is our job as employees working in the hospitality industry to provide people with what they want — and it is up to us as leaders of the restaurant and industry to work within the confines of what we are given.”

With just over a dozen in the kitchen, Polignano is most proud that, while the Ryland Inn has grown, the quality has, too.

“Every day here we walk into a new challenge,” he said. “There is always something exciting happening and there is always room for improvement.”

Working well under pressure is just one of the many things Polignano learned from various mentors over his career.

Corey Heyer, executive chef of the Bernards Inn, gave Polignano enough freedom over the menu to exercise his creativity.

The corporate structure of the Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Hotel taught Polignano how to best develop and utilize systems to his advantage.

And Shelton taught him how huge leading by example is in the restaurant industry.

It is therefore imperative to Polignano that he challenges not only himself, but also his staff.

“I am a firm leader who believes in maintaining quality. I push everybody to their highest potential,” he said. “There are people who want to be in the restaurant industry for life and there are people who just need a job. It’s up to the employee to show you and tell you what they want. And as a leader, you have to utilize everybody for their strengths.”

Having the right people in place who have the same interests and goals in mind — such as AJ Capella, his chef de cuisine, and Dan Devino, his sous chef, Polignano said — is of the utmost importance.

“You have to have those people in place that you can trust to execute your vision when you cannot,” he said. “But ultimately, it falls on my shoulders.”

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Having achieved his ultimate career goal before age 40, what’s next for Polignano?

“It is every chef’s dream to open up his own restaurant. I would like to do that at some point,” he said. “I think that going into business for yourself, where every decision that you make directly affects your wallet, is a very difficult endeavor, but something I’d be willing to give a shot.”

Polignano believes that one day he will use both his experience at The Ryland Inn and all of the lessons he has learned from prior mentors to create an establishment of his own vision.

That day is not today. Polignano said he still has much work to do at the restaurant.

“Sometimes I say something to somebody and I say to myself, I’m becoming Raj, or, I’m saying something Craig would say,” Polignano said. “It’s like the old, ‘You’re becoming your father.’

“You are influenced by so many people over your career and you pick up little tidbits from everybody that you take it all together and make it into your own style of leadership.”

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