Until last summer, Ryan Hickey had never tried kale ribs. As it turns out, they're his ticket to Paris. The executive chef of Harris Millis Dining on the University of Vermont's Athletic Campus, Hickey dreamed up a vibrant dish of vegan kale gnocchi with celery root purée, shaved beets, fried celery root and those underutilized center-of-the-kale-leaf stems for Sodexo's Cook for Change! Sustainable Chef Challenge. Three hundred and fifty chefs took part in the international challenge's first round in June, and Hickey was one of eight finalists. In November, he'll head to France to represent all of North America in the Global Cook-Off. A UVM alum, Hickey has worked for Sodexo — which runs dining operations at the university — for three years. Prior to that, he cooked at Burlington restaurants such as Rí Rá Irish Pub, Pascolo Ristorante's original location, and now-closed Breakwater Café & Grill, Sweetwaters and Bluebird Tavern. "It's a little more structured here than the restaurant world," Hickey said of his job on campus. "It's more predictable — you feed a lot more people, but it's the same amount of kids every day." When he's not cooking for 4,000, Hickey is focused on initiatives that fit in with the challenge's focus on sustainability. Last year, his team members participated in a pilot program tracking greenhouse gas emissions in which they replaced meat with plant-based protein. Over a four-week period, they saved enough power to charge 500,000 smartphones, Hickey said. "We can really effect change, because we feed so many people," he added. We asked Hickey how he came up with the dish and what he's looking forward to doing in Paris next month. What's it like being a chef for a college dining hall? It's like a playground for a chef. Whatever you want, we cook it here at least once. In our five-week menu rotation, we cook stuff from all over the world, all sorts of cuisines and all different [dietary] requirements to feed such a vast customer base. I've learned a lot more than I thought I would when I came here, just from pure exposure. How did you come up with your dish for the Sustainable Chef Challenge? I thought about local stuff that I knew would shine on a plate — really Vermont, like root vegetables and kale. Basically, that's the dish. It's two ingredients, just in different ways…