Kill Your Idols
(but maybe not Matty Matheson)
I won a contest to sit down and virtual chat with Canadian Legend and Big Dog Chef Matty Matheson.
If you’re unaware of who Matty Matheson is…first.. how dare you?! Secondly, buckle up tight because you too are likely to become a Matty fan.
To be honest, I don’t even know how I came to know Matty in the first place. It’s felt like he’s always been around. My partner and I bonded over food, recipes, and Mr. Matheson when we first met. From there on in, we watched his adventures on the now infamous Bon Appetit channel, gallivanting around with Brad Leone. As well as his prior work on Vice’s YouTube channel with Munchies, Its Suppertime!, Dead Set on Life (named after a Husker Du song titled Dead Set on Destruction). It has felt like when ever I check social media, there he was screaming at me.
Matty got his start at Le Select Bistro, working under his now best friend Chef Rang Nguyen, and then on to a little more well known restaurant called Parts & Labor in Toronto in the early aughts. As noted in the video shown below, we likely crossed paths in one way or another as that was the same period of time I spent in Toronto. We are also close in age. Though I knew of P&L when I lived in T.O, I never had the chance to eat there but I knew a lot of people that did.
At the same time this was Matty’s darker period when he was known for excessive drug use, touring with the Cancer Bats, and inevitably having a heart attack at the wise age of 29. Luckily, he got clean in 2013.
Since then, Matty has never stopped making. Matty has written two cookbooks, most recently Home-style Cookery and the New York Times best seller Matty Matheson: A Cookbook, which were both apparently written in true millennial fashion on his phone.
When the pandemic hit, nothing seemed to stop Matty from slowing down because he’d already opened Makers Pizza in T.O (with Schlomo Buchler), then proceeded with Matty Matheson’s Meat & Three in his hometown of Ft. Erie.
As a St. Catharines native, to see Ft. Erie put on a map was nothing short of exhilarating. I made the trip within the first couple weeks they’d open and that was the first time I got the chance to meet the legend himself in true socially distanced fashion.
Last but certainly not least, he also opened a burger joint Matty’s Patty’s Burger Club also in T.O. right near the hipster paradise Trinity Bellwoods Park.
Matty is a constant source of media, next to food he also hosts Just A Dash, and podcast/video Powerful Truth Angels with L.A buddy 2 Tone. On top of other continuous projects like Blue Goose Farm. He is the king of the hustle. He is across all streams of socials, and has been for a long time. He sells various merchandise and clothing unique to his name. He even hosted a music festival, with Wu Tang Clan as headliners. His persistence to keep up with technology and trends is unlike any Chef or influencer I’ve ever seen. He also has a deep connection with his fans.
The reason why I think this is, is because despite Matty’s edgy exterior he is wholesome as fuck. He is a family man, who hows deep devotion to his wife Trish and his three children. He also has a beaming, resounding personality, and what you see is what you get.
It was a real pleasure to get the chance to chat with Matty over Zoom when I won a contest through his Instagram. We talked casually about vintage clothing, food, pets, music, and mental health during the pandemic. This is unedited footage from our Zoom interview.
