Vans Life:
Matty Matheson’s
Big Crunch
The Beloved Chef At Home in Fort Erie
- Text: Sam Reiss
- Photography: Aaron Wynia
Matty Matheson, identifiable from a mile away, may still require some detail work to get the full picture. He’s a chef who makes dishes on YouTube, has haunted everywhere from Hanoi to Saskatoon for Vice, runs Maker Pizza and Matty’s Patty’s in Toronto and Meat + Three in Fort Erie, and sells oven mitts with his hand tattoos on them. His old restaurant, Parts & Labour, something of a Toronto anchor, informed his first cookbook, Matty Matheson: A Cookbook, in a bistro-like way. His second, Home Style Cookery, full of loose asides and shaggy dog stories, runs down dishes from all over, from beef tourtiere to Sichuan cod, merguez to naan.
Featured In This Image: Vans sneakers, Vans sneakers, Acne Studios jacket, Burberry sweater, Acne Studios crewneck and Barbour hat. Top Image: Matty wears BEAMS PLUS coat, Gucci v-neck and Barbour hat.
But Matheson is so much more than the tattooed chef stereotype—there aren’t many people like him, and certainly fewer in Canada. He might be more energetic and enigmatic than anyone else preparing a meatloaf online, but if on first blush it’s loud, that’s only the delivery. Matheson gives off the controlled chaos of a busy kitchen—he’s boisterous and excited, frantic and exacting—with none of the bad stuff. “You don’t have to be some psycho fucking meanie to make a Ceasar salad dressing,” he says.
As of December, it is estimated that 17% of US restaurants have shuttered their doors permanently, with more closing every day. If the industry is to recover, it will need both ingenuity and aid, as well as a new level of self-awareness. During the pandemic, Matheson has had time to assess the reckoning the restaurant industry’s also gone through in recent months—“toxic and intense,” he calls it a “broken system” that needs a reappraisal—while setting up a home test kitchen, studio space, and cooking for his wife, Trish, and his kids, Mac, Rizzo, and Ozzy.
On his current trajectory, it feels like Matheson might end up on a stamp, but if he’s from Canada, he’s not of it. There’s a difference, up close. We discussed taste, food, fashion, restaurant culture, and a couple of other things over the phone in late December. A condensed and edited transcript is below, alongside portraits of the family by Aaron Wynia, styled in VANS at their home in Fort Erie.
Sam Reiss
Matty Matheson
What was it like growing up in Fort Erie, food-wise, and how much does it inform your new book?
Canadian cuisine has a lot of restraint. The cuisine is more British in its tendencies and palate. I often say this—the difference between American and Canadian cuisines is we didn’t have a South. We’re missing out on African American soul food, that entire history. I got to see a glimpse of soul food at a young age. My dad had a business, and we’d drive down to Florida. I was opened up to this world a lot of Canadians don’t know about, and it gave me a bit of an edge understanding what that American palate is. My friend Alex Stupack, who’s a chef in New York, says America’s number one flavor is crunch. It makes sense. A texture is a flavor. My first book was definitely like my life through a culinary lens, heavily influenced by the Maritimes.
When you were roadieing and touring the States and Canada, did it change how you looked at food?
I grew up going to shows. I was going to Erie, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse a lot, New York every so often. I remember reading [metalcore band] 18 Visions’ liner notes and they thanked Del Taco. This was 2000. I remember being like, “This is so crazy, they thanked a restaurant. Del Taco must be so sick.” The first time I went to L.A., I did In N’ Out first, then right to Del Taco.
Are you big into fast food?
I love fast food. Fast food in America is very different. The culture of food is so big in America. You can get great sandwiches anywhere. They just get it. Touring, going to shows, that’s not what inspired me to become a chef, but it gave me an awareness of what’s out there. It made me understand over-the-top combinations and how to control them and bring that Canadian restraint when designing dishes.
Why does Canadian cuisine pull back? Is it top-down pressure from the restaurant industry?
It definitely comes from the top down. The Maritimes are similar to the South. Very small towns, a little diner filled with actual farmers, a piece of fish with mashed potatoes and gravy for $7. It’s slower, it’s humble, and I think that’s a good representation of Canada.
The cities are different. Montreal is still very Quebecois, Ottawa is its own beast. Toronto is such an eclectic, beautiful, ethnic-driven city. In Toronto, people found their homes and built out their communities. That trickles through generations into different cuisines. People ask, “What’s Canadian cuisine? Indigenous?” Well, we wiped that history. So I don’t know. It’s a bunch of white dudes eating fish and mashed potatoes.
One buddy says Canadian cuisine is beige and unremarkable. Boiled turnips, rutabagas, some salt pork. My dad’s a Newfie and grew up eating Jiggs dinner, which is like, you boil up the whole dinner in the fucking thing, and serve it with mustard pickles.
How do you assess what COVID-19 did to the industry? What shouldn’t come back?
It’s decimated the entire industry, and the trickle effect from farmers and suppliers, and all the tradespeople. The amount of hands that go into building a restaurant is too many to count. It’s just wild. Nobody understands real food cost. Even if you have everything dialed, it’s a 10-12% profit margin. Maybe. Maybe. If you are dialed.
Matty wears Vans sneakers, BEAMS PLUS coat and Barbour hat.
Like if you’re Keith McNally.
Sure. If you’re having hundred-thousand-dollar days. The more money you make, the more things cost. And now, putting back the pieces, paying people properly, giving full benefits, the product becomes more expensive. Are people willing to pay? “You’re paying for the name.” Well, really, “You’re paying so I can pay a decent wage and overtime and benefits from day 1.” Why should a cheeseburger be five dollars? Are you buying the beef? Can you name the farmer? If you want a $5 cheeseburger, go see the clown. No disrespect to the clown.
I hope people are willing to pay so we can do what’s right and start putting back the pieces of a very broken system. The restaurant world is extremely toxic and intense, and the patriarchy and hierarchy is all real. It is very militaristic. You can run a successful restaurant and be nice to people. You don’t have to berate, belittle, or encourage people to be that way. Do you think people actually perform better out of fear? I think people need to work hard, but I think people can work very hard in an environment that’s fun, safe, and welcoming.
I want to talk about taste. In your new cookbook you say you like “horrible food,” but you also like French cuisine.
I’m just trying to level the playing field. I like eating caviar, I also like eating tacos from Robo Mart, a gas station in Fort Erie. I do like eating a four-hour meal, genuinely, and that took off too when I stopped drinking, when I got clean. It became kind of like, my new thing.
When you’re cooking, are you trying to impress Trish? The kids?
No, dude. My kids are the same as any kid. Rizzo eats whatever, she’s two. She’ll eat the vegetables, I'll dissect what I’m making and she’ll munch on it. Mac wants to eat chicken fingers, he doesn't want to eat anything that isn't beige. It’s difficult during the pandemic—everyone that’s got kids, you’re trying to make three meals three x a day. It’s really tough, and I know how to cook. Imagine if you don't. You’re stressed out, three meals a day, everybody’s on lockdown, doing dishes all day, very time-consuming, very disheartening. It’s tough on everybody.
Matty wears Vans sneakers, BEAMS PLUS coat, Gucci v-neck and Barbour hat.
Let’s talk about style. Have you pulled back your style since having a family, since moving back to Fort Erie?
Moving back to Fort Erie has made me want to get more freaky, actually.
In what way? I saw those Chanel Y2K glasses you had.
I was trying to flex. At this straight vintage Chanel shop off Rodeo. Definitely paid too much. They’re a stupid flex. For my size, it’s rare for something new to fit the way I like. I’ll see a jacket or a cut and I’ll think it’s tight, and get inspired. Seeing a piece from Wacko Maria or even some Noon Goons shit is kind of fresh sometimes, Visvim’s got some shit. Thinking, “There’s a leopard print cardigan, I’m going to try and find that.” When I was with Vice, everyone was throwing shit at me. All of a sudden I’m a walking billboard. Now I’m trying to get back to the place before I had all the stuff I have now. I was happy wearing Levi’s and a Black Flag shirt. I’d wear that shirt until it was dust, and then I’d wear another.
Did you pick up your sense of style from going to hardcore shows?
For me, there’s nothing better than late-80s New York hardcore style. The way they rock the hat, roll up the jeans, wear crop tops. That truck driver, wrestlers off the mat [look], that’s it for me. Because I’m a bigger dude. I’m 300 pounds. I’m a big ball, man. I have a network of friends who find me clothes. “Size 48 deadstock Carhartts, want me to scoop?” or “I found this crazy Mack [Trucks] shirt, it’s 3XL.”
Any clothes you want to pull off down the line? I know you’re wearing more suits.
The suit thing is really nice. It’s expensive if you’re getting real bespoke shit. Am I really about to spend three racks on a suit? You’ve got to pay to play if you wanna get into that game. It’s tough for me to find my size. I got into it at first thinking, “I’ll buy these wild-ass suits.” I get real excited about something. I go over the top. I gotta walk this back a little bit. I’m like a little baby Jack Russell with shit. I gotta do some laps!
What does a regular day look like for you?
With the fam? Straight up, kids wake up around 5:30, they run into the bedroom. We got a baby, we got a whole crew now. They jump around on the bed for an hour, by seven we’re making breakfast. Then we go for a walk, come back and do crafts. After that, it’s iPad time, figuring out what’s for lunch, and they’ll put on Frozen 2. After lunch Mac and I will go for a drive. Regroup, do dinner. It's a routine to keep three kids moving and not go full tantrum—you need a plan, every day. It’s funny what ripples with kids. I put on AOQ [The Age of Quarrel] and they go off. Headbanging, running around, jumping on the couch. Then it's bath time and story time and we put them to bed.
Then you do it again.
We’re toast. Go to bed at 9:30. Then do it all over again.
Featured In This Image: Vans sneakers, Vans sneakers, BEAMS PLUS coat, Acne Studios jacket, Gucci v-neck, Barbour hat and Acne Studios scarf.
Sam Reiss writes about vintage clothing for GQ and powerlifting for Inverse.com and about furniture, design, soccer and other topics for GQ Style, ESPN and elsewhere. From Ottawa, he lives in Brooklyn.
- Text: Sam Reiss
- Photography: Aaron Wynia
- Date: March 10, 2021
