Matty Matheson: Home Style Cookery

Product Information

His culinary ventures have expanded to include his own food and music festival, Mattyfest, which started in 2019. In a remarkable feat, he has launched five restaurants in under two years, including Matty’s Patty’s, Fonda Balam, Ca Phe Rang, Prime Seafood Palace, and Rizzo’s House of Parm. Beyond the kitchen, he's a co-founder of the Toronto-based workwear brand Rosa Rugosa. In his own words, it reads: "College is a formative moment, maybe one of the most important of your life! You can totally reinvent yourself and be who you really want to be. Look at me. I was a punk kid who was terrible in school then I went to culinary school, found what I loved and became a chef. And I think that’s amazing. Contained in this cookbook are 12 recipes that I wanted to share with you while you’re out there in the world, figuring stuff out. XO Matty.”

Matty Matheson is no stranger to the world of cooking and creativity. He's a two-time New York Times bestselling author, known for Matty Matheson: A Cookbook and Home Style Cookery.Matty Matheson is part post-Bourdainian millennial cook (tattooed, casually clothed and foul-mouthed), part child (cue singsongs and quirky kitchen decor) and, obviously, part bad-ass in the kitchen. This is a very personal cookbook, full of essays and headnotes that share Matty's life--from growing up in Fort Erie, exploring the wonders of Prince Edward Island, struggling and learning as a young chef in Toronto, and, eventually, his rise to popularity as one of the world's most recognizable food personalities. Anyway. There are some recipes I am looking forward to giving a whirl in this book. There's also some recipes that I ain't going to touch because I don't have a smoker, have no interest in investing in one or interest in smoking (not to say that it isn't a fascinating technique I'm just not that into me doing it personally) and others just because I'm lazy. I really am a lazy cook. While this cookbook finally puts in print what many have known for years, that Matty Matheson is a great chef, it’s hard to imagine most of these recipes being especially accessible to the average home cook. If you don’t live near a coast, obtaining six lobsters for the Lobster Pie requires a fair amount of planning; four pounds of quahogs for the P.E.I. Seafood and Steaks, also a little out of the way. A few of the specific ingredients however, like the Crosby’s Fancy molasses recommended for the Molasses Bread Pudding, are merely an internet search away. With a drive to share his zest for life, he creates dishes that reinterpret the flavors of his youth in Canada, as well as the restaurant fare for which he has become so well-known. Recipes include:

I was going to make this dish one Sunday night and then realized I had not brined the pork chops. I'm sure I could have gotten away with that but wanted to follow the recipe closely at least the first time to have a feel for the dish. So the dish was moved a few days forward so I could follow all the steps. Matheson wrote the book around a year ago, but it is conveniently coming out during a surge in home cooking, and at a time when people are thinking more about where their food comes from. For Matheson, the book is purely about getting people excited about cooking. He describes it as a “choose your own adventure” cookbook that gives the reader a variety of techniques they can follow and build upon. Matheson hopes home cooks will bake the breads in the book’s first chapter, and then use them for a sandwich from the seventh chapter, or turn a vegetable dish in the third chapter into a soup from the sixth chapter. Without onions I think a lot of food would be pretty shit. They create a robust depth of flavor like nothing else on planet Earth. I use them in spaghetti, curry, soup, fajitas—literally everything. Hell, I’d put onions in toothpaste. I’m just trying to give you some fundamental ideas, techniques, and then whichever way you can take them, you can ride,” he says. “I think there are enough recipes in this book that people will be able to paint their own picture, make their own meals, get excited about cooking and keep learning.”and I'm not a big fan of chopped tomato for a soupy child, I actually prefer a bolognese-ish sauce, which is probably the only way I add tomato into a child] Matheson's talents extend to acting and executive producing as well; he's featured in FX's The Bear, where he also played an expanded role as DIY fixer Neil Fak in Season 2. Matty's no-nonsense approach to food makes these recipes practical enough for all, while his creativity will entice seasoned cooks. This book is like cooking alongside Matty, sharing stories that are equal parts heartwarming and inappropriate while helping you cook dishes that are full of love. Matty’s no-nonsense approach to food makes these recipes practical enough for all, while his creativity will entice seasoned cooks. This book is like cooking alongside Matty, sharing stories that are equal parts heartwarming and inappropriate while helping you cook dishes that are full of love.