Five Minutes With VICELAND's Matty Matheson
What tickles the taste buds of this culinary wunderkind.
As Canadian food extraordinaire Matty Matheson's new show Dead Set On Life arrives on our screens, Concrete Playground catches up with the culinary wunderkind to find out exactly what tickles his taste buds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfaTNlCIyU8
Concrete Playground: Tell us about Dead Set On Life?
Matty Matheson: It's a TV show about travelling around, eating a lot of food and meeting a lot of cool people.
CP: What can we expect from the first season?
MM: The first season I visit my hometown, Fort Erie, in Canada with my mentor Master Rang to give him a taste of the food that I grew up with. I basically go around Canada just having a really good time with my eyes wide open taking in everything that's out there.
CP: How did you and Master Rang meet?
MM: Rang was the night time kitchen manager in the restaurant I started out in and we just hit it off straight away. He was my boss and now 12 years later we're really good friends. He's like my little sidekick.
CP: What's the influence behind the name of the show?
MM: Before I had my heart attack at age 29, I wanted to open a bar called 'Dead Set On Destruction', which is a Husker Du song. After I had my heart attack my friends would make jokes and say 'I guess you're not going to open that bar'. My other friend said "you could open a bar called 'Dead Set On Life'" and it just stuck from there. Also my friend's band, Cancer Bats, named one of their albums Dead Set On Living. When VICELAND came about and presented the opportunity to create a show we knew it was going to be bigger than Keep It Canada and we didn't want to set it in one place so we decided on the name Dead Set On Life.
CP: So, you travel a lot with the job. Where has been your favourite place so far?
MM: Right now, Australia. It's my first time here and it's one of those places that you just don't want to leave. It's an amazing country. Sydney is incredible and Melbourne is phenomenal. Every place that I've been to so far has just blown me away.
CP: Are you planning to visit New Zealand?
MM: I will be in New Zealand for a week from February 1. I'm really excited!
CP: Who are your culinary influences?
MM: I get inspired on a daily basis, especially here in Australia. I had an amazing dinner the other night at a restaurant called Brae, the chef and owner Dan Hunter is incredible. I'm meeting amazing chefs every day and every one of them is inspiring.
CP: Have you always had a passion for cooking?
MM: Yes and no. I'm from a small town which only has about 16,000 people living there, so I really wanted to go and build a career in the city. I got accepted into a chef training programme at college in Toronto and I had never thought about being a chef before. Then a lot of things fell into place and I really enjoyed it and I actually became pretty good at it. From there, my first job out of college was Le Sélect Bistro, where I met Rang.
CP: How does the food culture in Canada play into your culinary styles?
MM: It's very diverse just like Australia. We have amazing Jamaican food, lots of Vietnamese and Chinese food. At Parts & Labour I like to cook multicultural food and put a modern spin on some traditional dishes. It's very inspiring and I'm very lucky to have lived in Toronto. It's made me the chef that I am today.
CP: What's your favourite comfort food?
MM: Definitely my wife's home cooking. She's Italian and she makes this amazing spaghetti and meatballs. She also makes a delicious roasted sausage and potato dish.
CP: If you had to eat the same meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
MM: Can I say Arby's? No I'm kidding. I could eat Vietnamese soup everyday! I eat it about four or five times a week back home. But I would probably make something simple like a nice steamed chicken dish with rice and cucumber and a nice sauce.
CP: What are the three ingredients that everyone should have in their kitchen cupboard?
MM: Good olive oil, butter and salt. If you've got those three ingredients then you've got a really good meal.
Dead Set On Life starts January 27 at 8.30pm on VICELAND.
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