Entertaining
Bad-Boy TV Chef Matty Matheson Shares His Favorite Family Recipes
Matty Matheson is a small-town punk-turned-celebrity-chef. After dropping out of cooking school to tour with his friends’ band across Canada, he used his skill and personality to work his way up through Toronto’s restaurant kitchens, becoming the executive chef at Parts & Labour. Since then, he’s added a lot more to his resumé: host of the Viceland shows, It’s Suppertime! and Dead Set on Life, Instagram celebrity and newly minted cookbook author. Matty invited us into his home to share his family’s favorite dishes.
“My love of restaurants comes from my grandfather,” says Matty. “Growing up in the Maritimes, we’d go to his restaurant, Blue Goose, in Prince Edward Island. Me and my brothers and sister used to hang out in the booths, make our own milkshakes and scoop ice cream. Both of my parents cooked a lot, too. My mom would mill her own flour and make fresh bread every morning.”
“I love the instant gratification you get: either you cook something and it’s great, or it isn’t,” says Matty. “Food is very honest. I love restaurants — it’s my business — but the cooking that I’m really passionate about is when I’m at home doing it for my family, where I’m really cooking for love.”
Matty and his wife, Trish Spencer (shown above) were married in 2014 and their son, Macarthur (“Mac”), was born in 2016. Trish, pictured below in their Parkdale kitchen in Toronto, is pregnant with the couple’s second child.
A polaroid photo of the couple on their wedding day is clipped to a pipe in their kitchen. Matty and Trish have been together since the were teenage sweethearts.
The family’s fun collection of vintage ceramics (including commemorative Jackie and John F. Kennedy salt and pepper shakers) is displayed in the kitchen.
“This dressing hits all the notes,” says Matty. “You get the high acid and saltiness from the yuzu and soy, crunch and freshness from the hot chilis and cilantro stem, and the toasted sesame oil balances it all out,” he says.
Get his recipe for Yuzu-Marinated Cucumber and Radish Salad.
“This is Trish’s aunt’s recipe,” says Matty. “I love olives and I was like, wait a minute, you can make a salad dressing out of olives? This is my all-time favorite salad dressing.”
Get the recipe for Green Olive Dressing.
“My son, Mac, is a picky eater, but he loves soup,” says Matty. “If you make a salty chicken broth, he’ll eat whatever you put in it. This chicken soup is my grandmother’s recipe. If you’re having a bad day, make yourself some chicken soup.”
Get Matty’s family recipe for Chicken Soup.
“The post roast is just like making a diamond: apply a little pressure and time… and you’ll have a beautiful piece of meat,” he says.
Get the recipe for Matty’s Pot Roast.
“Trish’s Hello Dolly Squares are incredible,” he says. “I love their dense, chewy texture and when they’re set in the fridge, the hard chocolate chip. It’s high-impact sugar.”
Get Trish’s recipe for this delectable sweet treat.
Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott
House & Home September 2018
Prop styling by Stacey Smithers and Lauren Petroff