Copyright of Appetite by Random House of Penguin Random House Canada. Photo by Sid Tangerine

One part ham, one part spicy: Chef, Restauranteur, Actor and Author Matty Matheson is all parts in for whatever’s on tap.

In food parlance, he’s never been described as an egg- over-easy kind of guy. Instead, Matty Matheson, celebrated chef, New York Times bestselling author, restaurateur, entrepreneur, executive producer and actor on FX Production’s famously popular restaurant dramedy series The Bear, in which he plays handyman Neil Fak (or simply Fak), is more like a hard- boiled double-smoked hunk of extra- spicy beef jerky.

But even though Matheson is not a lead character on The Bear, because of his rogue, sometimes unintentional humour, his self-deprecating manner — not to mention his down-home banter — he has become a spotlight grabber, delighting fans by being so ingenuous.

Matheson’s stocky body is covered in tattoos. “Without tattoos, you’re not even a real chef, are you? If you don’t have tattoos, you’re not good at cooking,” Matheson quips on his Real chefs have tattoos TikTok video.

Matheson is at his best when he’s creating and cooking his deliciously funky recipes. | Photo By Aaron Wynia

With a profane vocabulary peppered — in actuality, spice-racked — with F-bombs, Matheson is the polar opposite of what “normal” society usually sees as an acceptable public figure, one to be celebrated, watched and followed.

But that is exactly what makes Matheson so beloved by so many people.

Known to say things that could easily be misconstrued if someone else said them, Matheson has such energy andpositivity that what he says presents as observation rather than judgment.

A party animal with a capital P, Matheson calls himself a “psychopathic party boy.” He has partied hearty with the best of the best, including Leonardo DiCaprio while they were both in St. Barts, and appeared on the late-night talk shows Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

In fact, Matheson has amassed a significant following on his socials: he has 1.8 million followers on Instagram and a critical mass of 1.46 million on YouTube.

Intriguingly, Matheson has an 87 per cent 5-star rating on Amazon for his 2020 cookbook, Home Style Cookery: A Home Cookbook, (Abrams), higher than renowned British chef Jamie Oliver’s 75 per cent 5-star rating for his 2021 book, Together: Memorable Meals Made Easy (HarperCollins).

Once Matheson accepted the inevitable, he never looked back. With a formula that can best be described as a live-in-the-moment-for-the-moment strategy, Matheson is enjoying killer success on a number of platforms.

The staggering number of dining establishments that Matheson has worked at in an equal number of staggering positions would fill a server’s order book from beginning to end.

In 2000, after dropping out of Humber College’s Culinary Management program in Toronto at the age of 19 — Matheson had seen his enrolment at Humber College as his opportunity to move to the city — he scored a job at Le Sélect Bistro, where he was introduced to the fine art of French gastronomic creation under Chef Rang Nguyen.

With a career that has had more moving parts than a car engine — think of an outsized over-the-top Energizer Bunny mascot on steroids ripping through the restaurant industry — Matheson was the executive chef at Parts & Labour restaurant and also worked at and headed up other eating establishments including La Palette, Dog & Bear and OddFellows.

It is important to note that Matheson’s win on the Toronto TV show Burger Wars for his cheeseburger creation — consisting of ground beef, Monterey Jack cheese, iceberg lettuce, homemade bacon-onion jam, and dill-pickle mayo slathered on a buttered bun — was the initial event that instantly catapulted his visibility and persona into the stratosphere.

“I’m A Big Guy Doing Funny Shit.”

Matheson loves to dress in ’70s throwback styles | Photo by Sid Tangerine

He and various partners have founded several restaurants along the way, including Cà Phê Rang, Matty’s Patty’s, Rizzo’s House of Parm and Prime Seafood Palace, plus the now- defunct pop-up Toronto restaurant Birria Balam, which in 2023 won Toronto Life Magazine’s No. 1 spot in their annual ranking of the city’s best new restaurants.

His to-the-core irreverence and cheeky “WTF” attitude are the very attributes that have made Matheson successful and indeed have led to his appearances on a range of shows including Vice Media’s Munchies; those videos have made him an international star.

He also created and starred in Vice’s 2016 Dead Set on Life TV series, a culinary travel show that was described thusly: “From $6 subs to the most sought-after ingredients on the planet, Matty Matheson eats it all, with friends new and old.”

Matheson was the star chef on It’s Suppertime, also for Vice. And again, under its Munchies brand, Matheson hosted the 2014–2015 YouTube series Keep It Canada with Matty Matheson. His mission on the show was to explore different places within Canada and discover the dishes popular in those regions.

Matheson’s Win On The Tv Show Burger Wars For His Cheeseburger Creation, Which Includes Both His Homemade Bacon-onion Dip And His Dill Pickle Mayo, Was The Recognition That Thrust Him Into The Fan-fueled Spotlight.

And even though Matheson has been quoted as saying “Acting scares the shit out of me,” I can’t see a teleprompter in his future any time soon. With a shtick that is based on being as irreverent as hell, with his personal volume turned up to maximum decibels, Matheson is a talented loaded-with-confidence-and- humour showman.

In fact, in February 2024, Matheson was one of the cast members that won an award from the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for their roles in The Bear.

As the third season of the Emmy- winning Best Comedy Series The Bear launched in June 2024, Matheson’s role as executive producer, chef consultant and actor expanded to include screenwriter as well.

His first book, released in 2018, Matty Matheson: A Cookbook (Abrams), was a New York Times bestseller, and his second was an Amazon bestseller.

Revolutionizing cooking’s trinity, a.k.a. soups, salads and sandwiches, Matheson serves up bold, innovative flavours in his third cookbook, out this October

In his newest book, Soups, Salads, Sandwiches: A Cookbook, a combination that is often referred to as “cooking’s iconic trinity” (Appetite by Random House, to be released in October 2024), Matheson presents a series of often-unusual recipes.

What is particularly intriguing and fun about Matheson’s books are the personal stories and photographs that he includes along with the recipes.

Matheson married his high-school sweetheart, Trish Spencer, in 2014. The couple now have three children and live on their farm, near Fort Erie, Ont.

Along with his family’s assets, Matheson’s business holdings include Cassoulet Palace Inc., Matheson Cookware, Matheson Food Company and the workwear clothing line Rosa Rugosa (which has been described as “general farmer esthetic” and is owned together with designer Ray Natale). Matheson is also a partner in Our House H.C. (Our House Hospitality Company) and Blue Goose Farm, which is named in memory of his grandfather who owned a restaurant with that name.

The Matheson’s Cookware line sells kitchen items including butter crocks, grill presses, cast iron pans, cutting boards and, of course, his three cookbooks.

To add to all of these already- magnificent achievements, Matheson has recently been receiving recognition and kudos for his intrepid fashion sense.

In his February 2024 Wall Street Journal article on Matheson, Jacob Gallagher writes that Matheson deserves Hollywood’s best-dressed title in spite of — or because of — his fully tattooed body and rambunctious love of cooking. Indeed, as Matheson told New York Times writer Max Berlinger, “As a big dude, I have found that clothing has given me a lot of self-esteem. And finding your own style, it really feels good.”

Also, in 2022, it’s interesting that luxury men’s wear fashion retailer Harry Rosen invited Matheson (along with former Toronto Raptors’ point guard Fred VanVleet, who Harry Rosen also deemed an influencer) to join forces with the retailer to identify and create custom HAROLD outfits.

Other collaborations that entrepreneur Matheson has crafted throughout his journey include his clothing line with the surf and skate brand RVCA; a cookware partnership with Castor Design; and a significant collaboration with McCain Canada, with the end goal of supporting local potato farmers through the creation of innovative new recipes.

Famously known for not compromising his very essence, or any other part of himself for that matter — let’s face it, it would be absolutely impossible to ever refer to him as a snob — Matheson continues to do it his way, full steam ahead and wholly unguarded in his approach, his appearance or the way he speaks.

The unequivocal fact that Matheson has gotten to where he is by being exactly who he is is a formula that he doesn’t plan to change anytime soon, if ever. His whirling-dervish-like energy, his flying “f—–it” attitude, and his willingness to embrace the very core of anything to do with fun — another of his favourite “F” words — will unequivocally guarantee that.

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