Matty Matheson

• 1. Introduction

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  Matty Matheson dropped out of culinary school to carry gear for a metal band. Years later he was cast as a handyman named Neil Fak on the FX series The Bear, a show set in a kitchen. Between those two moments sits an unusual career. Matheson is a Canadian chef, restaurateur, producer, vocalist and internet personality, born in 1982. His path took him through French bistros in Toronto, a string of television shows and a growing family of restaurants. It also took him through a serious health scare. How does a butcher with a loud personality become a recognizable face on screen? Why do so many of his projects circle back to family and to the places he grew up? And what does it take to run so many ventures at once?

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• 2. Maritime Roots

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  Matthew James Matheson was born on the 7th of February 1982 in Saint John, New Brunswick. His father Stephen was an engineer and his mother Joan was a waitress. The family lived in Nova Scotia, and young Matty was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The family left that church when they left Nova Scotia. At the age of 11, they moved to Fort Erie, Ontario. The strongest food influence in his early years came from his grandfather, a former RCMP officer from Prince Edward Island. The family had roots on the island going back to the 1700s. His grandfather ran a restaurant called The Blue Goose in DeSable, and Matty spent his summers there. Years later, the name of that restaurant would be given to something very different from a dining room.

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• 3. Toronto Kitchens

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  In 2000, Matheson moved to Toronto and enrolled in the cooking program at Humber College. He never graduated. A short stint working as a roadie for his friends' metal band pulled him away from his studies. What he discovered next mattered more than the diploma. He turned out to have a real talent for butchering meat. He kept handing out resumes at random restaurants until one of them hired him. In 2003 he started at Le Sélect Bistro in Toronto, working under chef Rang Nguyen. Nguyen taught him French culinary techniques. Matheson moved on to the restaurant La Palette in 2006. Then came the big step. In 2010 he became executive chef at the newly opened Parts & Labour. He stayed there until the restaurant permanently closed on the 1st of January 2019. That kitchen, together with his wild and outgoing personality, brought him to the attention of Vice Media.

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• 4. Sobriety and Motorcycles

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  Matheson first tried cocaine in grade 11. Regular use followed, and it eventually caused a heart attack when he was 29 years old. He stopped using drugs and alcohol at the end of 2013. Seven months into his sobriety, he shot his first episode of the web series Keep It Canada. Away from the stove and the camera, he rides motorcycles. His favourites include custom choppers. That series was the first in a run of on-screen work that would grow for years.

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• 5. Camera Time

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  Vice's online show Munchies gave Matheson his first wide audience. Viceland then hired him to host two programs, It's Suppertime! and Dead Set on Life. Each ran for 24 episodes, and he also worked as a producer on both. He keeps his own YouTube channel as well. In 2016 he appeared on the interview series Hot Ones. Since 2019 he has hosted a web series called Just a Dash. He has also visited Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he showed the host how to make a stuffed shell family recipe. In June 2022 he joined the cast and crew of FX's The Bear. He plays the handyman Neil Fak and also works as a culinary consultant. His producing credit grew too. He was co-producer in the first season and became an executive producer from the second. He has lent his voice to animation as well, including Keef in Craig of the Creek and Sauce Boss in Big City Greens. Two film roles are on the list for 2025 and 2026, including Dr. Nutcase in Toy Story 5.

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• 6. A Web of Restaurants

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  In 2015, Matheson partnered with Shlomo Buchler on a pizza restaurant called Maker Pizza. It has since spread to numerous locations around the Greater Toronto Area. The pandemic summer of 2020 brought a barbecue pop-up in Fort Erie called Matty Matheson's Meat + Three. It was his take on the American South's meat and three, and it closed in 2022. That October he opened a Toronto pop-up that continued Matty's Patty's. The burger spot had started in Hawaii and had a short stint in Shibuya, Japan. In December 2020 it became permanent in the Trinity-Bellwoods neighbourhood. In April 2021 he teamed up with chefs Kate Chomyshyn and Julio Guajardo on a birria pop-up called Birria Balam. By October of that year the trio opened a permanent Mexican restaurant, Fonda Balam. Birria Balam subsequently closed. Its Chinatown space then went to Ca Phe Rang, a Vietnamese restaurant for pho and bánh mì, opened in January 2022 with his mentor Rang Nguyen. April 2022 saw the opening of Prime Seafood Palace, a steakhouse and seafood restaurant he had been planning since 2016. The last arrival that year was Rizzo's House of Parm, an old-school Italian-American restaurant at Crystal Beach in Fort Erie, opened in November. His wife Trish's Italian family inspired the menu. He named it for Rizzo, his first daughter and second child. All of these places sit under one company, Our House Hospitality Company.

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• 7. Beyond the Kitchen

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  Matheson's first cookbook, Matty Matheson: A Cookbook, came out in October 2018. A second, Matty Matheson: Home Style Cookery, followed on the 29th of September 2020, with a series of YouTube videos made to accompany it. The third, Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches, was released in October 2024. In March 2020 he started a podcast called Powerful Truth Angels with artist Alex 2Tone, a co-founder of the streetwear brand Born X Raised. The producer was Jason Nelken. That same year, he and Toronto chef Keenan McVey opened Blue Goose Farm in Fort Erie. The small farm takes its name from his grandfather's restaurant and supplies vegetables to some of his restaurants and others in Toronto. In 2022 he launched Rosa Rugosa, a workwear line he calls hyper-local, with production in the Parkdale neighbourhood of West Toronto. He has also started a collection of kitchen utensils. The most recent venture goes back to his metal-band days. In 2025 he announced Pig Pen, a hardcore punk band with Wade MacNeil and Daniel Romano. Its debut performance took place at Sneaky Dee's on the 25th of April 2025.

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