Matty Matheson’s Recipe for Life—and Red-Carpet Style
Matty Matheson wears a lot of hats. Chef’s toque, dad hat, producer’s chapeau, actor’s cap—and a beanie with flames. At least that’s what the producer and star of The Bear had on when he answered the Zoom. Immediately, the vibes were set.
Matheson is dressing himself for the Golden Globes, so it turns out that beanie is also his stylist’s hat. “I don’t find it stressful working with a stylist, but I enjoy doing it myself,” he says. “So I don’t really want to pay someone to dream for me. I like dreaming, you know? But it’s mostly about feeling kind of sick and being stoked. And then you feel good, you look good, and you pull up.”
The Canadian chef is pulling up, all right. And he’s doing it in a custom jacket with an artistic twist. “The jacket is sick,” he says. “It’s got this wavy black chain-stitch piping that I got done by a friend. [Her Instagram is @pumpkinseed.chainstitch.] She’s done some cool chain stitching for me for Blue Goose Farm and made some jackets for me in the past—she’s really amazing.”
Before the iconic chef, producer, and actor pulled up to the red carpet, we caught up with him to hear about his wardrobe takes, food musings, and even an unexpected dream job. So let’s pause, rewind, and restart the conversation.
On Dressing for the Golden Globes
“I’m looking for some shoes because I’m still torn on what I’m wearing. I’ve got this really nice white tux with some black chain-stitch piping, and I do have a full white suit with black piping, but I might just switch it and wear black pants. So if I wear black pants, I’m going to need shoes, and then if I wear the white pants, I need to wear boots. I’ve already worn patent-leather Chelsea boots before, so now I’m just like, What am I doing here? I’m gonna go try to figure it out, and then we’ll see what’s up. On the day, we’ll see how we feel.”
On Style Icons
“I’m always looking at what Robert Redford or Jack Nicholson was wearing in the ’70s. You can’t remake the wheel, but you can paint it whatever color you want. It’s just like, What looks good, looks good. I don’t really take risks. Because I’m like a bigger dude, you’re never going to catch me in big, baggy clothes. Everyone’s trying to look like the homie from Talking Heads, wearing oversized stuff and bell-bottoms. All that shit is so in play right now—which is tight—but I want a more contemporary look because that fits me better.”
On Stepping in Front of the Camera
“I think I enjoy producing more because I feel that’s what I do in my restaurants at the level that I am at in my restaurant group. I’ve always produced all of the shows that I made with Vice—everything I do has been self-produced. Working with The Bear is obviously the biggest thing, and working with the team is amazing. Acting is something that I never really thought about. I’ve spent my last ten years being in this unscripted world, which comes very naturally to me. Acting is the hardest part of it all, and the scariest part of it all, but it’s exciting. When I first did The Bear, I was like, ‘I don’t want to act.’ It was so scary and intense. Now I’m definitely more open and am doing auditions and putting myself out there. Sometimes if something looks cool or sounds cool, then I’ll try it, where in the past I would get scared and say no to a lot of different opportunities.”
On “Turkey Enchilada Lasagna”
“Honestly, I love opening the fridge, having a bunch of leftovers, and making stuff. I find that to be a very easy, fun, therapeutic way of cooking. Like recently, after Christmas, we had a bunch of turkey, and I took it and made a turkey-enchilada-lasagna thing. I roasted a bunch of peppers really quickly and bought some green enchilada sauce, then made this turkey-enchilada verde. I was gonna just make enchiladas, but then I designed to make a giant lasagna really quick. And then I just ended up making a turkey-enchilada-lasagna thing that was fire.”
On His Business Partner, Coulson
“Shout out to Coulson Armstrong. Coulson is our top dog. He’s a partner in our restaurant company, and working with him over the last couple years, opening up all of our restaurants—he is somebody that really inspires me and is truly just an amazing person to work beside and to dream with. To execute restaurant after restaurant with him is an amazing thing.”
On Other Career Opportunities
“I’m an avid dream liver, but I think it would be really cool to be a doula. I think that’s a really beautiful job and an unsung profession, but I love that you just get to take care of mama and be a part of such a beautiful thing. I was lucky to be a part of my wife’s three home births, so that’s what inspires me—Trish and our doula.”
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