Matheson - Matty matheson: a Cookbook

For Patricia and Macarthur

This cookbook is not about farms, gardens, sustainable seafood, or how much cocaine I did before or after service every night. Its about my memories of the food that I have eaten, cooked, and created. Its about time and place, like those moments during my childhood family outings at the beach, where we would eat oysters, mussels, and clams harvested from the waters surrounding a beautiful red-clay island. Its about how I looked up at Grampy shucking those oysters with his rusty pocketknife, then boiling and serving up the mussels and clams in his garage for me, my brothers, and my sister. This is a cookbook about these experiences. I will show you the food that has defined who I am.

Im excited to share some of my favorite dishes, to tell you the stories behind my favorite foods. Im going to be honest and real. I talk about almost burning down a restaurant or picking blackberries with my grandmother on the east coast of Canada. My hope is that we connect and that you get stoked about cooking and sharing good food. If this inspires you to go to a farm, a farmers market, get on a boat, head into the woods, or walk with your toes in the sand through cold ocean water searching for oysters, then Ive done my job.

Matty Matheson: A Cookbook is about my experiences with the dishes Ive cooked and fucked up a thousand times to the ones Ive loved, hated, and resented. This is that book. Starting on Prince Edward Island, where I found my love of seafood, to the woods of New Brunswick, where fiddlehead season was a highly anticipated event (even though I hated picking them), to the tough kitchens of Toronto, where I grew as a chef and as a person, this book is an honest recollection of the food that has molded me and made me the cook I am today.

Cooking at home and cooking in a restaurant are two very different things. At a restaurant, you have purveyors, farmers, and fisher folk a phone call away who can deliver pretty much any ingredient to your doorstep within forty-eight hours. You also have a brigade of cooks to help you with brining, pickling, smoking, grinding, cleaning, organizing, and everything else. At home its just you, some family members, or your friends. Your son or daughter is your sous chef, your husband is a dishwasher, your grandparents are your guests.

The food in this book is for everyone to make at home, to feed family and friends. My family loves cooking. Im sure if my grandfather wasnt a chef and restaurant owner, I wouldnt be a chef today. Spending the summers on PEI at the Blue Goose in Crapaud, DeSable, were the best summers a kid could have. I think of the garden in the back, the soda pop shop, and running around the dining room before the Goose opened. Playing hide-and-seek with my brothers, the club sandwiches, and turkey dinners. Eating bar clams and shucking oysters from the Northumberland Strait, boiling lobsters, mussels, and quahogs, and grilling steaks in the backyard of the restaurant. These were some of my fondest memories as a youth. I didnt even understand food but I knew I loved it.

I want people to make food, to cook food, to share food. Family traditions last for generations. If you dont have any, now is the time to start some. I love that anyone can turn a breakfast, lunch, or dinner into a ritual that could give a lifelong memory. The food is the foundation of the conversation. It will create a shared experience that will last. Even a poorly made meal could make for a lifetime of laughs, making fun of a sibling for overcooking his first apple pie or splitting mayonnaise he made for lobster rolls. Its about the cooking, learning, and sharing; these are my favorite times in the kitchen.

Often, youll find whoever cooked the meal rarely eats at the table or has the smallest amount on their plate. I love watching the guests faces at the table, seeing their first impression, eating the first taste of your love and efforts. Giggles, eye rolls, people looking like someone is under the table giving them some extra affection and attention. Those looks and feelings are what make the shopping, gathering, and cooking worth every effort. Food is one of the rare true experiences in this world. Food cannot lie: Either it tastes good or it doesnt. Its unapologetic that way. Its honest, and your job as a cook is to treat it that way. You are responsible for this animal or vegetable that a rancher or farmer spent his or her life cultivating. Dont fuck it up!

I wanted to share the joy that I find, no matter what Im cooking. Whether that means making preserves, pickles, and salad dressings, shucking and cleaning shellfish properly, making terrines and pts, or cooking and basting meat. Hopefully this book generates the desire to set the table for years to come. The family table is so important to me now. Having my son, Macarthur, makes me think about what a meal means. I cant wait to start telling him my family stories (or most of them). Like the story of my dad stabbing a boning knife through his calf while cutting the ear off a cowhide. Or how my parents took the gut truck on their honeymoon when they were nineteen years old and went all the way to Moncton for a weekend of ZZ Top and Santana concerts.

Some of these recipes may seem difficult or may take a few days to prepare. Cooking takes real dedication. I was afraid to write this book, and now Im afraid what people will think of these recipes or my history. Im welcoming the world to my table. Its scary to think about that. There is an understanding that food can make you proud or embarrassed of where you come from. I wish I had the time to mill grain for bread every morning like my mother did. Or just have the energy to raise four kids! I really hope this book will take a little weight off the shoulders of mothers and fathers and give their families a new approach to cooking at home or on the beach.

Remember: Its important that we keep trying. You may first make underseasoned food or burnt food or undercooked food; its more about the action and the time. Never give up. Keep cooking even if your piecrust looks like a torn-apart fence or if you overcooked and didnt rest your prime rib long enough. Thats the point with food; it keeps pushing you to try again. Please try again and again and again. The one thing I want this book to do is to inspire everyone to cook. I just want you to cook something for yourself.

DeSable, Prince Edward Island, from Victoria Pier