Learning to cook with the big dogs
Matty Matheson wants you to be confident in the kitchen.
The 35-year-old Fort Erie native is the star of Viceland’s It’s Suppertime, his third show on the network.
His goal is to inspire people to cook more at home and challenge those who already do to hone their skills – laying out in each episode a three-level scale inspired by an occasional nickname he uses on Instagram to describe himself: The Big Dog.
In the first episode, which aired three weeks ago, Matheson lays out to make his mother-in-law’s recipe for spaghetti and meatballs, as well as homemade dressing for caesar salad. Based on its difficulty, Matheson classes it as a small dog meal, one that culinary beginners shouldn’t struggle too much with.
The meal in episode two, a Vietnamese sandwich, is the main course and is classified as a medium dog meal. In the third episode, Matheson prepares a Middle Eastern dish, one he says is for the small dogs.
With 21 episodes remaining, he hopes people will watch every week and mark his program at the top of the class when it’s all over.
“Hopefully, at the end of the season, everyone is a big dog,” said Matheson in a phone interview Monday.
Matheson’s other shows on Viceland (Dead Set on Life, Keep it Canada) were centred around food, but many episodes also delved into the culture and the people in the many parts of the world he visits.
The newest program places Matheson mostly in a kitchen for 22 minutes, getting back to basics – something he compared to his early Munchies videos on YouTube, his first work with Vice.
He can be himself, yelling and occasionally taking his shirt off, but educating people at the same time.
“I want to make this the funniest cooking show that’s ever been made,” he said.
The fourth episode airs Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. on Viceland.
A recent father, Matheson lives in Toronto and although he has seen many exotic places, it’s nice to be close to his family and not have to be away for half of the last two years like he was while Dead Set on Life was in production.
“Travelling the world and making TV kind of sucks – it takes up a lot of time,” he said.
He wants to keep things fresh and not be considered just another chef visiting foreign countries and talking about food, a format he believes is becoming more common, possibly because of the gruelling hours people in the culinary business are often faced with.
“Chefs, all we want to do is travel the world because we’re in the kitchen our whole lives,” said Matheson, who spent nearly 20 years in Toronto’s restaurant busi- ness before his TV career really started to sizzle.
Matheson doesn’t want to be a “food snob” and says some of the best meals don’t have to be fancy and carefully plated.
“I’m just making food people cook and eat at their home,” he said.
Matheson attended Humber College’s culinary program and is a graduate of Lakeshore Catholic High School in Port Colborne. He also attended Fort Erie Secondary School.