Modern Tastes Grilling the Chef: Jean-Luc Matecat B Y CO R IN HIR SCH
SEVENDAYSVT.COM 02.12.14-02.19.14
family dinner was extremely important. I had to make the salads, make the vinaigrettes, help take care of the garden. My dad came [to the U.S.] from France after World War II, when ingredients were scarce and people stretched product, so that’s how I first learned to utilize food. We ate lots of country French food, lots of fish, lots of game. My dad really likes birds, and so do I. SD: Were there any foods you hated as a kid? JLM: I didn’t like dill, and I didn’t like lemongrass. I don’t know why. Now I love lemongrass, but I still don’t like dill. It’s just not my cup of tea.
Matecat spent the next nine summers on Nantucket cooking for Seth and Angela Raynor at the Pearl Restaurant; in the off seasons, he headed to Boston restaurants such as Clio and No. 9 Park. Along the way, Matecat began to marry
Chef: Jean-Luc Matecat Age: 32 Company: Inn at Weathersfield Location: Perkinsville Age of restaurant: Decades. No one seems to know. Cuisine type: Classic building blocks with a modern presentation and twist. Training: Cabrillo College, life
Food and Bar Catering
SEVEN DAYS 44 FOOD
TOM MCNEILL
I
t was September 2011 when I took a seat at the chef’s table at Amuse, the restaurant inside the Essex Resort & Spa. The long counter was mostly empty, and the chef de partie seemed relaxed as he set down each course: velvety, seared sweetbreads dusted with hazelnuts; peppery watercress soup; seared scallops over ratatouille. This was my first taste of the food of JeanLuc Matecat, who was clearly very talented. It was to be the last, too, at least for a while. Matecat left Amuse and became hard to track, despite occasional reappearances — as the chef at Winooski’s Mule Bar, or a cook at Burlington’s Pistou. In between, I later learned, he had a short stint at the North Hero House, among other jobs. This winter, when chef Jason Tostrup announced he was leaving the Inn at Weathersfield, the Perkinsville inn’s owners cast a wide net for a replacement. During tryouts, Matecat swept in with roasted beets and fresh ricotta, as well as braised elk shank over cavatelli. His creations wooed owners Marilee and Richard Spanjian, who chose Matecat from a field of 80 applicants. Born and raised in Vermont, Matecat got an early start in the kitchen, washing dishes and making salads at Warren’s Common Man Restaurant. His dad, Patrick Matecat, was the chef there and an instructor at the New England Culinary Institute. Despite his pedigree, the younger Matecat did not automatically choose a culinary career. After graduating from Harwood Union High School in Moretown, he headed to Aptos, Calif., and enrolled in Cabrillo College as an English major. He finished with a culinary degree.
the classic techniques he’d learned from his father with a love of modern innovations such as sous-vide cooking. At the Weathersfield, he’s used both old and new methods with the local ingredients for which the inn is known. During a recent visit, I devoured incredible fried Misty Knoll chicken thighs, which Matecat had “sous-vided” before coating them in a batter spiked with Korean black pepper. I caught up with the chef last week, just before his Wednesday night service. SEVEN DAYS: How and what did your family eat when you were growing up? JEAN-LUC MATECAT: We had a big emphasis on family meals and togetherness. We did a lot of gardening together, and
SD: When did you decide you wanted to be a chef? JLM: I had worked for my dad while growing up, doing dishes and making salads. When I started college, I needed to pay bills, so I started cooking in a restaurant. Eventually I switched my major. After my first summer in Nantucket was when I really decided I wanted to be a chef. SD: Who has influenced you the most as a chef? JLM: My father taught me a lot about my philosophy about food, about using just fresh, lean ingredients. He’s a really talented cook, but he always warned me not to be a chef because it’s a tough, very demanding career. So my father supplied the philosophy, the classic techniques and the classic
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