Matty Matheson Canadian Chef With 2.2M Instagram Followers

Early life

Matthew James Matheson, known as Matty Matheson, is a Canadian chef, television presenter and actor born on 7 February 1982. He was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, and the family lived in Nova Scotia until he was 11, when they moved to Fort Erie, Ontario. His grandfather, a restaurateur from Prince Edward Island, ran a restaurant called The Blue Goose in DeSable, where Matheson spent his summers as a boy. He attended Lakeshore Catholic High School.

In 2000 he moved to Toronto and enrolled in the cooking programme at Humber College. He left before graduating to work briefly as a roadie for a friend's metal band. Along the way he discovered a talent for butchery, and he kept building a culinary career by handing out resumes to restaurants until one hired him.

Career

Matheson started work at the Toronto bistro Le Sélect in 2003 under chef Rang Nguyen, who taught him French techniques. He was hired at the restaurant La Palette in 2006, and in 2010 he became executive chef of the newly opened Parts & Labour, a post he held until the restaurant closed on 1 January 2019. His profile in the kitchen, together with an outgoing personality, led to appearances on the online food show Munchies from Vice Media. He later hosted two Viceland programmes, It's Suppertime! and Dead Set on Life. He also keeps his own YouTube channel, which had about 1.59 million subscribers when counted in September 2025, and he has been a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he showed the host a family stuffed-shell recipe.

In June 2022 he joined the cast of the FX series The Bear, playing the handyman Neil Fak. He also works on the show as a producer and culinary consultant. The Bear is his earliest and best documented screen credit, and the film Slayground also appears among his credits.

Restaurants form a large part of his work, and he has gathered them under a company called Our House Hospitality Company. In 2015 he partnered with Shlomo Buchler to start Maker Pizza, which grew to several locations in the Greater Toronto Area. In the summer of 2020 he ran a pop-up in Fort Erie, Matty Matheson's Meat + Three, built around American barbecue, and it closed in 2022. Matty's Patty's, a burger concept that had earlier operated in Hawaii and briefly in Shibuya, Japan, began as a Toronto pop-up in October 2020 and took a permanent home in the Trinity-Bellwoods neighbourhood that December. In April 2021 he and the chefs Kate Chomyshyn and Julio Guajardo opened the Birria Balam pop-up, and in October 2021 they opened the permanent Mexican restaurant Fonda Balam.

His mentor Rang Nguyen joined him in January 2022 to open Ca Phe Rang, a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown, Toronto. In April 2022 he opened Prime Seafood Palace, a steakhouse and seafood restaurant, a project he had been working toward since 2016. Rizzo's House of Parm, serving Italian-American dishes at Crystal Beach in Fort Erie, opened in November 2022. His most recent restaurant, Iron Cow Public House in Hamilton, Ontario, opened in December 2025.

Away from restaurants, Matheson has published three cookbooks: Matty Matheson: A Cookbook (October 2018), Matty Matheson: Home Style Cookery (September 2020) and Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches (October 2024). In March 2020 he started the podcast Powerful Truth Angels with the artist Alex 2Tone and the producer Jason Nelken. Also in 2020 he opened Blue Goose Farm in Fort Erie with the chef Keenan McVey. The farm takes its name from his grandfather's restaurant and supplies vegetables to several kitchens. In 2022 he launched a workwear line, Rosa Rugosa, made in Toronto's Parkdale area, and he has also introduced a range of kitchen utensils. In 2025 he announced a hardcore punk band, Pig Pen, with Wade MacNeil and Daniel Romano, which played its first show at Sneaky Dee's on 25 April 2025.

Personal life

Matheson is married to Trish, and the Italian-American family of his wife inspired the menu at Rizzo's House of Parm. Outside the kitchen he enjoys riding motorcycles, including custom choppers.