Home Style Cookery by Matty Matheson
What’s the USP? A comprehensive guide to cooking at home with ideas and techniques from a top restaurant chef, covering everything from bread to cake with dips, dumplings, curries, pies and much else in between.
Who wrote it? Matty Matheson is a Toronto-based chef and restaurateur and former roadie for heavy metal band At the Mercy of Inspiration. Until 2017, he was executive chef of Parts and Labour and sister restaurant P&L Burger. He has his own food and drink festival Matty Fest that launched in September 2019.
Matheson’s career took off in 2013 when he recorded the Hangover Cures and Keep It Canada series of videos for the Munchies YouTube channel which led to the Vice TV channel series It’s Suppertime and Dead Set on Life (both of which are available to view for free in the UK on the ALL 4 website here and here). In early 2019, he launched of his self produced web series Just a Dash on his YouTube channel which now also features a Home Style Cookery that includes recipes from the book such as The Inedible Seven-Layer Dip (and no, that’s not a typo, just typical Matheson humour).
At the age of 29, Matheson suffered a heart attack after a sustained period of alcohol and drug abuse but eventually became sober. His larger than life personality and post-modern approach to food television that simultaneously celebrates and undercuts the form can be seen in this video, recorded for Gozney ovens website where he demonstrates his mother’s broccoli-chicken cheddar curry casserole, the original recipe for which, he says in the book ‘was probably on the side of a can or a box’ (it’s also a glorious dish). This is the follow up to his debut ‘A Cookbook’. You can read our five star review here.
Will I have trouble finding the ingredients? If you’re in the UK, you may want to substitute cheddar for the American cheese in the pickled hot pepper queso and braised beef ribs recipe. It won’t taste the same, but otherwise you’ll need to stump up around £25 to buy a pound of the stuff from Amazon. You may also need to find an online retailer for the Oaxaca cheese in the same recipe.
Matheson uses Kosher salt throughout the book. Although common in the US, it is less easy to get hold of in the UK, although it is stocked by specialist online suppliers (this article on souschef.co.uk explains exactly what it is and why chefs love it). If you can’t find it, then you may have to adjust the amounts specified in the recipe as kosher salt crystals are larger than table salt so you may not need as much.
Otherwise, you shouldn’t have any trouble at all tracking down what you need; these days, you can even buy Indonesian chilli and dried shrimp sambal oelek (used in a recipe for yuzu cucumbers, among others) from Waitrose.
How annoyingly vague are the recipes? Despite being aimed primarily at the North American market, gram and ml equivalents are given for the many cup measurements which makes this book eminently usable in the UK. You will need to be aware of not getting lost in translation with some of the terms used however; American granulated sugar is the equivalent of UK caster sugar, rutabaga is swede etc.
What’s the faff factor? Matheson says that ‘I’ll admit that maybe my first book was selfish because I didn’t worry about people cooking from it’ and it’s certainly true that some of the recipes were unashamedly restaurant territoy. For this follow up, it’s obvious that he’s taken more care to ensure the dishes are more achievable for a home book. You’ll still encounter some things like leek and mackerel terrine that wouldn’t look out of place on a posh restaurant menu and with multiple elements that need bringing together and require some skill to do so. That said, there is also a recipe for macaroni and tinned tuna casserole, so there’s something for everyone.
How often will I cook from the book? Matheson is all about big bold flavours, comforting carbs, cheese and all the ‘bad’ things. He’s the Anti-Deliciously Ella and thank fuck for that. There are many, many tempting recipes (see below) and Home Style Cookery will definitely get plenty of use if you like Matheson’s style (and I really do), but maybe just not everyday.
Killer recipes: I could just list every dish in the book, but stand-outs include molasses bread in an apple juice can; roti; burn your tongue Caesar salad; fingerling potato supreme; oxtail and mirepoix pierogis; green curry beef ribs; Nashville hot halibut sandwich and molasses cookies stuffed with dulce de leche.
What will I love? Although it would be wrong to say this is the only cookbook you’ll ever need – it doesn’t quite have the same scope as Home Cookery Year for example – at 368 pages, Matheson has packed a lot in and pretty much delivers a dish for every occasion, drawing on a wide range of global culinary influences in the process.
What won’t I like so much? If you’re on a diet, this book is not for you.
Is it good bedtime reading? In addition to the two-page introduction, there’s a one page intro to each of the 12 chapters (bread; stocks; vegetables; dips, purees and spreads; dumplings and pasta; curries, soups and a stew; sandwiches; fried foods and cast-iron cookery; roasts, bakes and a pie; smoked; grilled and desserts). Don’t skip the recipe introductions; they are full of nuggets of food lore, tips, mini-memoirs and Matheson’s trademark humour.
Should I buy it? Matty Matheson is one of the most exciting and original voices to have emerged on the cookery scene in the last five years or so. His first book was a must buy. This one is even better. That makes it a must-must buy. Probably.
Cuisine: Canadian/International
Suitable for: Confident home cooks
Cookbook Review Rating: Five stars
Buy this book
Matty Matheson: Home Style Cookery
£25, Abrams
Cook from this book
Coming soon