Matthew's Restaurant and M Shack

Matthew's -
Photo courtesy Paul Figura.

15. What's the relationship between Matthew's and Restaurant Medure?

Matthew's was open for 3 years. The manager and David, my sous chef, were just doing phenomenal so we decided to open another restaurant. We built Restaurant Medure and I sent the manager and David there. There's only so much a little restaurant can provide you with and these guys were doing so well that it was a way to let them get to their next level in terms of challenge and giving them an outlet for their passion. Restaurant Medure was twice as big and had a full bar, whereas Matthew's didn't have a full liquor license at the time. We set out to make Restaurant Medure a little more casual. The principles of Matthew's and Medure's are the same and customers will come to both but we do try to keep Medure's more casual.

16. Do you share recipes between the restaurants or are they evolving in their own ways?

Oh sure, absolutely. The recipes are cross utilized, sometimes in a more rustic manner. One thing David is really good at is trusting his chefs to use their creativity. There are things that have hit our menu that have been created by our chefs that are really good. Restaurant Medure is very seasonal. The top left corner of the menu changes monthly. There are seasonal themes, such as Summer Chill, which utilizes all the fun melons of the summer, along with tomatoes and other things. Because things change monthly it creates a level of excitement with the guests as to what's coming next. We've featured truffles, shellfish, Thai, wild mushrooms, and all sorts of interesting things.



Matthew's - catered desserts
Photo courtesy Kris Graham.

17. How do you come up with your recipes?

I don't know if it's the right way or not but we don't really do recipes. We focus more on technique and we ask everyone to stay within our styles and then get creative. We don't have recipes floating around the kitchen. If you came and tried to put a chocolate sauce on a halibut we'd throw you out of the kitchen! Our style is to cook things light, using olive oils, fresh herbs and a light broth. As long as the accompaniments are light, aromatic and colorful like fiddlehead ferns, fresh corn, and English peas then you're right inside our world. Our style is simple and clean. One of our signature dishes at Restaurant Medure is Tuna Tartare. We keep it so simple, but what makes it so great is that we fly it in 3 times a week from Hawaii. You cannot beat the quality. We keep it very simple and flavor it with a light curry oil, fresh cilantro and a pinch of salt, and people think there's a hundred ingredients in there.



Matthew's - Photo courtesy Paul Figura.

18. Are there any trends to how you prepare or deliver your food?

We're always playing with plate presentation. We serve our food on different things, unconventional things, as well as on just a basic plate. We have fun with it. We have a lot of different serving vessels we can get creative with. Some things we cook right in the vessel. A beautiful white, tomato mousse might come out in a ramekin with a little caviar on top. To me that's just heavenly. We do play with the presentations.

As far as trends go I don't subscribe to them very often. We stay pretty steady on how we do things. We're not into the molecular thing whatsoever. I think that stuff is interesting but I also think you lose some quality. One of our standards has been to make things beautiful but don't ever sacrifice flavor for presentation.