Interview with Matt Dean Pettit and a giveaway

To say that Matt Dean Pettit has an eclectic resumé would be quite the understatement. He has gone from being a busboy in Midland, Ontario, to semi pro rugby player in Edinburgh, Scotland, to travelling the world as a sales representative with Moët & Chandon, and he’s not even close to finishing up that resumé.

He’s currently making his name in the culinary world but Sports Management was his goal when he entered the University of Brock, “I wanted to be the next Jerry Maguire”.  It was in university that he started working with alcohol brands, first with Labatts, then with Moët & Chandon, and eventually ending up in the innovation department at Diageo. Even though his work at Diageo was rewarding he decided to put pen to paper and came up with a business plan that would eventually give birth to Rock Lobster.

Matt Dean Pettit – Photo By Rey Pan

What’s your earliest food memory?

I remember my mom used to make peanut butter cookies, the most simple peanut butter cookies you’ll find and my job was to take my little fork and make little crosshatch patterns on the top, Those were amazing and I still make those cookies today. The other memory I have, is my mom making one of my favorite dishes of all time which was her tuna fish casserole. It was a wartime dish that my grandmother passed on to my mom and it’s basically a can of tuna, can of mushroom soup and potato chips and youlayer it. Tuna, soup, crushed chips on top and then repeat, build it up and bake for about 15 minutes.  It sounds disgusting but it’s my favorite food in the world.  I’m not allowed to make it when my fiancée is at home because she hates the smell, but when ever she goes away, that’s the first thing I make.

That’s an awesome memory with your mom, but your dad has played a big part in your restaurants by doing all the artwork. What’s his background? Is he an artist?

My dad has been a graphic designer and artist for 35 years and he just recently retired.  He started graphic design way before people started using computers. When he did work for his clients he had to draw everything using markers and a flipboard. He’s very artistic. Give me a paintbrush and I can’t paint a thing. I get my creativity in food from my mom. My dad is a horrible cook, and we still joke about this. He always tried to make this one pot, Hungarian goulash where you dump everything into one pot, it was disgusting.

If you weren’t in the restaurant industry what would you be doing?

I think I’d be in some kind of entrepreneurial role. I can’t go back to working a 9 to 5 job. Once you have that entrepreneurial bug you always have it. It’s crazy you know, because it’s always up and down, and you never know when your paycheques are coming, but it’s a lot of fun. I love it. I really love consumer packaged goods so I think I’d always try to come out with some sort of product line or service.

The nights that you’re not at one of your many jobs, where do you eat?

It’s funny because I think if you ask a lot of people in the industry this question I think you’d hear that when you’re not at work, you want to be at home. Everyone asks me, “Where’s the next, new, hot spot?”, or, “Where should I eat?”. I’m the last person you should ask, because truthfully, we don’t get to go out a lot. When I’m free, my friends are working. If I do get a chance to go out I try to always support my friend’s restaurants. I love going to La Carnita, Pizza Libretto and I sometimes head down to Matt Basile’s place for brunch.

What does food mean to you?

It means family and friends, it’s all about bringing people socially together.  A lot of times in North America we only eat to actually eat. We’re slowing down a bit now, but before people would just eat, work, eat, but it was just eating to keep yourself alive. It wasn’t about eating to sit and talk. Food should be about bringing your friends and your family together. You look at different cultures around the world and they stop, no matter what they’re doing and they sit down, have that meal together and talk. Food and sports are really the only two things that can bring people together from all walks of life.

If you had to cook one meal for one person, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you cook?

That’s an awesome question. The person I would most want to cook for is Bruce Springsteen. His music has been a massive part of mine and my family’s lives. I heard that Bruce follows a pretty solid vegetarian diet so I’d make my deep fried, sweet chili cauliflower, and, my green jacket dish, which is made with grilled kale, leeks, green beans, aged balsamic, shaved pecorino, grilled lemon and lots of extra virgin olive oil.

I’m all about the meat but that does sound delicious. Who has been the biggest influence on you?

This sounds very cliche, but I have to say my parents, without question. My parents are two old hippies and they’ve raised me to know right or wrong. They’ve always said follow your dreams, be happy and good things will come. They’re both very social, energetic and lively people. They have a lot of friends and a lot of people like them. I saw a quote recently that said something like “A man is not a failure in life if he is surrounded by lots of friends”.  So the more you can connect with people then that’s an amazing thing, and they’ve always instilled that within me.

What’s the next food trend in Toronto?

Prices of seafood protein have gone through the roof so I think the next biggest food trend would be working with off cuts of meat. You have to find ways to give great customer experiences, but you also have to keep your margin in place so you can keep the doors open. Off cuts is one, and the next I’d say is vegetables. Vegetables are just sexy.

What is in your fridge right now. 

Right now I have three clamshells of vegetable sticks with dip. I used to eat a lot of potato chips but then you notice the weight coming on really fast. I love cheese so I also keep a lot of cheese and and cured meat, and of course, my own Matty’s Seafood products.

I was going to ask about that, tell me about your Matty’s Seafood line.

About 3 1/2 years ago Sobeys asked me to do a retail line with them. At the time I didn’t know what that meant, but I said “Sure let’s figure it out”. It was good timing both for them and for me because they wanted to do something cool and local, and I wanted to get into consumer packaged goods.  They wanted products on their shelves by Jan of 2013 so I literally started by heading into almost every grocery store and reading the back of packages to see who made what. It was tough finding co-packers who would do what I wanted. Last

Matt and his cookbook

year I launched a lobster mac & cheese and I found out that a major competitor of ours also launched their version on the same day and we’re outselling them 4 to 1 at Sobey’s. My 2016 is looking very promising for Matty’s Seafood.

I have one last questionon, you run a seafood restaurant, you have a TV show, you used to be in the country music/restaurant scene, now you’re in  frozen food. What’s next?

In 2016 you’re going to see a lot of Matty Seafood stuff, you’re going to see my retail line across Canada. I’m going to be working on a quick service, grab and go concept. It’s going to be very Canadiania, very surf n’ turf. And, it looks like I might be writing a new cookbook. Our first cookbook made the national best sellers list which was a huge honour for me. Cookbooks are a lot of fun and there are a lot of fun things that come with it.

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