The Ups And Downs Of Matty Matheson's Life And Career Explained

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Matty Matheson's face is a pretty familiar one these days. He is of course making waves with a leading performance on FX's "The Bear," a show that he has described as an accurate depiction of the stress often found in the restaurant business. Matheson would know ... He has, after all, worked as a chef for the entirety of his professional life. To say that this journey has been an absolute roller coaster would be a serious understatement.

Beyond the bubbly face that audiences now know from television and various YouTube channels, Matheson has endured some very extreme highs and lows in pursuit of his dreams. So stark have his fortunes been, that the 43-year-old Canadian chef can talk about going from nearly losing his life to becoming a multi-restaurant proprietor and a two-time bestselling cookbook author, among many other achievements.

Matty Matheson has also faced ups and downs inside his various business ventures, all with the support of his wife and children. This article charts every major landmark on the path that has brought him to where he is today, for better or for worse.

Many of the lows that Matty Matheson has endured in the course of his life could perhaps be traced back to his childhood. Those of us who have kept a keen eye on his career trajectory will know the impact that addiction has had not just on his work, but personal life as well. According to a feature on Toronto Life, the future star chef sampled cocaine for the first time while in high school.

As he grew older, he also started to indulge in alcohol — and that, too, would go on to grow way out of his control. A lot of this happened in the formative years of his career, which he would later reveal to The Guardian as being quite commonplace within the industry. "All the industry clichés are real," Matheson said. "Lots of drinking and doing drugs. You finish work at 12.30 a.m., 1 a.m., then all of us go ripping around the city on bikes with backpacks full of beer, wine and vodka, going to our friends' bars, or last-calls at restaurants."

After quite a number of unpleasant outcomes — many of which we will cover in this story — he finally decided that enough was enough. On November 12, 2013, he made the choice to clean up his act and quit drugs. He told The Guardian that his was an "addictive personality," which also apparently explained his being a workaholic.

Matty Matheson grew up in the Mormon church, but given his antics from those earliest years of his life, it is not surprising that he did not last too long there. You might have also guessed it ... Yes, drugs had much to do with the entire Matheson family no longer fitting in. Matheson spoke about this experience that eventually saw him make his way out of the faith when he went on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast in 2021.

"My family's Mormon, [but] we were all excommunicated ..." he explained to Rogan, as seen in this clip on the podcaster's YouTube channel. According to Matheson, the big change came when their family relocated from Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada to the much more cosmopolitan province of Ontario. "When we moved to Ontario ... when we were about 12 or 13, around that time when we started all of a sudden doing drugs and drinking is when we stopped going to the church," he said. While he had called it an excommunication, what it would really appear to be was a case of the family no longer fitting in within the church and therefore deciding to leave.

As you might expect for a young man who was already taking hard drugs before even finishing high school, it was never going to be a smooth ride for Matty Matheson. The New Brunswick-born future food star did not fancy himself a very competent student and it showed in his grades. He spoke about this during a conversation with Tom Power on his "Q" podcast, revealing that his poor performance in school extended as far as recess and gym class!

"I never had a natural ability," Matheson said. "I wasn't good at science, I wasn't good at math, I wasn't good at recess, I wasn't good at gym class ... I think I was just always getting in trouble, I was not good at school." Unsurprisingly, he did not quite achieve the grades required to pursue a cooking course he chose at Humber. At the same time, he had no intention of spending any more time in high school and therefore found himself having to negotiate for a better grade with officials from the institution.

"I had to get [60%] to get into Humber, and so I had to negotiate," he explained. "[But] I had a bad relationship — I would say — with my vice principal and my principal." Despite all this trouble, Matheson made the dramatic choice to ditch his program at Humber two weeks before graduation... just so he could tag along on a music tour with his friends who were in a metal band!

Matty Matheson might have had to endure a very difficult upbringing, but it was not going to stand in the way of his dreams. At the age of 26, more than five years after quitting Humber, the budding chef with an infectious personality managed the impressive feat of becoming a restaurant owner. This initial venture was for a punk-rock restaurant by the name OddFellows which was located in Toronto. When asked what he still remembers about that special time in his life, Matheson explained to Tom Powers how the period was mostly marked by youthful ignorance and naivety.

"I remember I was young ... I bought OddFellows when I was 26," he said. "I remember the oldest person that worked there was 30 and we called her grandma! [We were just] a bunch of kids that didn't know what to do, a bunch of kids that were doing things the way they wanted."

Those heady days of early success with OddFellows lasted only two years, but it was such a good time that Matty Matheson unironically compared it to being in a music band. The next natural step for him came in the form of an Executive Chef posting at Parts & Labour when the restaurant opened in Toronto's Parkdale neighborhood in 2010. Just like OddFellows, though, Matheson and his partners seemingly didn't know much about how to run the business side of a restaurant.

"[We were] doing businesses without business plans and doing things with no accountability on anything," he recalled, still in the same interview on "Q with Tom Power." Somehow, as would turn out to often be the case with many of Matheson's career ventures, the restaurant continued to thrive nonetheless. The tattoo-covered chef remained in his position as Executive Chef until 2017, when he stepped down to focus on other initiatives that he had also gotten into in the meantime. As it would turn out, Parts & Labour did not live too much longer after Matheson left, with the restaurant officially closing down less than two years later in December 2018.

If Matty Matheson appears so hell bent on living a healthy life today, it is very likely because he once nearly lost it all. Months before he turned 30, the culinary star suffered a health scare that became the beginning of a turnaround in his life. Having spent days on a non-stop drinking spree, he woke up in a state of extreme pain and had to be rushed to hospital by his wife Trish Spencer. The revelation by the doctors that he had in fact suffered a heart attack became a wake-up call for Matheson in regards to his unhealthy lifestyle.

That's not to say that his recovery was instantaneous or even straightforward. He told Joe Rogan that he returned to his indulgent tendencies soon after being discharged from hospital. This time around, he was taking the drugs in hiding after his previous suppliers and enablers cut him off. It was only after he got tired of lying — especially to his wife — that he finally decided to stop taking drugs for good.

Among the things that Matty Matheson's inner circle of friends and family did to try and help him get over his destructive habits was to confront him over the effects that they were having on him and others. Indeed, part of his journey towards recovery involved one significant low moment: getting fired from one of his restaurant ventures by his partners. By this point — as he explained on Q, his drinking had gotten so bad that he couldn't even keep a handle on his personal relationships inside work. "I was no longer being cool," he said. "I wasn't being nice, probably."

This direction of change clearly didn't sit well with those closest to him and they sat him down to sever their professional relationship, but hopefully save his life in the process. What actually turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back this time around was the fact that Matheson's wife had had enough and decided not to even turn up for the intervention. Consequently, Matheson was able to turn the nadir of being let go from the restaurant into personal motivation to turn his life around. It is also testament to this turnaround that today, he owns over half a dozen restaurants, including the popular Matty's Patty's Burger Club, Prime Seafood Palace, and Rizzo's House of Parm.

It wasn't very long after Matty Matheson finally said goodbye to drugs that his major career breakthrough happened. He impressed fans with his personality and skills in the video "How to Make a Perfect Cheeseburger" for Munchies' YouTube channel. The recipe itself was quite well received, but it was the chef's perfectly-timed gags that really caught the audience's eye. How about this line, which would become a hot conversation piece in the comment section? "A dull knife means you're a f***ing loser. You don't cry if you're cutting onions with a sharp knife."

There was also a sense of a full circle moment for Matheson, whose first ever appearance on TV had also involved a burger many years before. "I did a cheeseburger competition TV show in Toronto called "Burger Wars," said the chef. "It was my first time on television, and I won." As for the cheeseburger that made him go viral much later, Matheson still refers fondly to it as the one "that started it all!"

One thing that Matty Matheson has been consistently good at throughout his life and career is making the most of opportunities that have come his way. That was certainly the case after he gained YouTube fame thanks to his cheeseburger recipe video for Munchies. The chef capitalized on the popularity that followed with multiple hosting gigs for various shows on the social media platform. Granted, some of these are for his own channel, including the very popular "Just A Dash." He also partnered with record producer and songwriter Benny Blanco to film "Eat Out America," where they traveled across the country sampling various cuisines and taking on different adventures.

More significantly, Matheson's profile has landed him work with Viceland as host of a number of the media company's shows. Top of that list is "Dead Set on Life," for which he was even ultimately nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. His other big title on Vice TV is "It's Suppertime," where he is described as a "crazy super chef."

Matty Matheson has also gone on to author multiple bestselling cookbooks. He first made a splash with "Matty Matheson: A Cookbook," which was released in 2018 and described as a simple collection of his "his favorite recipes and stories." Like many other ideas that Matheson pursued, the book was an instant hit with readers. A number of recipes from the collection were published on various outlets, including a Bologna Bowl that Esquire described as "a delicious trio of vices that'll have you coming back for seconds."

Having done so well with the first, he decided to go even bigger with his second: "Matty Matheson: Home Style Cookery" came out in September 2020, a collection of 135 of his all-time favorite recipes. Both projects were resounding successes, as they each managed to become bestsellers in their own right. Inspired by this, Matheson released "Soups, Salads, Sandwiches" in 2024. Early on in the book, he describes it as "a cookbook with no ego." It is indeed a departure from the younger version of himself that was more self-centered and less self-aware.

Beyond the kitchen and cookbook pages, Matty Matheson has also proven his entrepreneurial mettle across various industries. Notably, his venture into the fashion industry stands out for being so uniquely different from his regular world of cooking. He has definitely made his mark with Rosa Rugosa, a clothing brand dedicated to creating robust, functional, and stylish "workwear for tradespeople." He told the New York Times that he had fallen in love with fashion because it was a part of what contributed to his own self-confidence. "I love clothing," he explained. "As a big dude, I have found that clothing has given me a lot of self-esteem. And finding your own style, it really feels good."

Another impressive venture is Blue Goose Farm, which places emphasis on sustainable agriculture and responsible farming practices. At Blue Goose, Matheson focuses on producing high-quality food, but also educates and encourages others about farming, sustainability, and food production. 

Furthermore, Matheson Food Company consolidates his culinary expertise into a range of products, which allows fans to bring his signature flavors into their own kitchens. Matheson has delved into music as well. Alongside bandmates like Wade MacNeil and Daniel Romano, he co-founded the hardcore punk band Pig Pen.

In the never-ending tumult that has been Matty Matheson's life, there has been one constant that has kept him grounded for the most part. He and his wife, social media influencer Trisha Spencer, share a connection that stretches all the way back to their teenage years. They first met in the 10th grade, and were officially dating by the time Matty was 18. Their long-lasting romance would culminate in the pair walking down the aisle in August 2014, a marriage that appears to be still holding strong more than a decade later.

Together, Matheson and his wife have three children — McArthur, Rizzo, and Ozzy — who will every now and then appear in heartwarming moments shared by the family online. It is also another sign of Matheson's growth over the years that it wasn't his third and most recent cookbook that he finally dedicated to his "all-time favorite humans," being his wife and three kids.

Another very proud feather on Matty Matheson's cap is his involvement in the FX series "The Bear." He plays the role of Neil Fak on the show, depicted as a childhood friend of main character Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White). Matheson stepped into the role in a recurring capacity in the first season, before being promoted to a series regular the following year.

Interestingly, he was never interested in taking on the part if it meant he would continue to do the same thing as he does in his real life. While appearing in an episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in 2024, he revealed how this would have been an extra weight on his shoulders, on top of the stress that comes with the acting itself. He explained to Variety how this line of work "scared the s*** out of him," saying, "Acting is really difficult. It's a lot of hard work. I spent hours trying to remember, like, four lines. As comfortable as I am with everybody, and how helpful everybody is, you want to show up prepared and ready to rock with everybody else — and everyone else is so good. It's very nerve-wracking for me, personally."

Beyond live-action roles, Matheson has ventured into voice acting, contributing to popular animated series such as "Craig of the Creek" and "Big City Greens."