About Me: Chef Earl
Welcome to Nordic American Chef!
I’m Matt Earl, a seasoned chef with over 12 years of professional cooking experience, and I’m thrilled to share my love for not just my heritage, Nordic-American cuisine, but many other cuisines as well. This is not just another recipe website; it’s a culinary adventure where I take my professional knowledge and show you how to enjoy food from across the globe.
My start with cooking:
I was born and raised in upstate New York. Here, the food culture isn’t one specific thing, but a melting pot. The identifier is that food varies from household to household. In my house, we cooked Norwegian-American culture and Nordic foods. This included fresh produce and herbs. My grandmother had a large garden filled with berries and fruits, herbs, carrots, lettuces, rhubarb, potatoes, onions, and more.
My first memory of cooking is at my grandmother’s house when I was 5. I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich and decided to make it myself. Unfortunately, I was too short to grab the spatula. This resulted in flipping it with my hands. I didn’t quit there though. Later, I went on to make highly over-seasoned potatoes. I had thought that more seasoning meant more flavor. Well, I can say now that my potatoes weren’t black from overcooking them.
Once I got better, my mom and I found a good recipe with blistered tomatoes, garlic, fettuccine topped with olive oil, what I learned for the first time to be called a chiffonade of fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella. This was the start of my passion. I learned a lot from my grandmother about Norwegian culture and how fresh foods can change a person’s mood. I am excited by different cultures and by the idea that food can mean so much to a single person as well as an entire culture.
My professional start
Since those early days, I have worked in the professional cooking world for nearly 10 years. I mainly enjoy Nordic, Indian (all areas), and southern United States cuisines but I always try my hand with anything I can find. I am currently working in Charleston, South Carolina learning about traditional Sichuan Chinese cuisine at Kwei Fei.
The Life of a Professional Chef
The life of a chef/cook/ restaurant industry person is different than most other careers. Not only are the hours awkward, but they are very long and usually very difficult. People, believe it or not, are very difficult to please, especially when it comes to a dining experience. The cooks, often referred to as the back of the house, don’t interact with the customers they serve directly, but they frequently learn intimate details about them. Food allergies, food preferences, the way people act towards the servers and the kitchen staff, this is all learned and frequently criticized by the restaurant patrons. We hear and see it all. ” Can I have the dish consisting of meat and dairy but vegan?” “Can you re-cook my perfectly cooked medium rare steak so it is actually well done?” ” What is a soubise sauce?” These are all common questions the back of the house hears during a single night, maybe even a single hour, of 1 shift. So not only do we deal with these questions and criticisms on a daily basis, we deal with the expectations that all food will be prepared timely even if we are short staffed and attempting to cook and time out food for half the people in the restaurant or more. On top of all of this, the hours are very long, kitchens are usually very hot, pretty much everyone is short staffed all the time, and we get paid WAY less than the servers that work in the front.
Now let me make it very clear. I am certainly not here to complain about working in this industry but here to add a little perspective for those who have never worked in the industry or who have never worked in the back. Usually because of everything I have explained, the back of the house is a close knit group of people who have this like trauma-induced friendship that cannot be found anywhere but people who have experienced it before. I love this. I love the team that works hard together, going through the challenges, that supports one another. It makes for a great time in the kitchen, as long as everyone is working hard, we have a lot of fun.
The other thing about being a chef that I love, is the ability to create new interesting foods. Creating new menus or specials is one of my favorite parts of this job. It’s usually done as a team and we can try out new things to see what we think works and what doesn’t, working off one another to make the best foods for a new menu.
So What Is My Life like outside of Work?
I live with my Fiance and our pitbull Ruthie in Charleston, SC. I spend my free time reading (and buying) new cookbooks, baking, cooking delicious meals, going to the beach, and always checking out new breweries and restaurants.