Cooking with Chef Matt: A chef talks about food

When he was 15, Matt Wessel, Top of the Marq executive chef, took a job as a fry cook in Cape Girardeau. He found he loved cooking and wanted to turn it into a career.

So at 21, he moved to Phoenix to be in a new environment and learn about different cuisines. Although he had worked in corporate environments before, it was in Arizona that he sought out privately-owned restaurants, in order to work under and learn from chefs away from the corporate world. Influential in shaping his thoughts about food during this time was a Tex Mex restaurant he worked at doing baseline prep work, the first scratch kitchen he worked in. He also worked in a locally-owned restaurant and bar in Carefree, Arizona, where he learned about local flavors from multiple chefs, including chefs from France.

In 2007, Matt moved to St. Louis to be closer to family, where he worked at Charlie Gitto's on the Hill. With the chef from this restaurant, he opened McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in West County Mall, a chef-driven, fast-paced corporate environment in which they changed the menu twice a day. After this, Matt worked at Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, running the restaurant, room service food, breakfast buffets, rooftop bar and Imo's Pizza. Then, he decided to try his hand at doing banquets for the hotel, which he found he loved because it allowed him freedom in which he could be creative while figuring out how to make foods on a bulk scale.

These are the flavors and experiences Chef Matt brings together in the kitchen at Top of the Marq, back in his hometown of Cape Girardeau after more than 15 years. It's a move he decided to make because he finds the social plate concept that drives the restaurant "wild and cool."

For those who don't know, this is what social plates are all about: instead of ordering your own food, the table discusses what everyone wants to eat collectively and orders based on that. The food on each plate is meant to be shared, and the plates come out at different times to be passed around the table, a collective effort of eating together, interacting and enjoying each other's company.

"Just drawing everybody in and seeing everybody at the table, how much fun they're having, that's super exciting to me," Matt says of his latest venture.

His goal when creating the menu at Top of the Marq was to incorporate diverse flavors while offering many vegetarian options. As someone who eats vegetarian and vegan most of the time -- he says throughout the years he's just kind of "ended up that way" -- it was important to him to fulfill the demand he saw for vegetarian and vegan eating in Cape, while still offering meat options for people who enjoy those, too. He also wanted to "pingpong" flavors he's accrued from the different regions he's lived in and the different chefs he's learned under. Ultimately, he hopes there is something for everyone on the menu, which he plans to change approximately three times each year.

Being a part of creating downtown Cape is important to Matt.

"To be down here and be a part of [growing downtown Cape] and add to that is thrilling to me," he says. "And to do it where I'm from is pretty cool. I never thought I would come back here."

When talking with chefs, it's an important question: outside of his work, what's the best meal he's ever had?

"I just talked about being a vegan, but I love a really good rib-eye and that experience of going out to a steakhouse, you know?" Matt says. "I only do it once like every year and a half or something. I really limit myself to that. One of the best ones I had, it was somewhere out in Vegas, and I ordered a rib-eye. I don't even think I got anything else because it was so huge, and I got a mushroom rub on it. I was like, 'This is the best thing I've ever had in my life.' But when I eat at home, I just roast a bunch of vegetables or pan fry a bunch of vegetables and just figure out how to draw them together."

A propensity for bringing together vegetables in a dish, flavors from diverse regions and people around a meal: it's what Chef Matt brings to the table.

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Cooking Lesson: Matt's process for creating a new dish:

"Sometimes you just wake up in the morning with a thought of food. Lean into that -- what sounds good? Just take one main thing to be the crux of this dish. I love cauliflower. So it's like, 'Well, what can we do with this?' And then just look at what compliments it. Look at what doesn't compliment it, too, so then you can have a contrast. And maybe you find the thing that doesn't work is actually surprisingly good if you just do it a different way. From there, it's just testing stuff, writing recipes, seeing what doesn't work. I give it to other people, too, because it can't be just my opinion."

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3 foods

Chef Matt recommends the foods to always have on hand for a meal.

~Potatoes

"If you just had no idea what to do, potatoes are always the best base. If you had potatoes seven days a week for a couple weeks, you could do something different with them every time."

~Garlic

"I just buy random stuff [at the grocery store], so I never have the same thing except for a ton of garlic."

~Mint, Rosemary, Basil

"If you have fresh herb plants on your windowsill, if you put the right amount of fresh herbs in whatever you're making, then it just makes it better. And especially if you're growing them and you pick them right there. And it's the easiest thing to maintain. Basil's super easy. Mint is super easy. Rosemary. They grow on their own, super easy."

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Chef Matt's Food Prep Tips for the Holidays

~1. Use a slow cooker.

This takes a lot of stress out of meal preparation. You can even make a whole bird in one.

~2. Make one-pan casseroles.

There are many different types of casseroles and many different ingredients within those casseroles to make a meal. How could you go wrong?

~3. Don't overthink it.

Keep it simple. Obviously, you have enough stuff going on.

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Savory Butternut Squash Cakes with Apple Butter

By Chef Matt Wessel, executive chef at Top of the Marq

~Apple Butter

5 pounds Gala apples, cored and chopped

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Core and tough chop apples. Leave skin on. Toss with sugar and spices. Cook for 10 hours in slow cooker. PurÃ(C)e. Cook two more hours without lid until thickened. Add vanilla.

~Butternut Squash and Sage Griddle Cakes

Canola oil, as needed

2 teaspoons sage, finely chopped

1 tablespoon shallot

2 cups roasted butternut squash

Eggs, 4 each

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/3 cups wheat flour

Small dice shallot and sweat over medium heat. Once translucent, stir in sage and continue to stir for 30 to 40 seconds until the sage aroma blooms. Set aside to cool. Mix roasted squash, eggs and vanilla, and mix evenly. Sift baking powder, flour and cinnamon together, then stir into the squash mix. Scoop onto an oiled pan on medium heat. Flip after 1 1/5 to 2 minutes or until bubbly.