Matarazzo is still learning his craft, still exploring. So he takes none of his recent successes for granted. If he did, the learning might stop.

From Oboe to Osso Buco
Representing the ACF’s Northeastern Region in a national cookoff to name the U.S.A.’s Chef of the Year™, Matarazzo’s winning menu began with a creamy onion soup with braised duck leg and a lacey Parmesan crisp, followed by a fish course of pan-seared halibut with sauce Provençal served with a ragoût of corn, leek and fennel, a sauté of broccoli rabe and diced saffron potato, a croquette of chorizo and chopped Manila clams, and chive butter. The main course featured prosciutto-wrapped terrine of veal stuffed with foie gras, shiitake mushrooms and creamed cabbage served as a duo of veal thanks to braised sweetbreads. An English-pea risotto, sautéed spinach, summer vegetables finished with butter and herbs, and sweetbread jus completed the dish.

Matarazzo might not be cooking at all today had a series of incidents years before transpired differently. He had no desire to be a cook when he enrolled in The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam after high school. He was an oboist, and envisioned teaching music.

“I loved playing music,” Matarazzo says. “But I didn’t see myself doing it for the rest of my life.” So halfway through, he left Crane and began to check out other colleges, hoping to find his way to a career. While helping a friend run a bagel shop on Long Island, Matarazzo reviewed a course catalog for Nassau Community College.

“I was surrounded by bagels, I was managing my friend’s place, and I like to eat,” Matarazzo says. He decided to pursue a degree in foodservice management. “I couldn’t boil an egg, but it was management, not cooking. So I didn’t think of being a chef at Nassau. But they made me take a cooking class as part of the program. I wasn’t at all interested in cooking, so I went to admissions to find a substitute course, and they said no. I had to take it.”

That class is where he met instructor Christopher Argento, RD, CEC, CCE, who changed Matarazzo’s life. “He really opened my eyes to food and what the possibilities could be,” Matarazzo says. Argento also encouraged Matarazzo to consider The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. “I got two jobs in kitchens and fulfilled the experience requirements. As soon as they accepted me at the CIA, I dropped out of Nassau.”

To earn his degree, Matarazzo externed at Les Chefs de France at Epcot World Showcase at Walt Disney World in Florida, whose menus were created by the “dream team” of Paul Bocuse, Gaston Lenôtre and Roger Vergé. Accidentally assigned to international housing, Matarazzo recalls living with people representing different cultures around the world while he daily executed classic French cooking as one of the greatest experiences of his life.

Hungry for More
Once armed with credentials from a prestigious culinary school, Matarazzo could have gone from there to virtually anywhere to begin his career. Instead, he took a long look in the mirror.

“When I was graduating with a thousand other schools’ students, I asked myself, What will separate me from the rest of them? While I learned a ton from CIA and wouldn’t be where I am without them, I still didn’t really know a whole lot.”

So Matarazzo opted for more training in an intense environment. He chose the time-honored apprenticeship program at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. During his three years there, he worked in every kitchen and ultimately served as lead cook at Sam Snead’s at The Golf Club.

“Someone once said to me to try always to follow great chefs until one day people are trying to follow you,” Matarazzo says. “When you’re at the top at your property, the window to learn from others around you is almost closed. So why close it so early in your career when you can build your repertoire and learn from others until one day people want to learn from you?”

Immediately upon graduating from The Greenbrier’s program, Matarazzo went to work at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y., and within a year was promoted from banquet chef to executive sous chef. Before he left The Greenbrier, though, he earned a spot on and was selected to captain ACF Culinary Regional Team USA, which would spend two years practicing to compete against regional teams from around the world in the culinary-art categories of cold, hot displayed cold and pâtisserie in the 2008 Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung, or “culinary Olympics,” in Erfurt, Germany.

ACF Culinary Regional Team USA beat second-place Culinary Team Alberta by a narrow margin, earning a gold medal and the regional world championship against 61 other teams.

“We definitely did not expect to win the world championship,” Matarazzo says. “There were four of us and our pastry chef, Jennifer Kopp. Joe Leonardi, Drew Garms and I had each started new jobs during the process of getting ready, and our practice sessions were pretty scary leading up to the competition. We even had a conference call to discuss if we should go on or not. But we put our heads down and brought it to a level we were happy with—not a level we thought was worthy of the world championship, but we’d come a long way from where we were. Jennifer, however, scored the highest in pastry among all 62 teams. She carried us over the top.”

Next Steps
Last February, Matarazzo joined Fairfax, Va.-based Guest Services, Inc., to become executive chef of Bear Mountain Inn. It’s his first position at this level, and the logical next step in his career. “I was looking for my own kitchen, and I was ready to have a place where I could put my own twist on things and become completely well rounded in all aspects of being a chef,” he says.

Currently undergoing extensive renovation to bring it back to its original 1915 splendor, the inn offers a recently renovated 24-room lodge, four stone cottages and more than 5,000 square feet of meeting and event space. At the completion of renovations, the inn will sport 15 luxury suites, an additional 15,000 square feet of event space and new F&B outlets including the elegant Vintage Restaurant and the fast-casual Café 1915. Matarazzo will oversee those menus as well as the banquets, brunches at the Overlook Lodge and various concessions he’s in charge of now.

Among everything Matarazzo has learned on his journey so far, one skill stands out. He’s learned to walk. It will serve him well when he competes in the upcoming semifinals for the chance to represent the Americas at the Global Chefs Challenge during the World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) Congress in South Korea in 2012.

“I don’t mean that the way it sounds, like, ‘Walk before you run,’” Matarazzo says. “I literally learned to walk. The main kitchen at The Greenbrier has got to be about 12,000 square feet. It’s enormous. You can’t move slowly at a place like that and succeed. The biggest problem I have when hiring people is when they have the sense of urgency of a toaster. They don’t move. Learning how to work best with my ethic was very crucial to me, and it showed in the Chef of the Year competition and every other competition I enter. When they say I can start cooking, I move like I’m already 10 minutes late. If you start that way, you’ll always be on time.

Photo: Michael Matarazzo (l.) is congratulated on receiving the ACF’s 2010 U.S.A.’s Chef of the Year™ award by Steve Jilleba, CMC, CCE, AAC, representing award sponsor Unilever Foodsolutions on Aug. 5 in Anaheim, Calif.