F&W Pro It's Time to Demand Government Action to Save the Restaurant Industry Chef and activist Matt Jennings says it's time for a revolution. Here's how to get started. By Matt Jennings Matt Jennings F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Chef: Matt Jennings Restaurant: Townsman (Boston) Experience: Farmstead (Providence, RI); 21 Federal, West Creek (Nantucket); Salamander, Truc, Formaggio Kitchen (Boston); Cowgirl Creamery and Tomales Bay Foods (California) Education: New England Culinary Institute Who taught you to cook? What is the most important thing you learned from them? My family and my mom. I was lucky to grow up in a house where we celebrated food. My mom’s side of the family was heavily English, as my grandfather was from England, so they were always celebrating the rustic country foods that England is known for. My dad’s side was German, and there was some Irish influence as well. I’m a mutt, but it worked out in the end. From a young age, probably the most important thing I learned was how to create flavor. How to use salt! What was the first dish you ever cooked yourself? When I was a kid, I cooked for my mom in the summer times. My sisters and I would trade off who was going to cook and who was going to wash the dishes. I always tried to make sure I was on the cooking end. I probably made hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, quickly followed by some sort of fish on the grill, being in New England and all. What is the best dish for a neophyte home cook to try? I wouldn't be afraid to jump in there and get your hands dirty. From-scratch pasta’s a great one. It can be fun for new cooks to try to master dough. I’m still trying to learn how to master it and this is 20-some-odd years later. Any dough, whether bread or pasta or gnocchi or dumplings—that’s probably the best place to start. As a kid, I used to do pizza nights with my dad. We would turn the kitchen into a complete disaster. I’d end up with flour in my pockets the next day at school. But that’s part of cooking; you’ve got to be able to jump in and enjoy it. Favorite cookbook of all time? Paul Bertolli’s Cooking by Hand is one I received as a young cook from a chef and still reference to this day. Ma Cuisine from Fernand Point is one I love to go back to, to see what the old guys were up to. Tom Colicchio’s Craft of Cooking was a great influence when I was starting out. What's a dish that defines your cooking style? Our baked potato gnocchi. The point of the dish is to have the ultimate experience of a baked potato. We make the gnocchi from a flour that we mill from roasted and dried potato skins. We serve them with roasted tomato sour cream, some great aged 10- or 12-year provolone, and some crumbled chorizo. It’s classic; it’s fun; it’s interesting. We try to keep things innovative without being pretentious. At the end of the day, it’s all about flavor, and it’s a really flavorful dish. What's the most important skill you need to be a great cook? You need to be willing to take risks. One technique everyone should know. Everybody should know how to brunoise. If you’re spending time at the cutting board working on your knife skills, you’re dedicating time to learning in the kitchen. Is there a culinary skill or type of dish that you wish you were better at? I’ve been cooking with fire my entire life, and continue to enjoy learning how to do it well. I’d love to learn how to bake breads in a wood-fired oven. What is your current food obsession? We’re on a total pepper kick: Drying our own for our own paprika and other house-made spices and hot sauces, pickling, preserving them. That flows through to our love and respect for Middle Eastern food. We’re really into marash and urfa and Aleppo peppers—all these beautiful things that originate from that part of the world. What are your talents besides cooking? Snowboarding when I can squeeze it in. I’m a music geek; I love listening to and finding new music and playing when I can, often with friends. I play bass and vocals, mostly punk and post-punk, and some hardcore. What is the best bang for the buck ingredient and how would you use it? Buttermilk. It’s so versatile, a great base for marinades, vinaigrettes, in desserts of course, and custards. It’s underutilized and under-appreciated. Name one secret-weapon ingredient. I’m totally in love with this maple syrup from the Quebec provinces right now called 70 brix, which is the scale in which it’s first measured. It has a deep maple flavor that’s hard to find in most—and I’m a total maple geek. We’ve been breaking it into salad dressings, things like that. I get it from Societé-Orignal. They’re purveyors of artisan food products from Quebec, and they’re good friends. On our many trips to Canada, we’re always going on new adventures with them, meeting farmers and finding new products. They also have a camelina oil, which is my more savory secret weapon, made from these seeds of a brassica plant. It’s a fantastic finishing oil with a very unique flavor. That’s on my top five list of ingredients of all times, for sure. What's the best house cocktail, wine, beer and why? On my day off, it’s a Manhattan—shaken for as long and as hard as it can be, and poured into the coldest glass available. I’m a basic guy when it comes to my Manhattans—I like some sweet vermouth and a really great bourbon, normally Blanton’s, and that’s about it. We love our Pappy but not in the Manhattan. I like to garnish it with these Griottines cherries; they’re made in France, with Oblachinksa Morello cherries grown and hand-harvested in the Balkans. They have an almost candied texture to them. They’re delicious, but they’re intense, so one in the bottom and that’s it. If you don't have one of these, I'll settle for a maraschino. Just like grandpa had his Manhattan. I'll raise a glass to him. I don't think he'd mind. If you were facing an emergency and could only take one backpack of supplies, what would you bring, what would you make and why? I’d keep it lowbrow for the campfire. I like to improvise, so I’d probably bring some dried pasta and some homemade jerky that we could snack on while hiking. If we had pasta for dinner, jerky for the trail and a little spirit packed in a flask to get us through the cold nights, we’d be all right. What do you eat straight out of the fridge, standing up? We don’t have much in our fridge—a lot of yogurt, a lot of condiments and a bottle of Champagne. Usually for me it’s a bowl of cereal when I get home from work, standing in the kitchen. I’m a sucker for some of the childhood cereals like Kix and Corn Pops. My wife is a health nut, so I have to temper those with kasha every now and then. Who is your chef idol and where would you take him or her to dinner? I’d take Alain Ducasse to meet our buddy Martin Picard at his Sugar Shack in Montreal, to have some not-so-traditional French-influenced cuisine. The last time I was up there, Martin sent us a plate with crispy duck necks and maple syrup and some blood sausage on the inside, which reminded me of Alain Ducasse, so that would be fun, to take him up there. Best bang-for-the-buck food trip— where would you go and why? Toronto. It’s got an awesome scene: Great restaurants, a beautiful downtown, wonderful hotels, an amazing market, amazing Chinatown—the best of Old and New World. From Boston, Porter Airlines will get you there for cheap. I’d definitely recommend Parts & Labour, my buddy Matt [Matheson]’s place. I'd make sure you hit OddSeoul, which serves Korean-inspired share plates that are so dope. Also Sanagan's Meat Market, Mother's Dumplings and Falafel World on Bloor St. West. Last time there they made me a sandwich that had falafel and schwarma on it, awesome. If you could invent a restaurant for your next imaginary project, what would it be? A neighborhood family restaurant for aging punks like myself. Unpretentious, and inexpensive. Sunday night specials, a spinning pastry display case like the ones in old diners, counter service, those tall red plastic Coca-Cola cups for cocktails, and huge tumblers of cocktails. All cocktails on draft, including a rotating, daily “shandy.” The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and the Melvins on the record player, straight vinyl. Outside, we’d have a patio with comfortable weatherproof lazy boys, and a barbecue smoker where I'd be working the wings and slabs of ribs. Next to me, a game of horseshoes would always be going on. That sounds so good I might have to do it. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Published on March 17, 2020 Share Tweet Pin Email Things will never be the same. After the past week of watching my beloved industry crumble to the ground under the forceful hand of the global pandemic, COVID-19, like all of you, I am left reeling, deeply saddened, angry, confused, and fearful of what is to come. As owners and operators, we are used to being in control. We are used to creating our own opportunities, having the authority and autonomy to mitigate and navigate disaster, to be a positive force within our businesses—like generals, leading our troops to war, or a director gracefully conducting a daily or nightly performance. Michael Piazza Read: The F&W Pro Guide to Coronavirus: What Restaurants Should Know As employees and team members we are used to being armed with the facts and set to a course of action. We operate from a place that gathers information, and then uses that information to craft product and experience. Philosophically, these are simple concepts. But this week we have seen when the above model is blown apart by the only thing that has a deeper and more profound control over any of our lives: nature. Nature is our master. Never within the last number of generations has this now been so obvious. We are not in control and we are now forced to admit it. The hardest part of the COVID-19 outbreak is that we are powerless against an unknown force and simultaneously deeply lacking in useful information that we can use to our advantage. This goes against our nature as humans, and certainly as those in hospitality. We are not in control and we are now forced to admit it. Thankfully, our reaction has been to mobilize. Like we have done as an industry in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, 9-11 and other disasters, I have watched the hospitality industry fight for survival. To those chefs and restauranteurs who are vocal and proactive with regards to generating solutions for small business survival, I am grateful and in awe of your bravery. However, we have to recognize that if we demand action from our political leadership, our voice is strongest as a chorus. The hospitality industry is a trillion-dollar sector that employs 16 million people. I, along with others in our hospitality community, are calling for immediate economic stimulus from state and federal governments. I hope you join me in demanding this by using the hashtag #servicestimulus and #savefandb on all your social posts, and bombarding your representatives with calls, emails, and letters. Fitness studios, theme parks, markets, retail, travel—any and all service-related businesses are in grave jeopardy. It is important to remember while we feel it directly and dramatically, it is not just the F&B community that is affected. We need to bond closely with these tertiary industries now, to create a clear and powerful voice. It is paralyzingly difficult to make decisions as a leader in an environment where the data is changing by the minute. For this, the only cure is time. While our gut tells us that we must react immediately, the truth is that only sustained effort will deliver the most significant relief. The steps from here on out are simple but excruciatingly difficult to endure: Recognize and fully embrace the challenges on every level.Believe there is a solution that can be achieved by group action.Trust the experts in individual fields to provide our best information.Gather unfolding knowledge and parallel process our demands for governmental action. Now let’s end with something uplifting, because dammit, we all need it. This is a reset. This is our industry’s opportunity to recalibrate and redefine how we do business and to remind ourselves why hospitality is significant. Somewhere along the past decade (or two) we got lost. Restaurants became a status symbol for developers and landlords, for diners, for cities and communities. Food and the process of providing it to those who could afford it in a gussied-up format became transactional. We lost the soul. We lost the meaning. I think we should use this horrific moment in our industry’s history to reflect on this and to think about how we create opportunity from ashes. Is this what restaurants are all about? Or are they about something deeper, something more meaningful. Are they to provide community and a distinct contribution to the welfare of others? I think we should use this horrific moment in our industry’s history to reflect on this and to think about how we create opportunity from ashes. In addition to this, we now have a voice we have been asking for, a voice that is loud and resonant to our patrons and guests. Perhaps now they will see firsthand just how difficult it is to work in this business and just how volatile each of our models are when rocked by any type of unseen disruption. We must use this voice to our advantage as an industry. Perhaps from here we collaboratively work to build a new industry that is humble, transparent, empathetic and stronger from the suffering we are about to endure. We know how resilient our industry is, that has never been in question. But how can we use our resiliency to propagate change, for our operational model, our employees, and our relationships with our direct communities? Things will never be the same. But they might be even better. Someday. Don’t withdraw. Don’t succumb. Codify. Strategize. Believe that this evolution forced upon us by mother nature is a chance to be better chefs, restaurateurs, and humans. In our collective powerlessness, there is a great power inside each of us to shed a cocoon. To transform. To improve. Be good to each other. And believe. How to Find and Contact Your Government Officials USA.gov has a tool to look up your officials by zip code. Resistbot is a free text, Facebook messenger, iMessage, Twitter, and Telegram service that helps you locate and contact your elected officials. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit