I’m Matty Matheson and this is my last meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die. Today’s guest is chef restaurateur, executive producer, author of Soup, Salad, Sandwiches, a Cookbook, and former frontman of legendary Canadian hardcore band Sex Tears, Matty Matheson. Welcome to the show, bud. Hey, you know, good to be here. Thanks for having me. Of course, of course. Uh, on track number six of Sex Tears debut EP, De Moz Oh. You said you were stuck in a pain cage. Matty, can you — Oh my god. Matty, can you describe to me what that pain cage looked like and felt like? Let’s talk about, this is insane. First off, to hit me with this first off, thank you, Josh. I, you know, I’m, we’re here and, uh, I started that band because it was my 30th birthday. I’m now 42. So this is 12 years ago. The pain cage is life. We’re here, it’s uncompromising, life on life’s terms, and uh, yeah, Sex Tears was a, uh, it’s a joyous tear, you know, it’s a joyous tear. It’s the tears of the, the, the love making. And um, yeah. Yeah, I have no idea. Pain cage is life. Life, we’re all in it. Damn man, we’re all in it. One day we will all leave. Matty, have you ever thought about your last meal before? See, not really. I’m not, I’m not, uh, I don’t get consumed with the, the dying. You know, I’m a big liver of life. I love life. I love my life. I love the people around me’s lives. I like people, you know, I love, I love people. I love the planet. I love even doing this. This is nice. I don’t really like to think about the, the dying. Sometimes when you’re driving and you want to pull it into the oncoming traffic. Well, you get that thoughts. Some people they’re void avoiders. And then some people are void confronters. I love a confrunch… confrunchent. When’s the last time you confrunchened the void? Now, Matty, you put together a spectacular meal today, and I think we can really do some confrunchening here. Yeah. Let’s do a confrunchening. A little confrunchening. Some light confrunchening. Let’s take the time for us and confrunch. Let’s do it. Matty, for the first course of your final meal. Yes. We got the tuna macaroni salad. This is from your new cookbook. And then we got the hard shell tacos with some Topo Chico, a little bit of Cholula, if it pleases the gentleman on the side. I love that. The tuna salad is a ode to my wife. I don’t know, growing up, if everyone’s mom or dad would make a giant tupperware. Remember when it was just tupperware? You know, now you got all these different kind of vessels or containers or things. We used to just have big yellow tupperware bowls. All is stained. You could fit like three footballs inside. You know? But they would always make so much. You have like taco salad or like tuna salad or like different types of salad. And then you just always have that in the fridge and then like me and my brothers or my sister would go in and you just like scoop out whatever the heck’s in that big yellow bowl and you’d eat it. And that stuff gets better as it sits over time. Gravity sort of takes hold. And then it starts to get watery at the bottom. Yep, yep, yep. But this salad, Trisha still, she’ll make like this every once in a while, but the recipe is like a giant bowl, like she’s going to like a funeral at a church or like, she’s going, you know, like she’s going, she’s going to some community and she’s showing up with a giant bowl, but it’s just hers. She just makes it and she likes it. And I do love it. And I think it makes me feel like last meal, uh, having something that my wife makes is a beautiful thing. And I just truly love it. That’s incredible. Can I dish you up? Hey, can you please? I’d love a little scoop of some tuna salad. You’re a guest in our home. Oh, that’s enough. Stop it. Come on, Matty, Matty A little bit more. Okay, a little bit more. We do have a lot of food to get to. I will say that. Okay, we have a lot of food. I will say that. This is first course. Yeah. It, it tastes like lit matches. Yeah, it’s perfect. You know what I love is you get a crunch once every three bites. Absolutely. This is trash. You know what, uh, the Tom Hanks with the, with the Spalding? The ball? Yeah, the cast away. Wilson. Wilson famously of his name. He his name, he comes back. Remember? He gets that like a Dr. Pepper with ice. Did you think he went “Spalding” ! Spalding, what’s his name? Spalding? – Wilson , the Volleyball. – I thought it was Spalding. No. Wilson’s like a much more reasonable man’s name for a ball. Fine. Yeah, okay, I didn’t mean to I’m just saying Tom would like this. Yeah, I think he’d really You wanna eat these tacos? Yes. Nice, man, let’s do it. I would never, on a taco like this, I would never put like cilantro. Yeah. You know, I wouldn’t put like lime on this. Yeah. You want this to taste like the bottom of a shoe. I love the wet coming out of it. This is the greatest thing in the world. No, thank you. I’m talking about your style of food, because when you opened Parts and Labor in 2010, I believe it was your second executive chef job. Yeah. But you used to have dishes like seared foie gras with grilled chervizo, crispy henskin, and pork trotter Madeira reduction. And now, Matty, you’re opening restaurants. Yeah. And you’re serving dishes like, What? Chicken parm. Yeah. How has your style of food evolved, and do you think that has spoken to your evolution as a person? Yeah! Yeah, buddy! Yeah, it has! Hell yeah! Let me speak to that! That’d be lovely if you could. You don’t have to. Let me No, I agree with you. You don’t have to, okay. No, my evolution. So. Yeah, I was a young chef, right? You’re doing stuff. You’re thinking about stuff. You go to school. You go to culinary school. You work in French bistros. You’re like, hey, what the heck’s going on? You know, I want to be this visionary. I want to, this is before cell phones and internet. It’s like you had to like find your own culinary voice. Like who am I as a chef? Who am I as a chef? Who, what, what, what, what are these dishes? What is this cuisine? So I used to do like my food, you know, things that I believe were like my iterations of things that I loved and technique that I knew. And, and the thing is, is like, as I’m older, I want to feed as many people consistently beautiful things that people appreciate. Every time I go to a city, I eat at the same three restaurants, you know, I’ll either try to find like a Vietnamese restaurant, I’ll try to eat at a steakhouse or I’ll try to literally be like oldest diner And I’m like if I’m doing that I feel like everybody’s kind of doing you know Yeah, and so I was just like yo like I want to serve chicken parms. I want to serve cheeseburgers I want to serve pizza. I want to serve bun mee and pho I want to serve like very simple things that are done well and very consistent. And I think that’s what makes good chefs and good restaurants and what makes things stand the test of time, not like ego based, uh, chefdom stuff. Fried pig face. Fried, you know, pig face. I, when I, when I had like head cheese, I used to make these head cheese croquettes, you know? Little fromage de tete. Like, beautiful little head cheese croquettes. You know being cool guy. I was just like I’m gonna call him fried pig face And all of a sudden everyone was coming to my restaurant to try fried pig face now i’d be like that’s so lame. But in like 2010, 2007 or whatever it was Everybody was doing that kind of stuff, and I think it was just like pre internet and pre like it was immature. Yeah. I do find almost of myself I’m definitely matured into like I usually have pride in serving this and making this perfect every single time Like why do you think that you can create something if you can’t dress a salad properly? Yeah, that’s a good point It’s interesting when you say like my food as opposed to like a food that has stood the test of time with the hundred years of people making it before you Yeah. Right. It’s funny because I knew about you before you were ever on Vice just as a restaurant chef because I used to, I used to like idolize the rockstar chefs of the time, right? And I was living in LA and so we had Animal out here. Yeah. But there were a lot of similarities between like what John and Vinny were doing and what you were doing and to me that’s such a unique era in food history that was like the coalescence of all of the post Anthony Bourdain rockstar chefdom, right? Yeah. Do you think Kitchen Confidential sort of romanticize that idea of like the liquor and lard, hard partying rockstar chef. Cause Bourdain would have said it’s a cautionary tale, but it was still such an alluring cautionary tale that people wanted to jump into. Yeah. Um, you know, my first year in culinary school, you know, Kitchen Confidential was like my Bible, you know, I was definitely drinking that Kool Aid, you know, like I wanted to be a chef chef and I wanted to be, um, I wanted to be able to butcher a pig and make beautiful charcuterie and, and, and cook cassoulet and, and make French food and like drink as much as I could and party as much as I could. Never miss a day of work and like go into that lifestyle, but it’s not really sustainable. But all of even animal it all comes down to like Martin Picard, you know Au Pied de Cochon and Joe beef and like those Montreal restaurants. Yeah that you know, Tony Obsessed about. There was this like common thread of not only indulgence, but also like, I think intensity, right? Yeah. Like Bourdain, uh, it talks about like, you know, the, the pirates and the mercenaries in the kitchen, these dudes, uh, scarring the shit out of themselves and getting back on the line. And I mean, in your restaurant parts and labor, you literally had a hardcore venue in the basement that people would play at. It was sort of like the coalescence of all that. Do you think that’s a common thread in your life that you just seek out intensity? Like you need that to feel whole in some way. Yeah, I guess like I hate wallflowers, you know? – You mean like at a show or like in life? – Just anybody like I don’t like — — like people that are mid Like, you know, like it’s It’s like either sucker be great. Yeah, either go for it or like get out of here kind of thing, right? Like I think it’s like middle of the road Bayesian unremarkable like that’s some like weak shit. I want to see art. I want to see people doing something. I want to see people dying for what they love and I want to see people doing something that they believe in and I think like that’s a beautiful thing. – I’ve failed many times, you know? – Yeah. It’s just like… It’s great. Life is long. Way long — everyone’s like life is short. I’m like what, what, what spectrum’s that like life ain’t short. I don’t know the life I’m living ain’t short. I’ve lived many lives. I think one of, one of the reasons I just, I enjoy being on the planet. Like one of my literal reasons for living is just seeing people involved in like genuine passion, right? Yeah. And I used to think that genuine passion was. Pork trotter, Madeira, reduction, spherified, balls of truffle bomb, drinking fat wash, liquor, all that. Uh, but it’s really awesome to see somebody like you who is so passionate. You’re one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met in my entire life. We haven’t spent that much time together. No, we haven’t. We just seem really passionate in the time that we have spent. I’m very passionate. Yeah. I’ve always said like I’m not afraid to jump, you know, uh, and I think it’s just like, or, or I always say like I’m dumb enough to jump. You can think about stuff and you can be confident and make decisions and keep moving forward and stuff. But like, I’m like, I’d rather be like on the bus, not knowing what, where I’m going, then like thinking about getting on the bus. Yeah. I think everyone should be cautious, but I’m like, you know. I’m not talking about sword fighting or something, but I think it is like a thing. It’s okay to fail and it’s okay to do something and it’s okay to keep going. This is heavier than I thought. We’re all talking about just like death. You want to talk about sword fighting instead? No, I don’t know much about sword fighting. We got claymores. My dad, my dad’s parents are Scottish descent. Of course we got claymores. Not every Scottish person has claymores. That’s really messed up. Yeah, we all got claymores. We all got claymores. You ready to go to course number two? Let’s get course number two. For course number two of your final meal, we have Swiss chalet. This is the chicken dinner. We actually got the Swiss chalet sauce. Thanks to Canadian sound guy, James. But, uh, we actually, we did not get the chicken from Swiss Chalet. We did though, get my favorite and what I believe is the best rotisserie chicken in Los Angeles from a place called Byrdie’s, Chef Lior Hillel. I think they do a great job. So please man, dig in. Tell me about Swiss Chalet. I’m not familiar. On Father’s Day, we would go to Toronto. We grew up like about two hours South in Fort Erie. Shout out to Fort Erie. And we would go Crescent Park. What’s up? And so when we would go to Toronto. You know, we’d walk up and down Yonge Street, we’d go to Sam the Wrecker Man, go to Dundas Square, and we’d always go to, there used to be an old Swiss Chalet. To me as a kid coming from Fort Erie, like, it was like this fancy restaurant, and it was like this amazing thing, and you could have these rotisserie roasted birds, and like, their sauce was like great, and I’m like, I’m a gravy boy. I love a gravy. You know when you eat, like, at a place like, Like a McDonald’s, like a fast food place. The way you eat it, it’s always the same. Like your Taco Bell order, or like your thing. Like it’s always the same. And then as you eat it, you’re eating these flavors, and you’re all into it. Like it’s just like, see, like I’m seeing this right now, and I need ketchup. I want ketchup. You know, because I need ketchup! We can get some ketchup. I wanna enjoy this! We thought the gravy was a substitute for the ketchup. No, but the thing is, the thing that happens, it’s like when you’re doing like milk and cookies, you know all the cookie kind of falls to the bottom of the milk and when you eat it, it kind of, you got that – Little cookie sludge. – Thank you so much, KG. Just a little. We need this. And I just like to do, I don’t like to do a dip with it. I like to do a dressing of it. Mm hmm. Wait, it kind of warms the, the, the ketchup up too. Yeah, and then, and then with that tomato because, ah, let’s just, can we eat it? Dig in, man, dig in. Shut up. Shut up, Matty. I’m sorry, sorry. See? Oh, yeah. So this is your favorite chicken. This is your favorite chicken. This is my favorite dish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s really good? Mm hmm. You like it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I’m saying? You want to switch out legs? Switch out legs. What? This is so nice to eat. It really is, man. You ever just suck down a whole rotisserie chicken standing over a sink? Oh my yeah. That’s the only way. Matty, we can’t talk about death in your last meal without talking about the fact that you had a heart attack in your sleep when you were 29. Don’t do cocaine. Don’t do cocaine. Kids, put the lower third. Don’t do drugs. But also do drugs. Like, safely and within reason, you know what I mean? Like, I want people to experience life, okay? I took it a little far. You know, you don’t sleep for a couple days. You go hard. And then you go to bed after a couple days. And then you just wake up thinking you’re having a heart attack, but you actually survived that heart attack somehow. And then I had a heart attack in my sleep because then I went to the hospital and they were like, you had a heart attack four hours ago. And I was just like, so I’m good? And they’re like, no. You need to come with us. Then they hooked me up to all this shit. And then I’m in emergency. And there’s like this crazy ass dude next to me where they’re trying to put a catheter in this. He was screaming and I’m sitting there and I’m just like, what did I do? And I remember I was like listening to like explosions in the sky in ER hooked up and I just got so nostalgic, like not nostalgic, but I was just, I was just like, man, this is so cool in here. You know, don’t do drugs. Don’t do drugs. You said there was a moment when you actually got emotional after that, and you actually had your sort of like, crying breakdown, where you came to terms with the emotions, right? You were actually like, oh shit, I’m actually scared, and for the people in my life. Yeah. It’s heavy. It is as heavy as hell, man. It’s heavy, you know, reality, life. Did I die? Did I not die? Why am I still alive? I should probably stop doing the stuff I’m doing. You asked yourself that question, but ultimately decided, no, no, you should know. I was like, let’s go harder. Let’s go absolutely harder. That’s what I thought because I was all of a sudden I didn’t die. And then all of a sudden I had like this like Superman ego where I was like, I’m undefeated. Let’s go get nuts now. Yeah. That didn’t work out though. Eventually, your boss at the restaurant asks you to get coffee, and you pull up to a house with, uh, some people in there, your buddy’s staging an intervention Yeah, a little intervention, that was nice for me For you, do you think that ultimately saved your life? Or do you think you eventually would’ve gotten there? A hundred percent, no, yes. What? I’m sorry, a hundred percent? That saved my life. – Okay, you don’t need to, this ain’t multiple choices — – I was not, I was not, I was not going — in a way, uh. Uh, yeah, yeah, those guys, yeah I’m very thankful for the people that were in that room Yeah. Yeah. And you went to a meeting the next day. Went to, haven’t had a drink since. Damn. You, you said you, you like, experienced a miracle in that first meeting. Yeah. What was that feeling that you got that was, that a heart attack couldn’t bring you to the, uh, actual decision to make? I think hearing people say that you don’t have to like, lie anymore. You don’t have to do drugs. Like, it was in a way that it was just like, you don’t have to do it. Like, there’s a new way of life. You know, anyone that’s been to a meeting or been to a thing, it’s like, I don’t know, it just clicked and that, that’s the miracle. The miracle is that it clicked. A lot of people go in there and don’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to hear it, you know, a year before. I had my heart attack. I didn’t want to hear it. You know, I would show up at all my friends bars and they’d be like, You’re not coming in here. I mean like, what do you mean? Like we’re, we’re, what are you, what are you talking? I can’t come in here. This is my bar. Like this is our bar, you know? And just be like, you’re, you’re my friends. And they’re like, yeah, but you’re not coming in here and like dying here. So like, I, I just kept on getting pushed away and then I’d go to darker secret places and do things and. Get, you know, go out there, get a little squirrely. How much did Trish’s support mean to you? Cause you two have been together since high school. What is this podcast? What is this? Oprah? Yeah, this is Oprah, Matty. Trish, what are you talking about? Trish, what are you doing? If you’re going to be weird about it, I don’t have to you said that. All addicts have hope as long as they have love in their life, and it seems like Trish is the love in your life. Trish is, she’s my everything. She was there the whole time. She didn’t give up on me. And, uh, you know? Spent the rest of my life taking care of her and making sure she’s cool. Like, losing her was scarier than dying. I mean, that’s a powerful feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she’s, she’s a smart, smart, caring lady. And like, it’s, uh, but yeah, she doesn’t, she doesn’t F around. She’s a lifer. Your eyes are all sparkly right now. No, it’s, it’s, it’s nice to see you — We just had like, I’m like, I’m like, we’re just in like Malibu, having sex and like, hanging out. Now I’m here talking about this heavy ass stuff. What kind? Who topped? You know. You know, it’s a, it’s a round circle. So I can, we’re all, we’re all in there, you know, throwing mud at the walls, you know, like, have you ever seen those Sumerian tablets where… Matty, you’re ready to go to round number three? Let’s go to round number three! Matty, for course number three, we have some lighter dishes here, Matty. We got the partana pizza from F& F here. We got some red onion, some pecorine, a little bit of honey on there, oregano, Calabrian chili. We have the Peter Luger burger. This is actually meat from Peter Luger. They’re dry aged steak chickens that we got flown out here. Amazing. Bun homemade by Lily Cousins. She does excellent work. Tell me about it, man. This is, this is the ode to New York. This is, I believe, this is my favorite pizza. Uh, the Partania Pizza. Shout out to the Franks. How’d we do? Cause we did make, this is homemade. They made this. It’s not as good as the Franks. Fair. But it’s good. It’s good. It’s fresh and delicious. Actually. Thank you. This is not F& F. But it’s the best pizza. And the Partania, you know. Little Sicilian, little chilies and the onions and the honey. It’s just like, I don’t love meat on pizza. I don’t like meat on pizza. I hate like a meat lovers pizza. I don’t like that. I like either like a cheese pizza or like something like this. And then this is just the perfect cheeseburger. And since falling in love with this, I stopped putting sauces on burgers. Anywhere I go now, I don’t put sauces. I get no sauce on any burgers. The, the, the big ol slice of onion on it. See, this is, that’s, that’s what you need. But you need to do this. You need to stop it. You need to cut it in half. I will do that. And let’s see, actually, if this is like, actually a thing. Let’s see. Reveal. There we go. That’s a thing. See, that’s a thing of beauty. That’s what you want. That’s what you need. That’s what we deserve. Oh boy. Incredible. I don’t know how to say it. You love craftsman foods. I don’t understand what you’re saying. That’s cool. I like that you like hamburgers. Yeah, I like hamburgers. I like hamburgers, man. But the hamburgers, like, they’re good. They’re good. Do you put the bacon on or no? No. the bacon? No, see the thing with the bacon, when you get the shrimp cocktail, and you get the tomato and the onions And you get the grilled bacon. Yes, sir. And you get the, the, the Luger sauce, and what I do is I take my big piece of grilled bacon, cut it up into pieces, and I take a shrimp, cut it up into pieces, and the onion, and I make like a pincho. And I put the onion, the shrimp, and the bacon all onto my fork, and then I dip it into the sauce. And that’s one of the greatest bites in the history of the planet. You and I have lived such similar Peter Luger’s lives. I did damn near the exact same thing. Yeah, but I said it first. You did say it first. No, I didn’t mean that to be competitive with you. I hate people. I tried to be cooperative. I tried to empathize with your experiences and say that I too… That’s not an empathy. You’re empathizing with me eating a shrimp and a piece of bacon? I think the fact that He’s empathizing. We’re empathizing over here. Entire different corners of the continent that we’ve had a similar experience. I think that’s empathy in a sense. Yeah, you ate the same food as I in a same restaurant. That’s world famous. Absolutely. We can get some lighter questions Matty you grew up Mormon. That’s crazy. There it is. I think a lot of people would see that and probably say like, wow, that’s very surprising. Because I’m such a bad boy. You are a bad boy. Yeah, I’m such a bad boy. You were covered in tattoos. Oh my god, that’s bad. You talked about doing cocaine until you had a heart attack and then kept doing it. Everybody does cocaine! Everybody has that need. Not everybody does cocaine. Everybody! Not everybody. Dylan, do you do cocaine? Yeah! See, Dylan doesn’t do cocaine. Yes, yes, yes. Never? Never. You’re a freak. Never? Never. You. All day. Captain Canada over here, definitely on the bag. Keep that camera steady, you know? Yeah. Did growing up Mormon leave you with a bad taste for religion? No. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you believe in Santa Claus. And you believe in the Easter Bunny and if you believe in heaven, I put you on the same boat and that boat can kind of drift down the river and have a nice time. But having a higher power. Mm-Hmm. I think is something, and believing in a soul and believing in the greater power of the human condition is a beautiful thing. Organized religion and heaven and hell is something that can go blow chunks. Now the, I’ll tell you one thing. You know, you, we, are we gonna. What are you gonna tell us, Matty? God and government should be separated. Oh, what a crazy thing to say. It’s almost like they said that in the constant. I know know, but I’m not from here, but… You know. Get a couple abortions, you know? A couple at least. Let’s get them out there. I say we should Let’s get them out there. Let’s give everyone an abortion. Some old book is trying to tell people what to do, bro. I’m not down with that. I was the kid growing up, right, that I always rebelled against authority. And I still do, and I imagine you’re — I can see. Right? Look at that. No, you’re like, where’s that, uh, Cholula chug? Yeah! Rebel. Uh, no, but it was anytime somebody told me what to do, I’d just kind of go, the opposite. Absolutely. Mormonism is like the absolute king of that, right? You said you had that realization pretty early on that if the, um, requirements for getting into heaven, especially the various tiered heaven systems of Mormonism were so strict. – A couple of Celestials. – A couple of Celestials. Then you kinda realized that it was BS because of that, you’re like — I didn’t think it was BS, like at a young age, I just didn’t like, I didn’t buy it, but I also like, I think me and my brothers being kleptos or like I was a klepto, like in just in a sense, like going to the store and like stealing a candy bar. There’s just a lot of things, but I’m like, I’m so happy for everyone to find love and light. And sure. You know, a couple of soaks, but it’s just like, you know, at a young age, I was like, I don’t get to spend eternity with my parents. Yeah. And that really scared me and it made me really shameful. And it didn’t stop me from stealing. You know, like that’s the thing, my urge and my will still wanted me to steal that candy bar. It just teaches you self hatred very early on. Yeah, which is fine. Self hatred’s great. Is it fine? I think it’s almost as bad as I think. No, it’s not good. Self hatred is almost the worst thing. It is. I don’t like self hatred. Do you experience a lot of it? Oh, buddy. Yeah. I hate myself. Tons. Heaps. Same. What’s to like? I agree. Not about you. About me. No, no. You’re great. You have a lot. I think you have a lot to like. I got a lot to like. I make a lot of people happy. I’m really trying to find, like, the real happiness. Yeah. Because I have everything. I have a beautiful, healthy family. I, I have, uh, incredible parents that I love and admire. I have a, a, a wife, a partner, it, the thing that makes me nuts is that my mind won’t let me accept happiness and accept nice things sometimes and it won’t accept, and that’s my addict and my addiction and the disease in my brain that won’t allow me and that’s why I’m a sicko and I think that like, I self sabotage often. my own happiness in really beautiful moments. And I try to be aware of that and try to do that a little bit less. And I’m working on that right now. A lot. You made any headway? Yeah, I have. The therapy. Yeah. I love it. I’m sick. You know? We’re all sick. We’re all sick. But I think it’s being aware of it and trying to work on it, and it’s the awareness that really makes a big difference, and understanding your part in every situation. Baby steps, you know? Crawl, walk, run. Crawl, walk, run. Ready to get to course number four? This is an insane podcast. Isn’t it? Matty, course number four, man. We’re trucking right through it. We have some sea bream with shoyu and yuzu kosho. We have akami with truffle salt. We have salmon belly with ponzu and sesame seeds. We have chutoro with osetra caviar. And then finally some uni with nori and edible silver leaf. We wouldn’t have used that normally unless you said fancy. Yeah, but why didn’t you get Gold Leaf? Uh, yeah. I honestly don’t know if I’m being honest. I think we probably tried to order it from Amazon and then it got shipped to like a — This is nickel. Yeah. Loony. It’s fine. A toney. It’s fine. It’s my last meal. It’s fine. What do you think about the circle of, uh, nori on there? Uh, you know, I think it’s beautiful. Thanks. I think it’s beautiful. I think it’s great. I like it. Uh, why expensive sushi on the last meal? Well, this isn’t expensive sushi, but the, uh Yeah, you paid zero dollars for it. I made it zero. We can run a card. I actually like that. We can run a card for zero dollars so you can leave a tip. I’ll run a card. Fresh cured wasabi. We paid 140 for a single wasabi root. Can you at least eat that? Thank you. There you go, son. It is really nice though, huh? Gonna wash it down with some Heineken Double Zero? Why do you keep saying it? How much money are you getting? Well, literally none. None? Can I get some? Get Matty the Heineken Double Zero. I’m the best face of Double Zero in the history of the planet. Send, let’s do, let’s do something. That wasn’t even that bad. That’s good. I’m just full now. I’m over it. I get it. What do you want from me? Do you get mad when you’re full? Sometimes I do. I wanna leave a restaurant the second we’re done. I hate. I hate lingering at a restaurant. That’s my disdain. If they take like 20 minutes to ring the bell, I’m like furious. And I hate it. And I don’t like being in restaurants. Like, sometimes. I shouldn’t say it, but I should. I love being in restaurants. No, restaurants are the worst, man. I’ve described myself as post restaurant. I’m done. Dude. I’m out. I just want to eat at home. You know? You know, that’s why I love omakase. Like, real omakase. You know? Like in Japan, you go, silence, nobody talks, no friggin music, maybe some light jazz or something, but like, nobody talks. And I love it. Like really expensive, good omakase, it’s just dead quiet and you just nod and you take it and you eat it. And I love it. And I’m just like, I think maybe the years of insanity and the years of people pleasing and like giving and being so all the same that I just go on my. I just have this person, I’m paying so much money to just like hand feed me these beautiful pieces of sushi. And I think that’s really beautiful. And I think like as my last meal, having, being hand fed really expensive, not this stuff. But we tried to be, is it good? Like do you enjoy the taste in your mouth? You just place it, you just place it and then, yeah, no, it is decent, it is decent, it’s decent, it’s decent. Matty, you’re on a show called The Bear. It’s one of my Emmys, which I think is really cool. Uh, if you can imagine yourself time traveling back to old Matty cooking at Oddfellows, and telling me, hey man, several, several years in the future, decade after, you’re going to be holding a crying Jamie Lee Curtis in your arms on a hit television show that has won, what, 23 Emmys in the last two years? What would young Matty have said to old Matty? You’re a loser. Yeah, probably. That seems like Young Matty’s shtick. Yeah. You know? Young Matty would have been — Call everybody a loser. What’s up, poser? Yeah. When I was a kid, it sounded like I dreamed of being famous, or a movie star, or on television, or I never dreamed of I never dreamed of any of this. I never dreamed of being certainly here. You know? Yeah. But we’re here. And so it is just like, it’s just It’s just chock full of gratitude. Every day is truly an amazing thing. You know, it is, there’s quite a lot of privilege, uh, being here and like living the life that we get to live and being able to do the things that we get to do. My participation just comes from friendship and I’m really proud of that. And I love Chris Storer and I love Courtney Storer and I’m very happy that they like let me into their world, you know? Yeah. If you can think back to the first Vice video that you ever made where you were making hamburgers. Yeah. I believe it was 2014. Before content was content. How much of that is like sort of caricature that you put on and how much does that blend into your real life? I feel like I’m, I, like this, this is me. I’m being like the real Matty here, you know, but like when I get in the camera and I get to do my hand, I’m, Hey, I’m Matty Matheson here. The thing of the, you know, do my biscuits and all that stuff that I do. Like, that’s it. Like, it’s easy. Like, that’s the thing is like, I’ve been doing it. I’ve been making the same cooking video for 10 years, you know, I’ve changed many people’s lives. You’re welcome. Uh, you genuinely have though. Oh, I know when you, I know when you have fans doing meet and greets and they tell you their stories, those are real people with real stories that you’ve really TikTok’s gone dawg. Everyone’s gone. Everything’s been thing is like the coolest thing is making stuff. The coolest thing is like hanging out with all these people. And like, like we just shot like a new episode or a new season, like just a dash, and it was just like one of those things. It’s insane. It’s like, it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done. It’s still like self funded. So like we could do whatever we want. And it was just us. And we just made, we made art. It is crazy town. I mean, I’m 42 years old and I still love it. And I think like, that’s an amazing thing. Are you ready to get the dessert? Yeah, let’s have dessert. Matty, for the final course of your final meal, we have the Fluffer Nutter Sandwich. This is peanut butter, this is marshmallow fluff, some chocolate chips inside, wonder bread, nuked for ten seconds just to soften it all. Dude, this is, uh, Oh, bubble. Wow. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, let’s flip it in the microwave a little more. Alright, can we get a refire on the f ing other side? You don’t swear in kitchens anymore. You drink green juice in your job. You do stretch, group stretches. This is really nice. When’s the first time you had a Fluffer Nutter? Oh yeah, when I was a young cop. Were you a happy little boy? I was! Yeah, if you can imagine, I don’t think I was some sicko. You’re a joy boy. I was a pure joy boy. Pure joy boy. I was a little chubby guy. A little chubby guy running around, making people laugh, people pleasing. In my experience, because I empathize with you, Matty. Yeah, yeah, you empathize with me. This is like one of the cheapest ways you can provide somebody happiness. That’s why I think I bought it. Or you could just be nice, that’s free. Or you can be nice. But this is easier. This is easier than controlling your own emotions. It is. And you know, and this is a quick jolt. Yeah, you got, we got some serotonins here. A lot of them. Yeah. I’m feeling it. Yeah, you feeling it? Hey. Vietnamese? Souda. Souda? Oh, that’s a nice. Yeah, that’s a nice meal. I’m getting all sad and contemplative. Are you? Now I feel I don’t feel sad. You’re being insane. Like, well, we talked about life. We talked about life. Are you feeling sad? Are you connected? I’m not sad. No, I’m not. I don’t have your number. Can I get your number? – No, you don’t need my number. – Do you need my number? – I got pickpocketed a year and a half ago and I deleted my whole — – Why? I thought I was getting groped. I was just getting robbed. Yeah. Where? Were you in like Prague? Where were you? I was in WeHo, man. Okay, very flattered, I’m like — West Hollywood! WeHo, eh? Yeah, WeHo. Big bad boys at WeHo get pickpocketed. Oh, that’s right, no, Matty, no, Matty’s from Canada. Bro, get pickpocketed in West Hollywood. That’s kind of the place to get pickpocketed. I’m a bad boy, man, I trust a lot of people. Mattie, there’s a turning point in your life. You owed thirty-six thousand dollars to dealers, and you presented your wife Trish. A couple eight balls. A couple of a couple, I’d say. And you presented Trish with a plan. That, hey, I’m gonna get my life together. I’m gonna get our lives together. We’re gonna move into a one bedroom apartment, nine hundred dollars, and a business plan to get out of debt. Yeah. How much faith in you did she show by just jumping? You’re not afraid to jump, or you are afraid to jump, but you’re dumb enough to jump anyways. She seems like she is, too. She jumped and I bet she’s real happy about it. I made this big Bristol board thing and I wrote out everybody’s name and all the money. And then I wrote how much money I made and how much money I could pay back every month. And it, I made like this, like, board and every week I would cross it off and pay back everybody little by little. Then I saved enough money to live for a year and then I quit everything. I walked away from everything. And then I was just like, I’m gonna figure out what to do. Now I’m here on Last Meals. What was it that Trish saw in you that got her to stay? I don’t know, ask her. There’s no hiding behind what I’ve said. There’s no, I said I’m gonna do this. Here’s the, here’s the board. You know, here’s the board. You want me to do this, then we gotta do this. This is what I’m doing. And I was just like, and the crazy thing was, was like, yo, like if I get sober, like, Maybe you don’t like me sober. Maybe you’re codependent and maybe you like me being a disaster And maybe you like I’m like, maybe this doesn’t even work out. Maybe this nothing works out. I don’t know. But I know that my sobriety is gonna be number one. Yeah. And it has to be because if I don’t if my sobriety isn’t number one right now then I lose you Do you, do you ever actually allow yourself to stop and, like, feel pride for what you’ve done? Not for yourself, but for your family. Like, are you, do that? Yeah, no, I’m very, I’m very, I’m very proud. I’m proud of, yeah, man. Our team, like we do this like gratitude meeting every week where like me and my team are like, we, we talk about what we’re thankful for in our company that we created and how we’re happy and what are, and then we do three things we’re happy for. And then like one thing we can all work on and like, let’s be proud of the work that we’re doing together because that’s the goal. The goal is like, are we happy? Is everyone in this room relatively happy? That’s nice. You guys okay? Lily. No. Hey. Good. Good. Good. Light em up. Light em up. But it, you know, like it is like one of those things. Like we do try to find those moments. We try to find every day. Like, it’s like you wake up and you’re like, give me the strength to do what I need to do today. And then at the end of the night, you’re like, I did it. Thank you. What if one day the thing you need to do is slow down and stop working? Because a lot of people, right, they replace, they replace one addiction with work and just making it another addiction. Do you think you’re in that territory or not? You can slow down? I could slow down. I don’t want to yet. I’m not saying that. I haven’t reached. I’m not saying intervention, brother. No, no, no, no. It’s, it’s, it’s, like, I don’t have what I want, what I’m going for. My goal hasn’t been reached. I, I’m, I ain’t got my pile yet. I got a little bit of a pile, but I ain’t got my pile where I can like dip. Yeah, I want to dip so I’m just like I don’t want to be doing this I I don’t want you to be doing this either I was saying like the thing that would make me most happy is if I never see you again because I know we will see each other again, but the thing that makes me crazy like I don’t understand — Belize or where where you going? Belize? I don’t know. No, we’re not going to Belize. I’m going to my house. I like my house. I love my house. I got a yard, there’s trees. I’m good. You don’t need to be in Belize, dawg. You’re from Orange County. What are you talking about? You grew up in Orange County. The national language is English in Belize. So is Orange County. That’s what I’m saying. You got palm trees and ocean right there, dawg. I know, but I could, it’s — You guys live in California. Shut up. We have to, okay, we’re You guys don’t even have, like, winter. Like, move to Fort Erie. I got ice storms for 48 hours straight. What would that prove to you? You go outside and you’re just like What would that prove to you, Matty, if I was in an ice storm? What would that prove to you? If you got some gall. Oh, yeah. What do you, it rains here in December, and everyone’s like, It rained in California. I got mugged, Nonsense. I got mugged. I got ping ponged. You’re un muggable. You’re crazy for getting ping ponged. Matt, what do you think happens when you die? I think you’d die. There’s no, there’s no heaven, there’s no souls, there’s no nothing, you’re just like that. The soul is these people, the soul is the memory. The soul, there’s nothing, that makes the most sense to me. The soul is how you have made people feel throughout your entire life. All of the ripples, all of the pebbles you have thrown into the ocean of the life, those ripple and go a million ways. As the last thought of you exists, your soul has done your thing, you’re done now. But until then, your soul will live on, your, your, your, your happiness or the, your disdain or your resentments. All of those things that you’ve created within those relationships of those people around you. Until the last memory, then you’re alive and well. I think you’ve made a hell of a lot of ripples and I think your soul is going to last a long time, Matty. Okay. No, come on, no, have a touching moment with me. Stare me in the eyes. I just had, uh, yeah. I know, I’m saying, you don’t, you don’t — Stare, okay, stare. Stare in my eyes. What do you see? I’m really proud of you. I’m proud of you. I’m genuinely proud of you. Of course you are. You should be. Good. You ready for the lightning round? Lightning round? This is a crazy show. He’s got a double zero zero. What?! I’m high on the Sudah now! Who’s the one person dead or alive you’d want to share your actual last meal with? My wife. What song do you want to be played at your fenueral? In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Oh, come on man. Just iron butterfly. Just like 32 minutes. Just acid it out. Man. They had no idea. Just do some, yeah, yeah. Gimme, gimme hella acid. That’s a turn actually. Just, yeah, just bang me with a bunch of ketamine. Uh, rank Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s kissing abilities. On a scale of one to 10. 32. Dawg’s a beast. Who would you at least want to encounter in a pit? John Cena or Andy Williams? No, Andy’s good. Cena’s, I don’t know. Cena doesn’t pit. It’s different. Who’s your dream eulogizer at your funeral? Who? Me. Damn. I do a self tape. Pretty good. I did the only speech at my wedding and it was fire. Uh, what’s your biggest regret in life? As of right now? Probably like not getting in shape sooner. Cause now I’m like kinda been like, I’m down like 60 pounds and I’m like really like, I love working out. And I love actually eating healthy, even though today was not a good day. I’ll tell you that much, but you know, I’m going to go, I’m working out. I’m going to do a nice little lift tonight. My biggest regret is I didn’t, it didn’t click where like every time I worked out with somebody and I don’t want, and that’s not like a thing against the trainers that I worked with, which were mostly my friends and stuff. It was just like a thing where I was just like, I just had to do my, I got, I think life is about doing it yourself. Other people, you got to help yourself first. Matty, Thank you so much, Matty If you could look right in that camera and say your last words. I want to die. Maddie, thank you so much for coming on the show. Everyone make sure to check out Soup Salad Sandwiches, a cookbook. Maddie, you think this one’s going to be another New York Times bestseller? It’s probably a New York Times bestseller by now. It probably is, yeah. Way to go, Matty Third time in a row. Maddie, do you ever, do you ever allow yourself to be proud of yourself? Who cares? Who cares? Can we go home? What? Can we go home? Can I get a bigger straw? Can I get a bigger bobo straw? My favorite is that you can’t reach the bottom two inches of your drink. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die. But in the meantime, you can wear our Last Meals hoodie. Available now at mythical.com