We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew DeMille a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Matthew, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Before I started on this journey I worked/managed restaurant and hotel kitchens. Towards the end life became a little tricky with a small family at home and working 17 hour days. SO I decided to leave the restaurant industry to take a few months off and reflect. This is where a person has to ask themselves BIG questions, be real/honest with yourself and also really KNOW yourself. What am I good at? What is important to me? What am I not good at? What do I love? What do I not love? One HUGE question that I still ask myself to this day is: WHAT IS THE MARKET LACKING/MISSING. If you do what everyone else is doing your product/service will be watered down but if you listen/watch the demographic and offer something new and genuine you’ll be ahead of the game.
The answer for me to all of those questions were….Obviously I absolutely love to cook but I have no interest in working 17 hour days especially on the biggest days of the year (Christmas eve, birthdays, Valentines Day, NYE). Those are special times when i too would love to be surrounded by friends + family. What I wanted was BALANCE.
So, I took my love for cooking and interacting with people and started “Eat with Matt DeMille”. Instructional cooking experiences in the comfort of your home/airbnb. I bring all ingredients, equipment, napkins, plates, cutlery and culinary knowledge to your space and we together cook a restaurant caliber meal. Our location at the time lended itself well to this idea since Prince Edward County was becoming and still is a popular tourist destination w/ beautiful views. sprawling beaches and amazing wineries. So having a chef come to your Airbnb after a day of wine touring sounded like a perfect idea.
Since then we’ve expanded to private chef services and large scale catering.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I always loved cooking as a child/teenager. I went to culinary school in my early twenties and from there I worked in as many top Toronto restaurants as I could. My thoughts were If I want to be really good might as well learn from the greats.
The service we provide now I find works for our clients because we provide an exclusive restaurant experience in the comfort of someones own space in an area thats still rural.
We’ve recently rebranded and what we wanted to say in all of our branding is that it’s all about the food, care and hospitality. Creating memorable experiences really.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Covid was the big one. I think many of us had to pivot hard and hustle to find the answer and to make ends meet. Luckily we pivoted quickly and decided to offer family sized comfort meals delivered right to your door. Again we looked at the demographic and what people in this area LOVE to eat and that was reflected on the menu. When your a business owner you do what you have to do. You stay humble but always know your worth.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Professional kitchens are fast moving. high stress places and in the past no matter what level of restaurant you look at tensions can definitely rise and maybe sometimes the way people deal with issues has not been the best.
When I started my business I promised myself that at all times I would be fair, positive and treat everyone equal to the best of my ability. I feel like in this environment people are more comfortable, less stressed which leads to bigger and better respect for each other and more room for creativity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mattdemille.com/
- Instagram: @matthewdemille / @mattdemilleculinary
Image Credits
@johnnycylam Johnny C.Y. Lam