We caught up with the brilliant and insightful William Eick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

William, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Philosophy:

I could actually sum this up to one simple word if needed, but feel it should be elaborated upon. The word is “Balance”. Balance is what makes a dish great, and it is the overall goal when creating a combination of flavors. If you achieve balance of flavor in each component, they will all come together and balance each other, providing depth. Depth is a huge part in what we look for with Matsu’s food, and when I cook in general. Depth can come down to how long you taste the dish when you are done eating, how many flavors you can extract and taste from a single ingredient, and how to stay within a level of balance to retain those flavors. Say we start with a plum, and the plum taste of itself, but also taste of almond and banana (dancing demon plums taste like this). So I would start from there, and build the dish around those flavor profiles, but also keeping in mind that other things taste of those flavors as well. Okinawan rum has good banana like flavor, and arugula is nutty. So maybe its a salad of arugula, fresh plum blended into a vinaigrette, dried plum rehydrated in rum, banana chips and pecorino (nutty cheese).
Another part of the philosophy is quality. It all ties back to balance, by taking the best ingredients you can find, ones that themselves have depth, retaining their depth, and continuing to balance the flavors of them together. True depth will always come from quality ingredients. If an ingredient is one noted, and falls flat off the palate quickly, its simply not good enough. It shows a much better chef in knowing the difference in quality, having an amazing ingredient, and showing restraint. The best chefs know that they dont have to do much to an amazing product to create amazing food. Knowing as many techniques as possible is good, however great food can be equally achieved much easier and thoughtfully without having to do too many things to the ingredient itself. One could easily take a carrot, dehydrate it, then rehydrate it in its own juice, and garnish it with carrot powder. But if the carrot was perfect to begin with, you can simply roast it with some oil and salt and achieve the same level of flavor, with the same depth.
Temperature is another largely focused area of my cooking, especially within Matsu. True depth of umami is cooked off around 160 degrees. We try our best to not go above that temperature when making dashi and sauces, in order to retain the subtle depth that each ingredient may have. We buy some of the best ingredients on the planet, and do our best to show them in the best way we can without screwing them up.

Matsu:

Matsu is about the connection of Japanese culture, techniques, traditions, and philosophy in food, and connecting it to San Diego’s (albeit Southern California in general) terroir. This is how the name came about. Pine is prevalent within Japanese culture, while the pine tree is abundant in our terroir as well (see Torrey Pines). We focus on what grows locally, but also what may be used in Japanese food outside of that. Take for example the Sunflower dish. Cuttlefish/ Squid are absolutely available and within San Diego waters, however the quality of the Sumi Ika we get from Aichi Prefecture in Japan just happens to be a more consistent, and better quality product, so we use that.
Matsu is minimalist in its design, not just its food. Simple, direct, and nothing to hide behind. We have what we need, and nothing more.
We do try to use pine within the food, because when harnessed correctly, and balanced properly, it is a quite unique flavor. It also happens to be something that was once prevalent in Southern California’s native american cooking, which ties us into the terroir part of Matsu’s food. If youve ever been described the flavor of an IPA, somebody has said it to be pine-y, yet very rarely do you see people eating/drinking pine (other than the nuts).

William, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in San Jose, and moved to San Diego when I was 15. My cooking career has been throughout the county, and I took my first executive chef job at 25 years old. Ive done just about every type of food there is, with the exception of African and Indian, more just because I havent had the opportunity to yet.

I didnt go to culinary school. Almost all learning was done under chefs in restaurants, by reading, watching videos, studying, and eating. I seem to think I have an obsessive palate memory, and once I find a flavor or profile I like, I work with it endlessly until I have mastered it. I am always seeking new flavors, and ingredients with a higher quality and more depth.

Matsu is an extension of me. I personally was my own designer for it. I put about 2 years of research into how I wanted it to look, the colors, chairs, tables, etc. Much of the renovations (it was an already existing restaurant, so the bones were there), I did myself. The tables were custom made from black walnut (as is the front door), and most of the shelves were made by a partner from redwood. Matsu’s decor is very simple, with a touch of elegance within its minimalism. very much like myself. We have what we need. I want the guest to not have a distracted experience. Just to come enjoy their evening, and the friends and/or family they came with.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Matsu started as a pop-up serving only 1 table a night 3 nights a week at the restaurant I was previously working at. It started slow, and grew into a much larger success, becoming hard to get a reservation. I then opened it to 2 tables a night, then sourced investments and capital to grow it into the full brick and mortar it is today.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Do your best to help your team grow. Invest in them and create the work environment that changes the perspective of those employed by you. Show them you really care, and they will follow you endlessly.

Contact Info:

• Website: eatatmatsu.com
• Instagram: chefwilliameick

Image Credits
Leo Cabal