Background and career
Matthew James Matheson (born February 7, 1982) is a Canadian chef and actor. From 2022 to 2026, he played Neil Fak on the FX on Hulu series The Bear, which he also executive produced. Matheson was the executive chef of Parts & Labour, a restaurant in Toronto, Ontario, which permanently closed on January 1, 2019. Matheson has since started Matty's Patty's Burger Club, a takeout restaurant in Toronto, which opened in December 2020. In April 2022, Matheson opened Prime Seafood Palace, which is also in Toronto. Matheson regularly appeared on Vice's show Munchies. He previously hosted Viceland's It's Suppertime! and Dead Set on Life.
Matheson was born in Saint John, New Brunswick; his parents are engineer Stephen and waitress Joan Matheson. The family lived in Nova Scotia until Matheson turned 11, when they moved to Fort Erie, Ontario. Before moving to Ontario, Matheson had grown up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; however, the family left the church when leaving Nova Scotia. Matheson's grandfather was a restaurateur and former RCMP officer from Prince Edward Island (PEI), the family having roots in PEI dating back to the 1700s. His grandfather owned and operated The Blue Goose restaurant in DeSable, where Matty would spend his summers. Matheson moved to Toronto in 2000 and attended Humber College's cooking program. To serve a short stint as a roadie for his friends' metal band, he dropped out of the program before graduating. However, Matheson found he had a talent for butchering meat, and he continued his culinary career by handing out resumes to random restaurants until he found employment.
Matheson began working at Le Sélect Bistro in Toronto in 2003 under chef Rang Nguyen, who taught him French culinary techniques. In 2006, Matheson was hired at the restaurant La Palette. In 2010, Matheson became executive chef at the new Parts & Labour restaurant until it closed in 2019. His recognition, along with his outgoing and wild personality, would lead to his appearance on the online show Munchies by Vice Media.
He was hired to host Viceland's It's Suppertime and Dead Set on Life. Matheson also maintains his own Youtube channel. Matheson has also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he showed Jimmy Kimmel how to make a "stuffed shell family recipe". In June 2022, Matheson joined the cast and crew of FX's The Bear. He portrays handyman Neil Fak, and he also serves as a producer and culinary consultant on the show.
Matheson partnered with Shlomo Buchler in 2015 to create a pizza restaurant called Maker Pizza, which has opened and expanded into numerous locations within the Greater Toronto Area. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in the summer of 2020, Matheson created a pop-up restaurant called Matty Matheson's Meat + Three, a take on the American South's meat and three, specializing in American barbecue, in Fort Erie; the Meat + Three pop-up closed in 2022. In October 2020, Matheson opened another pop-up restaurant in Toronto, a continuation of Matty's Patty's, which was originally located in Hawaii with a short stint in Shibuya, Japan. Matty's Patty's opened a permanent location in the Trinity-Bellwoods neighbourhood in Toronto in December 2020. In April 2021, Matheson partnered with Toronto chefs Kate Chomyshyn and Julio Guajardo to open a new pop-up restaurant in Toronto called Birria Balam, specializing in the Mexican dish birria. Matheson, Chomyshyn, and Guadjardo opened up a new permanent restaurant, Fonda Balam, in the Trinity-Bellwoods and Little Italy neighbourhoods of Toronto in October 2021, serving birria and other Mexican cuisine. They subsequently closed Birria Balam. In January 2022, Matheson teamed up with his mentor and friend Rang Nguyen and opened Ca Phe Rang, a Vietnamese restaurant serving pho and bánh mì. The restaurant opened where Birria Balam had been previously, in Chinatown, Toronto. In April 2022, Matheson opened Prime Seafood Palace, a steakhouse and seafood restaurant in Trinity-Bellwoods, Toronto. Matheson had been working on opening the restaurant since 2016. In November 2022, Matheson opened Rizzo's House of Parm, a restaurant serving old-school Italian-American cuisine, at Crystal Beach in Fort Erie, Ontario. The restaurant took its inspiration from the Italian family of his wife Trish, and he named the restaurant after his first daughter and second child, Rizzo. In Hamilton, Ontario, Matheson's latest restaurant, Iron Cow Public House, opened in December 2025. Matheson has incorporated all of his restaurants into his company, Our House Hospitality Company.
In October 2018, Matheson released his first cookbook, Matty Matheson: A Cookbook. On September 29, 2020, Matheson released his second cookbook, Matty Matheson: Home Style Cookery. He recorded a series of YouTube videos to coincide with the release of this book. His third book, Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches, was released in October 2024.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
