Matt Owens
Title: Lunch chef, McEwen's on Monroe.
Age: 32
Hometown: Memphis
Who or what was your first cooking influence? My grandparents. ... My grandmother, just the best cooking. She still runs circles around me. Still to this day she makes me her Mexican cornbread for my birthday ... with peppers and onions and ground beef and stuff. It's just amazing. I'm vegetarian now, so now she makes it without the meat for me.
What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked? Probably mashed potatoes. My grandmother, again, taught me how to make them. ... She uses evaporated milk instead of cream. And it just adds this incredible richness.
Matt Owens
What made you decide to become a chef and when was that? In high school I was a dish washer at Olympic Steak and Pizza. ... Seeing the movements of the chefs and the flow of the restaurant just enticed me.
What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? I worked at a place called The Tack Room (in Tucson, Ariz.). It was a five-diamond four-star restaurant. ... The chef there told me, 'When you go out to dinner or when the guests come to see us, it needs to be a religious experience.' ... Every plate that I make, everything that I do, whether it's a sandwich or an egg, I feel that it needs to be a religious experience.
What is the Matt Owens style? Vietnamese and Japanese cooking is my favorite. As often as I can blend those ingredients into what I'm doing, I do. I do that with my specials here a lot. I feel like I'm all over the board. I can do anything I need to do. But if there's anything Asian about it, I'm all over it.
What do you cook or bake at home, if anything? I've got three kids. And my fiancée, I'm teaching her how to cook. ... My two boys want to be chefs. We cook a lot of noodles, spaghetti. Like Vietnamese noodle dishes and stuff.
What's your least favorite ingredient? Calves' liver. I think that was one of the main things that turned me into a vegetarian. My grandmother and grandfather made it one night for dinner. Without even tasting it, I knew I didn't like it. ... Just a really back-mouth feel, really beyond earthy. ... This pungent blandness just tore me to pieces.
McEwen's on Monroe is at 120 Monroe; 527-7085.
Contact Michael Donahue at 529-2797 or e-mail donahue@commercialappeal.com.
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