Chef Matthew Accarrino
Aspen: Chefs Club
Chefs Club Aspen Presents: Matthew Accarrino began on June 15th, and will run through September 6th. Matthew Accarrino is the nationally recognized executive chef of SPQR in San Francisco. Born in the Midwest and raised on the East Coast, he moved west to California in 2007. He had originally hoped to become a professional cyclist until a leg injury turned his passion for cooking into a career. Now, 20 years later, he is doing both.
Matthew’s unique culinary style draws inspiration from his Italian heritage, personal experience, and classical training with some of America’s best chefs. In the kitchen Matthew takes full advantage of the bounty of opportunities California ingredients present. This includes a strong belief in direct sourcing, producing, and playing a role in the creation of his ingredients. The result is an intensely personal cuisine that is both technically polished and soulful; and which has garnered praise from publications such as Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Under his direction, the restaurant has been awarded a Michelin star every year since 2013. Matthew was named a Star Chefs “2010 Rising Star” for his “innovative vision, finesse, and deeply satisfying cuisine,” and in 2011 he took top honors at San Francisco’s Cochon 555 competition. He has been nominated five times for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for “Best Chef: West.” Food & Wine Magazine named him “People’s Best Chef California” in 2013, and editorially selected him for the prestigious “Best New Chef” award in 2014. Matthew co-authored and released his first book, published by Ten Speed Press – SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine – in October 2012. In addition to successfully racing at the local and national level, Matthew is also the team chef for an elite cycling team in the Bay Area and a professional team based in Greenville, S.C. is thrilled about his partnership with Chefs Club.
“In the past few years I have cooked several times at the Chefs Club location in New York,” said Matthew. “I have also traveled throughout Colorado, for cooking and bike racing, my other great passion. The first time I traveled to Aspen in 2014, I arrived by bicycle from Leadville to collect my Food & Wine ‘Best New Chef’ award during the Classic. Coming full circle, I’m enthusiastic about bringing my cooking to altitude and being surrounded by the mountainscape of Colorado. I’m looking forward to engaging with the local community as well as destination diners.
I get to do something totally different, get outside my normal routine, and create a menu experience that is generous, lively and well-rounded with a nod to my Italian heritage.”
Curated by Matthew and the Chefs Club Aspen team, the wine list ranges from classics like legendary Bordeaux first growths, to up-and-coming regions like Spain’s Bierzo and Bullas or Greece’s Santorini and Naoussa.
The restaurant’s interior will transform with Matthew’s residency, with the addition of new dining chairs as well as artwork from a local Aspen gallery. Matthew will source specialty ingredients from partner producers like Sartori artisan cheese and La Quercia salami and hams. The front and back-of-house staff will be outfitted in custom designed aprons from Tilit and shirts from Patagonia. For the tabletop, Staub will supply much of the cookware including colorful coquettes and dishes.
Since opening in 2014, Chefs Club, founded by entrepreneur Stephane De Baets, has featured nearly 200 chefs from all over the world – from Tokyo’s Zaiyu Hasegawa to Alain Ducasse, among others. In October 2017, Chefs Club NYC debuted a new Chef Residency format, where in lieu of hosting a guest chef for one to three nights, chefs spend three to six months at Chefs Club, completely taking over the space and menu. Recent NYC residencies include Sota Atsumi (current), JJ Johnson (Fall 2017), and Jeremiah Langhorne (Q1 2018).