Cooking from South Texas to Seattle

For many of us, finding our true passion can take decades. A select few of us are fortunate enough to build our dream career right away. Matt Broussard, known as acooknamedmatt on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok is one of those lucky few.

Matt grew up cooking with his grandmother in South Texas; mastering basic techniques before he was out of middle school. By the time he turned 16, Matt had his first cooking job in a restaurant and his career was well underway. After a trip to culinary school in Austin and a few more restaurant jobs, Matt landed in Seattle working for Tom Douglas, Seattle's most famous restauranteur and shaper of food.

Then a few months ago, Matt's passion for creating food inspiration online led him to a job with Spiceology as their in-house chef and chief content creator.

I'm not in a test kitchen right now for obvious reasons, but I'm still busting out content on Instagram and YouTube as they [Spiceology] need it. I'm lucky to be doing what I was I doing on my own, but with their amazing spices.

It's a dream scenario for someone who is passionate about sharing his food with a digital audience.

Matt's advice for someone who wants to improve their cooking skills?

Pick a handful dished that you like, and focus on mastering those dishes. You'll have a few things to cook for friends when they come over, and some things in your repertoire that you know you can recreate every time. Eventually you can start to make those dishes your own. Doing a few things really well will help your technique and your confidence.

We also asked Matt how home cooks can perform more like their restaurant kitchen counterparts. His recommends using everything and not being afraid of the freezer! It's a an attitude towards cooking scrappy and being mindful about waste that we love too.

In my home kitchen I'm always trying to turn one ingredient into many. The other day I smoked a chicken, ate that, put the carcass into a pot and made a stock with veggie scraps I had in the freezer. I took a bit of the stock out and made jus as well. Anything I don't use right away gets frozen. I vacuum pack and freeze everything just like in a restaurant.  

As a Texas native it was only appropriate for Matt to share his recipe for breakfast tacos. It's a Texas staple featuring potatoes, eggs, and chorizo. If you are feeling adventurous you can make your own flour tortillas as well.

You can follow Matt on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for more great recipes, videos, and cooking tips.