Matt left a suit and tie job about eleven years ago to pursue cooking. Growing up, he was always around extraordinary food made at the hands of extraordinary cooks. His family kept gardens and knew what it meant to make pickles and preserves from the extras.
Matt’s cooking career is the result of the grace of a couple of overwhelmingly talented and selfless chefs who, for whatever reason, shared what they know with him. He’s worked primarily in relationship-driven, hyper-seasonal restaurants in Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, and now the Lowcountry. Matt opened Blacksheep May of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic after scraping together some savings over the decade prior.
BBQ has always been a part of Matt’s life. Some of his fondest memories as a young person centered around Fresh Air in Jackson, Ga. He’d often order too much and picnic at nearby Indian Springs State Park as a halfway point for his mom’s dad. Fresh Air set the bar for all other bbq as it’s still his metric for evaluating pork to this day. It’s a strong testament to the power of food to create such lasting memories.
