By Maddie Nerad
Staff Writer
If the way to the heart is through the stomach, then Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews has won over a lot of hearts through the years. Matthews shares his love of cooking through his website, principalchef.com.
Matthews first dabbled in cooking during grade school in Arkansas. He was greatly inspired by his mother. He includes some of her recipes on the site including her rice pudding, mac and cheese, and lemon chicken.
“My mom is a great cook,” Matthews said. “I remember coming home from swim practice in high school starving. Her meals were always perfect, and they made me very happy.”
Matthews became seriously interested in cooking during his senior year at Stanford University. Living with four other males in a house, the men switched off cooking duties and taught each other recipes.
“While the house may not have won awards for cleanliness, we did some pretty solid cooking,” Matthews said. “Each of us was responsible for one night a week. One person didn’t care, but the rest of us were quite competitive. We learned from each other and cooked really great meals four nights a week.”
Hailing from Arkansas, Matthews grew up loving barbeque. According to his website, his brother Pat Matthews introduced him to the technique of smoking meat about five years ago. Matthews even cans his own barbeque sauce.
“To me, [barbeque] means cooking meats for a long time over a low-heat smoker,” Matthews said. “It takes a long time, but it’s worth it. The dish I like to serve the most is pulled pork. It takes about 10 hours in a smoker.”
Matthews started his website, principalchef.com, “three or four years ago” as a way to share his recipes. The name comes from the fact that he was the principal for Malibu High School for 13 years. According to Matthews, although he does not make a profit off it, he finds it rewarding that others use and love the website.
“I figured that no one would look at it except for friends and family, but it’s actually received a steady number of hits,” Matthews said. “My family loves it, and it’s a fun thing to talk about. My college-age son now refers to it when he is cooking, so it’s a great resource for my family.”
One of Matthews’ major sources for recipes are his friends and family. He also adapts recipes from cookbooks he has read. Some of his favorite cookbooks include “Anything” by Ina Garten and “The Smoke and Spice Cookbook” by Cheryl and Bill Jamison. He also learns a lot from trial and error in the kitchen.
“When making new recipes, I try them on anyone except my immediate family,” Matthews said. “I get very disappointed if I am cooking for guests and the meal is not perfect.”
Matthews and his family entertain at his house often and host parties with anywhere from four people to 150. Some of his favorite dishes to cook for a crowd include baked brie, chicken cacciatore and chili.
“I have not tried Dr. Matthewws’ barbeque, however I hear it is incredible,” Mira Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. “I hope to try it someday.”
Pricipalchef.com features a wide variety of desserts, sides, entreés and even a Thanksgiving section. Not only does he love making a variety of food, he loves tasting them as well.
“I definitely am pretty adventurous when trying new foods,” Matthews said. “I love spicy food and almost every ethnic cuisine. But you can also make me pretty darn happy with super fresh seafood or a really great steak.”
As well as cooking, Matthews’ other hobbies include bicycling and hiking in the outdoors. He rarely just sits around and hangs out at home. According to Matthews, it is much more stimulating to get outdoors, cook and make things happen in the kitchen and the community.
“One of the secrets to enjoying life is finding all of the things that you enjoy so much that time loses meaning, and doing those things as much as you possibly can,” Matthews said. “I get to experience that a lot in my job as and I feel pretty lucky about that. I also get it through cooking. You focus so much on what you are doing at that one moment that other stresses in your own life can completely go away for a while.”
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