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Monte Mathews
Monte Mathews
If I can cook it, you can cook it!
New York City and Bridgehampton, New York, United States
Joined April 07, 2013
Intermediate Cook
Featured Author
All star, Top Photographer, 1716 CookEatShare points

About me


Monte Mathews was born in Montreal, Canada. Though a physician by profession, Monte’s father was a true foodie. He corned his own beef and his idea of a particularly good time was to read aloud from Gourmet magazine. And to this day, Montreal itself is a food destination that’s hard to equal. But it wasn’t that nor his family’s two year stint in Rome that brought food to the fore for Monte. It was the first thing out of his mother’s mouth years later than brought out his love for cooking and writing about it.
When he was getting a divorce, his mother said “You’ll never eat properly again”. “Says who?” said Monte. And from that day forward he was out to prove it. Completely self taught, he became an avid reader of cookbooks, subscriber to every food magazine, writer of recipes and recollections. Eventually, some of these found their way into Saveur magazine, including the first thing he ever wrote: “Monte’s Ham”, described by the New York Times as reason alone to buy “Saveur Cooks Authentic American”.
Though cooking occupied his off hours, Monte’s career in Advertising was tough and demanding. Travel was an enormous part of his job. He worked on 6 continents, has visited 45 countries and used his language skills in French, Italian and Spanish to great advantage. He backburnered his food writing. In its place came writing for food advertisers. For Sara Lee, he invented “The Kitchen of the real Sara Lee” campaign, a recipe focused effort that let him combine his ad skills with his culinary ones. Other parts of Sara Lee’s food business came under Monte’s care. Jimmy Dean got his voice from Monte. Bryan Foods became “The Flavor of the South” and Hillshire Farms became “The taste to come home to”.
Monte’s next professional challenge was the first-ever Advertising for Newman’s Own, Paul Newman’s quirky food line which gives all its profits to charity. In just 7 years, the campaign grew Paul’s donations from $75,000,000 to $225,000,000 and counting. But he wasn’t just the Creative Director. He was a judge for the “Presto Picks” recipe contest Newman’s Own ran in conjunction with Food Network TV.
Now, Monte has thrown himself into food writing full-time. He’s actively looking to collaborate with food professionals looking to find their voice. He’s seeking challenges in bringing new cookbooks to fruition. And he has launched a wildly successful food blog which has over 400 articles read by 20,000 viewers a month. See what’s attracting all that attention at www.chewingthefat.us.com
Monte can be reached at [email protected]

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