My route into hospitality: Matty Grove of Caper & Cure
Matty Grove started his career as a hairdresser, but now runs the kitchen at Caper & Cure, one of Bristol’s hottest dining spots.
In this three-part series, The Staff Canteen speaks to chefs who took an unconventional route into hospitality.
From hairdressing to hospitality
While many chefs come through classical training, college and the traditional brigade system, Matty Grove found his way into professional kitchens differently.
“I started off in a Chinese takeaway when I was 15 years old and then I went over to a little sandwich shop,” Matty began.
“I wouldn’t say these are pioneering parts of my life that dictated my love for the industry, but they were definitely starting points.
“Then I studied hairdressing.
“I was artistic at school. My dad was a hairdresser, so I followed that branch for a little while. I worked at some different places around London, Bath and Bristol.
“And then aged 20 I went travelling, to India. I saw some pretty cool things, some pretty cool food. I’ve always loved eating food since I was a little imp, but never thought about anything to do with cooking it.
“My nan was a chef when we were growing up, and we always ate with her, but I never put two and two together.
“I came back from travelling and just for some reason wasn’t interested in the hairdressing anymore at all.”
Finding a way into the kitchen
Looking for a job in Bath after returning from his travels, Matty went to work at a smokehouse called the Green Park Tavern.
“It was pretty heavy. There was a lot of partying,” he admitted.
“They had a pretty cool kitchen there. Nothing fancy, it was just like dirty junky food - burgers and ribs and whole smoked chickens, things like that.
“I was like, this is wonderful. It’s exactly what I like eating. So then I ended up in the kitchen there.
“It was a pretty unconventional route, really.
“Most people are like ‘I love food, I always knew I wanted to be a chef, I went to culinary school or went to college’. For me, there’s no romantic story about it at all. I just ended up there.
“It only took a few days to realise that it was very special.
“We didn’t have a big brigade - we had five of us in the kitchen.
“It was never like, ‘yes chef’, and militant stuff that you learn later on down the line. It was more like, this is cool. I like being stressed and hot and anxious. Why am I feeling all these things?”
Learning through mistakes and early kitchen roles
That proved to be start of Matty’s journey as a professional chef.
“I worked in a few different kitchens,” he said.
“I worked at a brasserie as a head chef, thinking that I was fantastic at the time.
“I felt confident and young and vain and got humbled really, really quickly. Day one, got humbled like no other. It was embarrassing. It was hilarious to look back on.
“It was just a very simple little brasserie. I was completely out of my depth.
“Then I went to Hunter & Sons, the only place that resembled sort of Bristolian cultured cuisine.
“I started looking at all these books then, like the Momofuku book. I was like, God, there’s a lot of cool people out there.
“My inspiration then was Christina Tosi, who runs Milk Bar in New York. I moved on to some pastry a little bit and I was obsessed with baking and making junky pastry goods.”
Seven years at Menu Gordon Jones
Matty’s culinary story then took him to one of most exciting chefs in the south west.
“I moved to Menu Gordon Jones. Then I did have a role model, and that was him,” Matty said.
“I was there for seven years. That was in 2018, when I was aged 25. I was like, look, I’m a bit older, I’ve not really taken this career as seriously as I should have, how do I fast track this at my age and be a semi-successful chef?
“Gordon was this brilliant chef, someone who had been trained by Martin Wishart and people like that, and someone who was taking the industry really seriously and taking it properly.
“That was definitely the most important and most integral bit of knowledge I’ve learned really, from him.”
He added: “At Menu Gordon Jones, it was a nine-course surprise tasting menu. He had already been doing the job for 25 years, and he worked at the Relais & Châteaux hotels, he ran the Royal Crescent Hotel at age 23 and worked at Michelin-starred restaurants.
“He went through his classic training. He basically knew everything.
“We never made a conventional brown stock or a blonde roux. He just bunged a load of shit into a pan and put it in the oven overnight and it tasted like gold.
“He was like Willy Wonka. And I was like, that’s a sick way of cooking.”
Building Caper & Cure in Bristol
With that pivotal spell under his belt, Matty decided it was time for a new challenge.
“Caper & Cure is a special little place,” he explained.
“It’s on a busy, bustling road in Stokes Croft. There’s just lots of colour and lots of things going on. It’s like watching television, but like a wacky TV. It’s almost post-apocalyptic sometimes. There are fires, rough locals, every single type of person is there. It’s noisy.
“And it’s funny because it’s this gorgeous little bistro on the corner that is sort of safe from the things going on. As soon as you walk in, you feel quite happy and warm.
“I truly believe that a good bistro is built over time, not just built.”
He continued: “What I’ve tried to do with the owner Giles is create a menu that fits into how I love to eat, but also fits into the style of restaurant it is.
“I like the idea of a restaurant where you can go into and feel fulfilled.
“You can walk in there in a tuxedo or a pair of shorts and not feel out of place, but you can also not be robbed of your money.
“We’re a European restaurant essentially, sort of semi-French leading.
“I do follow the seasonal thing, but I like to follow seasonal in the sense that it can be seasonal anywhere.
“What people enjoy when they sit down is being in a very comforting zone with recognisable, nostalgic food that makes them think, yeah, this is great, this is exactly how it should be.
“That’s what we are as a restaurant. It’s how a restaurant and how hospitality should be, in my eyes.”
How hairdressing helps Matty as a chef
Matty has been head chef at Caper & Cure for over two years. This year, it has been nominated for the Good Food Guide’s 100 best local restaurants list.
Asked if he feels any skills he learned in his previous career as a hairdresser are transferable to being a chef, Matty said: “I’m a true believer that all skills are transferable in some way or another in any industry.
“I took lots and lots from the hairdressing that I still use in cooking. I think that’s mainly things that shape your personality.
“When you’ve got this job where you’re using your hands constantly, I guess that’s one thing that you’re able to use to your advantage.
“I’m definitely not a toothpick and tongs kind of chef. But certainly when you’re doing intricate jobs in cooking, it really comes into play.
“I think the main part helps with what I encourage my chefs to do a lot, which is be customer-facing.
“We’re in a semi-open kitchen downstairs. We have a table by us a lot of the time. At Menu Gordon Jones, we served all the food ourselves. So I think what it did help with was customer-facing relations and being able to have a genuine conversation and eye contact with the guests.”
He added: “I truly believe that the cooking part of cheffing isn’t difficult. I don’t mean that in a vain way. I don’t think that it’s because I’m particularly good at it.
“But I do think that the emotional side outweighs the physical side.
“A lot of chefs that go into the industry without any sort of worldly knowledge, it can be quite difficult for them.
“You can have all these skills, but you meet a lot of chefs with absolutely no social skills whatsoever.
“That personality is what should make them thrive.”
‘It’s something you never lose’
And while life as a chef is definitely the path Matty wants to continue on, he will never fully hang up the scissors and clippers.
“I recently cut my housemate’s hair,” he said.
“It’s something you never lose.
“I don’t miss it because I can still do it, so it’s okay. That’s something I probably won’t ever stop doing, just because it’s quite nice.
“I have fond memories of it. It would be nice to turn around one day if I have kids or nephews and nieces and they want a little haircut.
“If I’m having a very, very tricky day, I will turn around to my chefs and say, why did I not stay a hairdresser?
“And it’s a joke because I love where I am. I’m very privileged, very lucky to be in the position I am.”
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My route into hospitality: Matty Grove of Caper & Cure
