Until moving to Texas in May, Matthew Gray had spent pretty much his whole life in Scotland. Born in the town of Elderslie, just west of Glasgow, he has spent his professional
life working in that country’s fine-dining
hotels, including his recent position as
executive chef of Inverlochy Castle in
Torlundy, where he was awarded a
Michelin star.
While working at that hotel, which Travel
+ Leisure magazine declared the best hotel in
Europe in 2006, he did several dinners with
renowned French chef Albert Roux, who
opened Le Gavroche with his brother Michel
in London in 1967.
Roux approached Gray about heading up
the kitchen at Chez Roux, his new venture at
the recently opened La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa in Montgomery, Texas, about an
hour’s drive north of downtown Houston.
did a number of gala dinners with
chef Roux. So when he approached
me and asked me to head up Chez
Roux at the resort, it was a great
compliment, and it’s a new challenge for me as well. I’m happy to
take it on.
Why did you study hospitality management
before becoming a chef?
I got two years into the course and felt I
didn’t really want to be a manager, but it
was a case of: “You started it; let’s finish it.”
In college I spent time working in
kitchens and decided that’s where I wanted
to be. When you’re working in the kitchen,
it’s the camaraderie with the guys that I
like. It’s a hard environment to be in, but it’s
a good environment to be in as well.
What are your impressions of your
new home?
I just got here. I’m still finding my
feet. We’re part of a larger resort, so
even though we’re the fine-dining
restaurant we still have to be part of
the whole team.
It’s fantastic to come to a kitchen
that’s brand new and fully built. I’ve
inherited the team that’s in place at
the moment and they’re all great
guys, so the initial impression is
very good.
I need to take a driving test.
That’s something
I need to take
care of fairly
quickly.
Did you drive in
Scotland?
Yes, but on the
other side of the
road and such.
BIOGRAPHY
How did you get into fine dining?
People find the niche where they want to
be, whether it’s at the top end or not. Some
people really enjoy doing 200 or 300 covers a night and turning out food really
quickly. And some people like more responsibility.
For my first fine-dining job I was in a
country house hotel east of Edinburgh
called Greywalls. I’d done a six-month stage
there when I was in college, and the chef
asked me to come back.
Title: executive chef, Chez Roux,
La Torretta Del Lago Resort &
Spa, Montgomery, Texas
Birth date: April 18, 1969
Hometown: Elderslie, Scotland
Education: bachelor’s degree
with distinction in hospitality
management from Napier Poly-
technic, Edinburgh, Scotland
Career highlights: getting a
Michelin star and having Albert
Roux approach him to head up
Chez Roux
How did you meet Albert Roux?
When I first started cooking I had been a
stagiare at Gavroche, and at Inverlochy I
CHEF’S TIPS
• Use your suppliers as a resource. They
often have better knowledge of what’s
in season and what’s available.
• There’s always an alternative: Use your
skills to work around supply problems and
make the most of what you have.
How would you
describe the food
you made in Scot-
land?
All [Western fine-dining] food has
got the building
blocks of French cuisine, but it was British
food in my own style. We’d try to embrace
the new trends, but only if they were appropriate to what we were trying to do. I’m
not into a lot of the scientific stuff.
One of the popular dishes was Scottish
blue lobster with a nice cauliflower salad
and a yogurt beignet — just a wee yogurt
fritter with a French vinaigrette emulsified
with crème fraîche.
We would hang the yogurt to dry it out,
coat it in a little bit of breadcrumbs, season
it with salt, pepper and a wee bit of Tabasco.
It works very well with the cauliflower and
lobster.
It’s something that came to me in the
middle of the night, really. I think I read
about someone deep-frying yogurt.
I thought about it a bit and that was the
dish we came up with. It was a nice summer dish. The beignet adds a certain
brightness to it, and it’s a different
element.
When you were growing up did
you have an idea of what you
wanted to be?
My father was in charge of the
kitchen at the Glasgow airport,
and I’d always been involved in the
kitchen with him, getting a feel for it in a way.
But my father died of cancer at a young
age, and my mother blamed the industry
for it. As I grew up and went to high school,
I thought [foodservice] was the direction I
wanted to go, but my mother didn’t. I procrastinated for a while after graduation
[from high school] and the management
side seemed like a way to go.
But when push came to shove, I had to
do what I had to do. I don’t think my mother was particularly happy about it, but
you’ve got to go with your heart.
I did feel it was great to have a qualification, and once you start something you
may as well finish it. But I must say after
three years I was ready to get away from it,
as you can imagine.
I’m a great believer in communication and
teamwork and having the guys contribute to
what we do. When you have good guys working for you, why not take advantage of their
ideas as well as your own? I think a lot of
chefs don’t communicate with their staff. They
have an idea in their heads, but they don’t really explain it.
Do you have an idea how long you’re going
to stay in Houston?
My work visa is two-and-a-half years. At the
end of that time we’ll see what happens.
Has your degree served any purpose?
It gives you an idea of running a kitchen and
keeping an eye on the revenue and the costs.
In that respect I think it was invaluable.
You’ve lived your whole life in Scotland.
Have you traveled much?
I went to a friend’s wedding in Australia,
but when you enter in the hospitality industry it’s all-encompassing. It does clip
your wings a bit. I don’t work quite as hard
at looking after myself, and it’s possible that
my personal life suffers from that.
I used to take a couple of days off, and
my number one man would be in charge,
but I’d always be thinking about what
might be happening in the kitchen. It’s hard
to turn that off sometimes. ■
