The Chefs

If the bistronomy menu changes every day, progressively, particularly with the arrival of new seasonal raw ingredients, so too can the chef. In their quest for flavour and la cuisine radicale, chefs are always on the move, seeking new experiences. At the time of printing these are the restaurant kitchens and spaces they call home.

Matt Aita started working at the tender age of 16 as a restaurant cashier. Realising that he preferred to cook for people rather than talk to them, Matt quickly moved into the cockroach-ridden kitchens of Philadelphia under hardcore old-school chefs in dodgy cafés and pubs before making a slow migration to New York. Free labour and stages under some of the city’s best chefs led to jobs as sous chef at db bistro moderne, Jean–Georges and Nougatine as well as stints at Jim Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery, before taking on his role as head chef at Le Philosophe. Here Matt Aita, backed by years working for Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, is cooking from the French canon with style.