SEATTLE — When chef Matt Broussard makes a meal, he isn't just cooking for himself. He's cooking for millions.
"I try to be not too fancy and not too trashy just in between," said Matt.
Before Matt became an internet sensation for his cooking videos, he worked in Texas with dreams of coming to Seattle to cook for chef Tom Douglas.
"I wanted to work for him so bad that I had a Texas senator send a letter to him to recommend me."
It must have been the right ingredient. Matt joined Tom's staff in 2014 and ended up cooking at all of his many restaurants.
"I kept working for Tom as a rover, which is like a tournant is what the specific term is, where you work at all the restaurants pretty much any position you need to fill in the kitchen."
But while he was filling positions in Tom's kitchens, on the side he was positioning himself in front of a camera.
"It was really weird at first. Just blackout and not know what to say."
Over the years and many videos later, Matt not only figured out what to say, but he also carved a new path. When Douglas had to close his restaurants due to the pandemic, Matt started making videos full time.
"I started making TikTok videos in 2020 and they were all right, just regular recipe videos. And I noticed just the most random stuff on there would pop. Just the randomness things," said Matt. "One day I'll just cut an onion. That is it, straight up, chopped it up and that hit a million views."
Currently, his TikTok account @acooknamedmatt has 4.8 million followers and over half a million follow him on Instagram and YouTube.
"When you're not used to seeing that and you refresh your feed and you see the ticker go to thousands, to hundreds of thousands, to the millions it's just kind of crazy to see that."
And he shoots all the videos from his home.
"I got the camera here, a couple of lights," described Matt. "I've been shooting these things by myself for years and that's why I stick to just one camera to make my life easier. It's really quick cuts so I really don't have to say much. Mainly like prep, knife work, sounds."
After he's done shooting Matt cuts his shots together to share across all his social media channels.
"I go upstairs and edit the video and I have to figure out what that video is going to be distributed on, so I have to edit it for multiple things."
He may have started cooking for others, but chef matt Broussard has found himself the recipe for success.
"Just make an entertaining cooking video really. And teach people something."
Matt also has a line of salts out right now through Spokane's Spiceology. You can find more about it here.
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