Head Chef at Vintaged Bar and Grill Matthew Wood started his career at just 16 years of age when he left school and got a part time job as kitchen hand. However it was not until he was living and working in Canada at local kitchens that he really cemented his passion for cooking. After working at local restaurants, Matthew as he so aptly puts it, “weaselled” his way into a coveted job as a Demi Chef de Partie at a beautiful and prestigious country Inn a few hours out of Canada. Matthew soon felt overwhelmed once realising his skills were not quite up to par yet.
However he regards the experience as career changing. The restaurant went above and beyond to deliver the best meals and it enabled Matthew to see what cooking for a living could really be like. It was this experience the spurred him on to travel the world with his cooking career. “They bought their fish right off the boats at the harbour, the beef and lamb were raised about 30 minutes down the road, and they had a huge vegetable garden that supplied the kitchen. It was a way of cooking and connecting with food that I had not experienced previously and was in stark contrast to the kind of fast pace work I had been doing,” says Matthew.
After all those years travelling Matthew is now back in his home country of Australia and working at Vintaged Bar and Grill In Brisbane. Matthew, with his wealth of international and national cooking experience at some of the top ranked restaurants now curates the menu for Vintaged. The menu focuses of top tier Australian beef and seafood cooked on the grill. The Menu is constantly changing based on what local Queensland suppliers have available. Vintaged sources a lot of their ingredients from, Lockyer Valley, the Darling Downs, the Granite Belt and Mooloolaba to name a few. The dishes at Vintaged Bar and Grill showcase balanced flavours and attractive presentation.
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