Going head to head with any chef in a cooking showdown on television must be a daunting prospect for anybody. But going up against fiery food legend Gordon Ramsay is a whole other kettle of fish - especially when you're a former protegee. Matt Waldron, who is the head chef at The Stackpole Inn in Pembrokeshire, is a former mentee of the famous TV chef and recently reunited with him after more than a decade during the Hell's Kitchen star's new three-part cooking show, Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted Showdown from National Geographic.
The episode, named the 'Wales Tales' saw Gordon Ramsay set off on an adventure - set by Matt - to explore the rugged yet beautiful elements of Wales across the course of a week, from the mountains of Snowdonia, to the storm-crashed cliffs of the west coast, in a bid to learn everything there is to know about Welsh cooking - from farm and sea to table.
At the end of the episode, viewers watched on as Matt and Gordon reconvened before entering into a cook-off in a bid to see who was able to cook Welsh produce the best, with Gordon putting into practice everything he'd learnt in the days leading up to it - a challenge Matt tells us was "surreal" and "intimidating".
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We caught up with Matt to see how the experience went.
"It was quite daunting, to be honest. He's such a big figure in the industry and in cooking - and everything else. It's quite daunting. He's quite a daunting person to meet, I suppose. And it's quite surreal to meet someone like that," he says over Zoom.
He adds: "It was intimidating. [I was] out of my comfort zone. But it was really good. It was good fun. And it was quite incredible to work next to him like that. It's not something you do every day. So it's definitely something to remember."
But this isn't Matt's first time working with the TV personality. When he was just starting out in the culinary industry, Matt Waldron was a Chef de Partie at the Gordon Ramsay Group 13 years ago, but the 33-year-old Usk-born chef, who is now based in Pembrokeshire, hadn't seen him since.
"[I saw] him in the kitchen back in London when I was there. But I mean, I haven't seen him since. Only what you see on TV and social media and stuff like that. But in person, I haven't seen him since."
He explained of how the show, which sees Gordon teaming up with past proteges, and him featuring on it came about in a scenario that had Matt in disbelief.
"Basically, lockdown kicked in [and I] just had an email and a phone call from somebody from production of Uncharted, National Geographic in America, got the ball rolling from that," he says. "Obviously my background working for Gordon before many years ago helped me as well, because the whole show is based with sort of protegees and so on. Being in Pembrokeshire, and this side of Wales, it's an amazing area, it's so beautiful down here, that also swung in my favour as well, to be honest."
But when he got the call, he explains: "It was surreal to start with, I suppose. It was just like 'really?'. 'Was it just some sort of wind up?' It was lockdown as well, so it was all a bit up in the air. Everything was up in the air at the time. It was amazing to have the chance and the opportunity to do it."
Matt has had an impressive career since he worked with Gordon Ramsay as a fresh new chef on the London circuit and has worked under a plethora of other renowned chefs such as Helene Darozze, James Sommerin, and Ynyshir's Gareth Ward ("His style is so unique, he's so different. There's nobody like that"). Having garnered an abundance of skills over his time he returned to the homeland in 2014 - and since, it seems, as Gordon remarked in the show: "You’ve gone all Welsh on me since I last saw you in London".
He explains that it was opportunity and family that brought him back to Wales: "There was an opportunity to work at James Sommerin's when he was opening in Penarth. And it was a position that I wanted to go for, it was a step up and everything else. So it was good sort of career progression for me. And it was back home - close to my parents as well, which is good."
Although he carved out a career in cooking early in his life, Matt reveals that his initial pipe dream was to be a pilot - a far cry from michelin-star kitchens - and one that is now "long, long, long gone. When you're a kid, you don't know what you want to do. I thought a pilot was quite cool. So I thought I could do that - nothing ever came of it," he laughs.
A job in a kitchen during his teens turned his flying-dreams around and he "fell in love" with cooking so he followed his passion to culinary college before the bright lights of London town called where he worked under and taken inspiration from household names like Helen Derozze: "Her philosophy," he muses, "and just the way she runs a kitchen was nothing I've seen, or experienced. I still haven't experienced. Keeping things simple, all about flavour, all about the quality of the produce, we sort of try to bring that here with us now."
Using fresh local produce is at the heart of Matt’s cooking philosophy, which is showcased at The Stackpole Inn, and it has seen him cultivate strong relationships with suppliers in the west.
Now, the chef lives in Pembrokeshire with his German Shorthaired Pointer, Pippa, and explains that he is happier than ever thanks to the scenery, gorgeous produce, way of life and the lovely people.
"I probably would never move now. It's a totally different sort of lifestyle, it's so much slower down here. It's more relaxed and chill... it suits a purpose. Nice area to be. Wherever you look, wherever you go, you're never too far from a beach. You're never too far from the sea. You've always got the mountains in the view at the back.
"Everyone's friendly down here. It's totally different. You could be in London and nobody could speak to you. You could go the entire journey to work and not a single person will say hello. Walk down the high street in Pembroke or in Stackpole and someone will see you and then they just start speaking to you. Just a totally different sort of life," he says with a smile.
And unlike the Michelin-star restaurants he's worked at in London, Matt explains that, now, he has more of a work-life balance due to the hours he works - which he explains was a "massive shock from working so many hours to then dropping down". He now works an unheard of (in the cheffing business) 40 hours - or so - a week, and explains his bosses, who run The Stackpole Inn, are adamant on all staff achieving a brilliant work-life balance.
With more hours in the day than he was used to, he explains that he now has time for hobbies outside of work - and one of them is pretty challenging.
"I race in the Iron Mans," he says nonchalantly. "[During lockdown] I was doing a lot of sort of swimming, biking running, which you could do. I mean we are so close to sea, I just went to the sea and swum in it in the summer. It was nice that the sea was still quite warm. And it's great for runs and bik[ing]. Walking the dog quite a lot every day along the coast paths, the local paths around us... freshwater East was nice little area to be in."
He adds of doing such a race - and the training for it: "It's interesting to see how far you can push yourself. At what point your brain says you've got to stop and how far you can go past that point then. It's quite interesting. I quite like the regime, the training keeps you fit as well. So it's good. Numerous benefits."
Gordon Ramsay Uncharted: UK Showdown is available on catch-up services - on National Geographic, via Sky and Virgin Media.
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