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Ai LIVE: Food Network Champ Chef Q Matisse’ Talks Culinary Inspiration

In this edition of Ai LIVE, host E. Vincent Martinez speaks with Food Network champion Chef Q Matisse’ Myers about his culinary philosophy, experience on Guy’s Grocery Games, and his consulting group.

Chef Q discusses his food upbringing as influenced by his family’s Panamanian, Spanish, Italian, and West Indian heritage. His passion for culinary arts was spurred on by his family’s rich history and interest in cuisine and entertaining—his aunt worked for Women’s Day Magazine as a food stylist and writer. When Chef Q relocated to the southern United States, he says that he gained the inspiration and knowledge needed to “add soul” to all of the techniques he’d learned while growing up in Brooklyn, New York.

Martinez also talks with Chef Q about his experience on Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games—which presented him with an extra challenge. Instead of the usual four contestants, there were eight on his day of competition. Each was a returning champion. “Guy’s Grocery Games teaches you to think on the fly. You have to create a menu in seconds,” says the Chef. He describes the filming as “a high level of nerve-wracking intensity.”

An award-winning culinary artist, Chef Q adds that he gets excited to introduce people to new tastes and spices. “Once you have that energy of constantly wanting to surprise someone, you will start to evolve into a chef and artist that creates a genre of new ideas,” he says. He also mentions that education is an important component to becoming a solid chef. In addition to being a Food Network champion, he was named one of the Top 100 Chefs in Atlanta by Culinary Local in 2018 and was also nominated as an Atlanta Rising Chef.

To help others who want to move up in the industry, Chef Q opened the Bernasconi Consulting Group, which works in everything from kitchen layout to helping small restaurants learn about financials, ordering, and training staff. The group coaches and instructs people who want to learn how to cook or gain knife skills.

Chef Q also takes time to directly answer student questions at the end of the segment, including what he most enjoys about the culinary industry and his newest project in the Atlanta area.

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