In an industry steeped in tradition, Celebrity Chef Matt Basile strives to do things differently. After over a decade of domination in the food industry with his brands Fidel Gastro’s and Lisa Marie; his TV show, Rebel Without a Kitchen; and his two bestselling cookbooks, Matt is now disrupting the barbecue and live-fire cooking landscape as Co-Founder and Creative Firestarter for Alchemy Grills.
In just under four years, Matt transformed the Fidel Gastro’s brand from an underground sandwich pop-up to an internationally recognized food brand, earning recognition in Toronto Life as a pivotal chapter in Toronto’s dining history. He also ran the Queen West gastropub and brunch hotspot, Lisa Marie, for six phenomenal years. The restaurant was featured on Food Network’s You Gotta Eat Here! and CBC’s Chef in the City and was also ranked as the ninth best brunch spot in Canada by OpenTable magazine.
For two seasons, Matt was the host of the reality TV show, Rebel Without a Kitchen, seen internationally on Netflix, the Travel and Escape Channel, the Cooking Channel, and the Asian Food Channel, and was nominated for a coveted Canadian Screen Award for Best Host of a Canadian Reality Series. In 2020, Matt competed on CBC’s competitive reality show, Fridge Wars, and just four years later, he took home the win on season two of Milk Masters.
Matt is the author of two bestselling cookbooks, Street Food Diaries and Brunch Life, which was nominated for a Taste Canada Award and a World Gourmand award. He has also written for The Huffington Post and Vice and is a regular guest on programs such as Breakfast Television, CTV’s The Social, The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, and Global’s The Morning Show.
Matt continues to reinvent himself in the food space, partnering with two seasoned entrepreneurs to launch Alchemy Grills — the first barbecue that allows home cooks to both smoke and grill food at the same time with one appliance.
