Jeni's Table with Matt Tropeano of Spoon and Seed

What if we could prioritize our health by cooking healthy, delicious, nutritious meals more often and end up saving time and money in the long run by maximizing what we can make with the food we purchase? This column highlights a recipe from one of our local chefs. We’ll purchase what we need to create that dish and then I’ll create an additional recipe you can make with the ingredients you have left! I won’t add more than three additional ingredients – and most of those will be something you’re likely to have around the house!

This is an investment in us! So, let’s get cooking!

Matt Tropeano is the founder and owner of Spoon and Seed in Hyannis. He has a culinary resume to die for, but what he’s doing now amazes our taste buds, while focusing on sustainability and waste reduction. After getting “the bug” for the culinary arts while bussing at Ristorante Primavera in Millis in 1996 under the tutelage of the Gaita family, he decided to pursue a culinary degree. In 2001 he graduated as the top student chef in the Culinary Arts Department at Newbury College in Brookline under the mentorship of chef Madonna Berry.

Matt enjoyed a meteoric rise through the kitchen ranks from his promotion in 2001 to Sous Chef during his two-year stint at Boston’s Bay Tower Room to a saucier position at the acclaimed Nana in Dallas. While at Nana, Matt was selected to “perform” by Nana’s award-winning Chef David McMillan, presenting a dinner at the legendary James Beard House in Greenwich Village. After getting a taste of New York City for only a few days, Matt set his sights on the Big Apple and in June 2003 he joined Chef Michael White at Fiamma Osteria, expanding his undertstanding of Italian cooking. In 2004 he was offered a line cook position at La Grenouille in New York City and quickly elevated to the Executive Chef position there by restaurateur Charles Masson, who flew the young chef to France where Matt would discover the simplicities, beauty and spontaneity of French cuisine.

In 2011, Matt accepted the role of Executive Chef at the newly-opened La Silhouette. In the 2012 New York Times review of Matt’s lobster sauce, critic Pete Wells wrote, “For admirers of the saucier’s art, tasting it is like hearing a forgotten favorite record on the radio”. The light at La Silhouette was shining bright, but after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2013, Matt heard home calling, and took the position of Executive Chef at Pain D’Avignon.

In January of 2015, a neglected, vacant restaurant space on Kidd’s Hill Road in Hyannis tempted Matt to open a small business. Spoon and Seed served its first customer later that year. Creating an all-scratch breakfast and lunch, it quickly became a local favorite spot. It is a journey, a work in progress, and continues to be written, cooked and tasted. He places great importance on mentorship and helping others advance in the craft of cookery and hospitality. Martin Luther King’s philosophy that “there is power in numbers and power in unity” continues to inspire Matt’s management style. “I believe deeply that what can be measured, can be managed, and what is managed can be improved,” said Matt, and that is what motivates him to continually tweak all aspects of what he does.

He believes COVID created challenges and opportunities, and in 2022 he took time off to evaluate life, priorities and cooking, and revamped Spoon and Seed to what it is today. Matt’s entire menu is designed to reduce waste. He also created his Take and Bake options, recognizing the challenges we face accessing nutritious, deliciously prepared meals using only the highest quality ingredients. He, like myself, believes in the power of food to change lives and has built a team that deeply shares that vision.

Jeni Wheeler is the director, co-founder and creative mind behind the Family Table Collaborative. Through her sheer will, collaboration with local partners, thousands of manpower hours, and a dedicated army of over 550 volunteers, they have served over 120,000 nutritious, delicious meals into the Cape Cod community and rescued over 25,000 pounds of fresh produce to put back into the community. Jeni is passionate and dedicated to creating sustainable change through making nutritious, delicious food more accessible and addressing the education necessary to make cooking easier and more fun. Jeni has her MBA, with a focus in Social Entrepreneurship, from Babson.

Spoon and Seed
12 Thornton Drive, Hyannis
774-470-4634
spoonandseed.com

Family Table Collaborative
1338 Main Street (Route 28), South Yarmouth
familytablecollaborative.org