3 minute read
MEET CHEF MATTHEW NOBBS
The New Face at Anthony’s
By April Neale
Anthony’s of Boise has a new head chef! Meet Matthew Nobbs, a son of Michigan who moved to southeastern Washington in 2001 and found he had a culinary calling with Anthony’s, who found him young and trained him well.
“I was working at another restaurant with a woman who began working for Anthony’s. She saw that I had some talent, and she was working at their banquet and event center in Richland. I interviewed several head chefs who liked me and brought me on over, so I did banquets for the first six, eight months of my career with Anthony’s,” Nobbs said.
Nobbs said that once he got into cooking, he found that he enjoyed it and that he was good at it. “I buttoned down the hatches and took every opportunity seriously. I had a great teacher, Chef Carlos Cortez, and I tried to be a sponge and absorb all his lessons,” Nobbs explained.
In the wine country of Washington, Nobbs learned every aspect of fine dining, from large groups to focused meal service in a traditional setting, important qualities for the Anthony’s dining experience, which stresses the quality of ingredients and loyalty to service.
Family-owned and with more than 300 team members who have been there for over ten years, Anthony’s invests in the people they trust—there are some employees who have had multiple generations of family members employed there.
“Since they liked me, they moved me to the restaurant 200 yards away. I moved from the banquet event center to Richland. I worked there for the better of a decade and learned a great deal from multiple chefs and Executive Chef Pat Donohue,” Nobbs said.
He learned from Anthony’s best, and received his training on the job over nearly two decades, working his way up through the line to a kitchen supervisor position, and eventually to sous chef. Nobbs estimated that it took about nine years with Anthony’s. “Then the banquet hall became a Budd’s Broiler, with heavy emphasis on steaks and wine selections. I went over as the sous chef, then took over as head chef and learned much about steaks and preparation. Anthony’s made sure we had lots of training,” he said.
Nobbs took a butchering class that had him training with Snake River Farms before he turned 30, and by then, he’d been head chef for five or six years.
“This is the part where the story gets fun. Chef Carlos Cortez from Richland, my mentor, came down and opened up the Boise restaurant here. But it didn’t work out for him, and he had to return home and take over Budd’s Broiler. We did a complete switch up in posts,” Nobbs laughed.
As for the menu, Nobbs hopes you try a bit of everything, including the seafood, which is admittedly delicious—it comes straight off the plane weekly from Alaska and Puget Sound. “We have a brined pork chop, the most underrated dish on our menu. Our fresh halibut is outstanding. But the exciting news is our Boise Oyster Bar. It’s just a fun place. We’re doing $2 oysters and $3 beers. There are many small plates, a relaxed little environment, and a dog-friendly patio,” he said.
