Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
When: Brix hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Taste hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Brix information: www.brixomaha.com and 991-9463
Taste information: www.tastedining.com and 884-3175
He was born and raised in Hawaii. But 30-year-old Rob Mattoch felt like he was coming home when he moved to Omaha in April. That’s because his mother is a former Omahan.
Mattoch is the new executive chef for Brix, a wine bar that opened in January at Village Pointe, and also for Taste, a well-established restaurant in Rockbrook Village.
Q. So your mother is from Omaha?
A. Mom met Dad at Northwestern University in Illinois. Dad was from Hawaii, and he wooed her with a White Russian and an avocado. I imagine in 1952 it was pretty exotic fare.
Q. How did you get into cooking?
A. I went to Denver University for my undergrad degree. I was going to go to law school but across from D.U. law school was the Johnson & Wales Culinary School. I decided to take the tour and then the culinary course, which I regret only on pay day. Every other day it was the right decision.
Q. Where have you worked?
A. At 3660 On the Rise (in Honolulu), Lucy’s (in Kailua, Hawaii), the Rock Bottom restaurant group (in Denver). Then I needed to recharge my batteries. So I took the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) culinary course at Greystone in Napa Valley, Calif. I graduated in 2008 from the two-year program.
While going there I was employed at Robert Sinskey Winery, working with Maria Helm Sinskey, named a best new chef for 1996 by Food and Wine magazine. It was probably the most career-changing thing. They had a two-acre biodynamic garden that we pulled ingredients from daily, prepared and paired with wine.
A. What’s on the menu at Brix?
A. Our opening menu was just a very simple tapas-style (appetizer) menu: four hot, four cold and three desserts.
Now we have added daily specials, a signature chicken saute and pizzettes we make with sourdough starter. We have some fun, unique pizzettes: homemade Italian sausage with caramelized fennel; duck confit — braised duck leg — with Romesco sauce, white beans and arugula; and a simple smoked chicken pizzette.
There’s nothing wrong with simple. It just has to be done right. The chicken: we’re brining it here, smoking it here. We’re stretching our own mozzarella. We’re making it as artisan as possible at each step.
Q. So the menu is more of a small-plates, tasting-style, menu?
A. Yes, everything in the wine bar is “small plates.” You can get small pours of wine. It’s a tasting experience all around.
Q. Tell us about one of your hot plates.
A. We do a house-smoked troutcake (instead of crabcake). We buy trout farm-raised as close to here as possible. We cure it and we smoke it. We turn it into troutcake with a puree of sweet corn and a tomatillo sauce. Very pretty. We top it off with some house-made pickled vegetables: fennel, celery and red onion. Pickled vegetables go great with smoke. We’re converting people and winning people over to trout.
Q. How about an example of a cold plate?
A. We have a beet crostini topped with goat cheese, beets, balsamic drizzle and fresh chives. It goes well with white or red wine.
Q. I understand you’re emphasizing local products.
A. I’m not an environmentalist, I just really believe in quality ingredients. It’s neat that Omaha has a lot of options — really great farms and people who are trying to grow wonderful crops. I’m not necessarily on the organic kick. I’m interested in small farms and the best ingredients possible.
Q. Are you making changes on the Taste menu at Rockbrook Village?
A. Taste is such an institution in Rockbrook, I’m not going to mess with it too much. I’ve inherited the best staff I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with, and they make it so much easier. The only thing we’ve started to do is to start sourcing our ingredients from local purveyors. Taste is bringing its salad dressing to the Village Pointe Farmers Market and maybe stretching some mozzarella.
Q. You’re making your own mozzarella cheese?
A. Someone else makes the curd. The final stage is stretching the curd, and we stretch the curd. In fact, in the Brix restaurant, we stretch mozzarella to order.
Contact the writer:
444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com
@Pull quote CRO:“It’s neat that Omaha has a lot of options — really great farms and people who are trying to grow wonderful crops. ... I’m interested in small farms and the best ingredients possible.”
Rob Mattoch, executive chef at Brix
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
