“Being a good chef is being able to be creative and tell a story using different ingredients that will make someone feel something”

Hello and welcome! I’m Chef Matt Pace, a New Orleans native now based in Amsterdam. I fell in love with food and cooking at a very young age, watching the cooking shows that would come on after whatever kid’s show I was watching. The stories one can tell with food, the almost endless possibilities of what one can create, and how food connects us and brings us together are all the things that inspire me as a chef. After many years working in professional restaurant kitchens in multiple cities and countries and owning and operating my own restaurant called Cafe Booqoo in Brooklyn, I‘m now the Executive Chef at Elysianne located in the Oud-Zuid neighborhood of Amsterdam, where I’m able to create new dishes, modern twists on traditional ones, and overall teach and introduce diners to the flavors and culture of my hometown of New Orleans and the reasons why I love it and take pride in it in my identity both as a person and a chef.