Master Chef Matei on TV again
Thanks to reporter Stuart Whincup for his piece about Kitchen Therapy which ran on BBC Look North last night. The Kitchen Therapy project, which Matei started with the help of Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation and Middlesbrough College, has made quite an impact in the North East media. As well as Look North, the story has been used by BBC Tees, the Sunday Sun, Northern Echo, The Gazette and News Guardian.
It has also been published on the website of the English Football League (EFL).
Kitchen Therapy aims to help people with mental health problems and has prompted Matei to talk about his own difficulties – in particular a suicide attempt when he was 20.
Even though a hotel or restaurant kitchen is perceived as a highly stressful environment, he says it has frequently been his salvation. “In the kitchen I find myself in a place which gives me back my confidence, takes away my bad thoughts and helps me move forward,” he said.
“I am so proud of everybody who has taken part in the Kitchen Therapy course. I know it was very difficult for many of them at the beginning, but they have really risen to the challenges I have set them. I hope, like me, the kitchen becomes their friend.”
Big Chef Matei first appeared on British television in 2016 when he reached the quarter final of 
MasterChef: The Professionals. In January 2019, working with Newsmaker, he made his first appearance on Look North to talk about overcoming a legal threat in order to publish his charity cookbook, Big Chef Mini Chef. Later that month Tyne Tees cameras came to Cramlington Learning Village – another Newsmaker client – to film Matei delivering a cooking masterclass to GCSE students.
The Kitchen Therapy story on the EFL website: