In 1985, Brooklyn-born chef, Michael Schlow, traded
his baseball scholarship and a 92 mile-an-hour fastball
for a set of Wusthof knives and a place at the Academy
of Culinary Arts in New Jersey. It was a wise career
move that resulted in Schlow opening his Boston restaurant,
Radius, in January of 1999 and the recent launch
of his new Boston restaurant and café, Via
Matta.
Before making Boston his home-away-from-home, Schlow
trained in a handful of restaurants in the New York
area. He devoted a great deal of his culinary career
to developing his skills in classic Italian cooking.
His career began with renowned New York restaurateur
Pino Luongo where he immediately adopted a commitment
to the elegance and simplicity of true Tuscan cooking.
Chef Schlow went on to become the Chef de Cuisine
at Manhattan hotspots, Coco Pazzo and Le Madri and
eventually became Executive Chef at famed Long Island
restaurant, Sapore di Mare. Chef Schlow continued
to develop a commitment to proper technique and to
the purity of Tuscan cooking at 75 Main, a restaurant
and gourmet market in the Hamptons, adding Asian and
French influences to his cooking.
In 1995, at the urging of long-time friend Christopher
Meyers, Schlow moved to Boston, kicking and screaming,
to reopen Café Louis. After a 3-year stint
there, where Schlow garnered nearly every culinary
distinction imaginable, including Boston Magazine's
"Best New Chef in Boston" and Food and
Wine's "Top 10 New Chefs in the Country,"
Schlow and Meyers turned the heat up on their larger
plan.
Since opening Radius, Schlow's second joint venture
with Meyers in Boston, the praise keeps coming. Featuring
a very personal style of modern French cuisine, Radius
has become one of the most popular and highly acclaimed
restaurants to ever open in Boston. Radius was named
one of the 50 best American restaurants in the September,
2001 issue of Gourmet and Best New Restaurant
in 2000 by Food & Wine Magazine. The restaurant,
described by one critic as "stylish, streamlined,
and sophisticated," and was named "Top 50
Most Exciting Restaurants in the World" by Conde
Nast Traveler.
Schlow and Meyers have now opened Via Matta, in Boston's
Back Bay area, where Schlow can return to his first
great love in the kitchen: Italian cuisine. Schlow
says of his intentions behind the menu, "We want
diners to experience the freshness and authenticity
of Italian cuisine."
With his tight network of friends and co-workers and
two acclaimed restaurants in the city of the Red Sox,
Schlow grudgingly calls Westwood, MA his home, but
remains a die-hard Yankees fan.
