Matthew Accarrino

Career Training at the Culinary Institute of America gave Matthew Accarrino the technical base for a career shaped by demanding kitchens and repeat service. From cook at Emeril’s in New Orleans to cook at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, then cook in Italy, and later an opening team member at Per Se in New York City, the throughline is steady exposure to high standards. Each stop sharpened the same habits: precision, pace, and the ability to learn in motion. That background now supports a wider role across several kitchens. Matthew is chef of SPQR (since 2009), chef of Mattina (since 2023), and consulting chef of Vetra and the sister cafe at The Elene (since 2026). The work suggests a cook who moved from formation into oversight, with multiple rooms still anchored in the discipline that defined his early years.

Signature

SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine is the signature title tied to Matthew Accarrino, and it points directly to the framework behind his cooking: Italian lineage, handled with attention to the pairing of food and wine. The emphasis is not decoration, but structure. It places the kitchen inside a broader dining conversation, where the food has to hold up alongside the wine and the format has to support both.

In Their Words Accarrino talks about restaurants in terms of repetition, training, service, and the slow settling of a team into rhythm. The language is practical rather than polished, and it matches the way kitchens actually become stable. "We are feeling the rewards of all the training now as things are starting to gel and I feel very happy with where we’ve gotten in such a short amount of time and that we are busy and have so many repeat customers." That same outlook appears in a second line that keeps the focus on the cook’s side of the counter: "I wanted to meet the people behind my food."