From working 80+ hour weeks in the insane hustle and bustle of a restaurant life to trading in his stained apron for a less stressful corporate foodie job, Matt Horn knows food.  We spoke with Schwan's executive chef about working in a corporate food environment, family life, and where to grab a bite in the middle of western Minnesota.

AndrewZimmern.com: You and Andrew go way back and taught cooking classes together at Cooks of Crocus Hill. What’s your best AZ story?

Matt Horn: Oh, where to start …

We were in day 3 of Cooks of Crocus Hill's wildly popular “How to Boil Water” class series, and I was demoing how to properly temper chocolate.  As I turned around to grab the bowl of chocolate from the double boiler, Andrew subtly bumps into me, and with the dexterity of a pickpocket and the sleight of hand of David Blaine, he deposited a tablespoon of cold water in the bowl of melted chocolate without me noticing. I turned to face the class, began stirring and the chocolate instantly seized and clumped up. I looked up to see the befuddled stares of 25 confused students all seemingly about to say, “That’s how it’s suppose to look?!” 

Panicking, I looked back to Andrew for some form of support, and there he stood, arms crossed, sporting that now iconic smirk. Of course, Andrew’s grand plan was to put an educational spin on it by showing the attendees what cold liquids will do to tempering chocolate. It was as if he was saying, “Be careful folks, or you’ll mess it up like Matt did!” Grrr…

AZ: Currently, you’re a corporate executive chef for a subsidiary of The Schwan Food Company. What made you opt for a corporate gig?

MH: I’m not sure, perhaps it was the 80-plus-hour weeks in restaurants, working nights, weekends and holidays. The bad back and the wood-burning grill/asthma combo could have had something to do with it.  Also, I wasn’t really cooking anymore. I was micromanaging food and labor costs, worrying about my dishwashers making bail and trying to meet the profit expectations of the demanding restaurant owners.  In short, the passion was gone, and I was burning out.

And then, seeing my friends getting married, buying houses and having kids, pushed me to find a career in the food industry that would allow me to have my proverbial cake and eat it too. The final straw came when my wife Debra and I started dating.  She had an  8-to-5 day job, and I would come home at midnight smelling like a smokehouse.  That was seven wonderful years ago, and we now have two amazing children, Mika, age 4, and, Jasper, age 3.

AZ: What’s the best part about working in a corporate kitchen? Anything you miss about restaurant life?

MH: My job is never monotonous, and we get to wear a lot of different hats, everything from food stylist to special-events catering.  One day I’ll be researching food trends, the next I’ll be in the kitchen creating protocepts that leverage them.  A day later, I might be facilitating an ideation, presenting to key accounts or be a guest speaker at the local Culinology program.  I get paid to play with and think about food. What more could you ask for?

If I miss anything from restaurant life, it might be the high-adrenaline, performance-theater aspect of working in an open kitchen, but I get that same thrill every time I see one of our new products in the grocery freezer case.

AZ: What are the biggest misconceptions about working in a corporate kitchen?

MH: Some of my old restaurant buddies like to jerk my chain by saying I traded in my chef coat for a lab coat, and I work knee deep in beakers of bubbling blue liquid, gram scales and advanced hydrocolloids.  Well the gram scales are accurate, but when I tell them our kitchens are actually full of state of the art restaurant equipment, only not as grimy, I get the last laugh!

In addition to ice cream, Schwan is behind many grocery brands that are now household names, such as Wolfgang Puck®, Red Baron® and Freschetta® pizza.  What goes into creating mass-produced items? Is there still room for creativity?

Creating the products you see in the freezer case takes the dedicated efforts of hundreds of people working in cross-functional teams over the span of months, sometimes years, for a single product.  I am fortunate to work with some of the best and brightest in the industry in an environment where shared learning and helping one another is more than just writing on the wall.  A rigorous development process, state-of-the-art equipment and a beautiful facility all go into the mix.  The foundation of which is built upon on the creativity of our innovation, marketing and R&D teams.

AZ: You live in Marshall, Minn., a small town in southwestern Minnesota.  What are your favorite places to grab a bite in the area?

Well, if there’s one drawback to raising a family of foodies in the idyllic prairie lands of southwestern Minnesota, it’s the lack of dining options.  That being said, the “off menu” shrimp pad thai or red coconut curry from the Hunan Lion is always good.  The Varsity Pub offers an amazing variety ‘Paninos’ wrapped in homemade flatbread.  And then of course we’re fortunate to have the beautiful Landmark Bistro serving upscale regional comfort foods.

AZ: What’s in your fridge?

Unlike my days as a restaurant chef, I now cook at home three to five nights a week.  Oftentimes, I’ll come home to find that my wife, Debra, a former private chef herself, has done all the mise en place and all I have to do finish the dish à la Food TV style.  There's true imported Neapolitan sour dough culture (for pizza night and fresh bread in the winter), left over pizza, ‘sauce for chicken,' green curry paste, sriracha, various nut and seed oils, El Yucateco Green Chile Habanero Sauce, a dozen tri-colored chicken eeggs from a local farmer, at least 3 ripe avocados (my kids idea of a ‘green’ vegetable), various citrus fruits, a bunch of cilantro several days past it peak (it conveniently comes from the store that way out here!), a large block of Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio, string cheese and Juicy Juice!

Matt Horn is the corporate executive chef for a subsidiary of The Schwan Food Company in Marshall, Minnesota.