On this West Virginia Morning, the owner and head chef at the Northern Panhandle’s Vagabond Kitchen Matt Welsch spoke with Randy Yohe about his plans to enhance the dining experience at state park lodge restaurants.
On this West Virginia Morning, have you ever had “churched-up soup beans?” West Virginia State Parks has hired Wheeling’s Matt Welsch as its new executive chef, who has this Appalachian dish on his menu.
The owner and head chef at the Northern Panhandle’s Vagabond Kitchen spoke with Randy Yohe about his plans to enhance the dining experience at state park lodge restaurants.
Also, in this show, we listen to the latest story from The Allegheny Front. Here’s their latest story – an interview with University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann about his new book.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Caroline MacGregor produced this episode.
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Matt Welsch, also known as the Vagabond Chef, has traveled all over the world experiencing culinary arts and food. You can find a taste of those travels at his restaurant, the Vagabond Kitchen, in Wheeling. Welsch recently took a 10-day motorcycle trip across the state of West Virginia. Over the course of 1500 miles, and throughout 39 counties, Welsch’s objective was to connect and find other West Virginians who are passionate about cuisine, spirits, and celebrating the Mountain State in general. The Vagabond Chef calls the trip “a true immersion experience.”
Q: What was the impetus for this tour?
A: Starting from a very young age I was really interested in exploring and finding more about the world, so as soon as I was able to I started traveling. Like ripples in a pond my travels got further and further away. What I realized when I came home after doing the Vagabond Chef travels in 2013, going all over the country, and throughout the world as an adult, I’d never really explored West Virginia.
Through what I’ve been doing as the Vagabond Chef here in Wheeling, I’ve seen the energy in West Virginia – specifically in Wheeling, but I see it throughout the whole state: Let’s find a way to pick ourselves up and stand on our own two feet; let’s find a viable economy that celebrates what makes West Virginia great instead of destroys it. I couldn’t be a bigger proponent for that. So I wanted to find those stories and draw those things together through the course of my own exploration of what makes our state great.
Credit Matt Welsch
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Seneca Rocks, West Virginia
Q: Tell me about some of the places you visited.
VagabondWay.mp3
Listen as Welsch describes his tour around the state in detail.
A: So I got to meet some really great people and it’s great to see how interconnected everyone is. When I talked with Joe Beter and Jewel City Seafood, he had actually gone to school in Wheeling, he worked at Ernie’s Esquire. After that he went to Florida and was high up in a whole sale big seafood company for several years. Now he’s taken all that experience and knowledge back to Huntington and he has probably the best seafood that I’ve ever had because he knows what to look for and he will not settle for anything less than the best.
I got to hear the story of places like Pies and Pints in Fayetteville. Started out as just kind of a place for raft guides to hang out and just exploded. How do you deal with that? How do you deal with getting so big? And having franchises in Morgantown, Charleston, and two or three in Columbus, I think they said?
Keeley Steele and Bluegrass Kitchen, Starlings, and Tricky Fish in Charleston. Her and her husband John have expanded their business to three different locations, three different concepts, on the same block. They have created the neighborhood they wanted to live in. That’s super-awesome.
There are all these different people finding all these different paths to achieve what’s really the same goal: How do I find a way to live my life and go to work and feel good about it? How do I wake up in the morning with a smile on my face and give back to my community?
Credit Steve Novotney
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Q: What are you taking away from your experience?
A: I hope to be able to build the Vagabond Kitchen and the Vagabond Chef. So I hope to be able to develop the Vagabond Chef into more of a respected and desired travel blogger, and Vagabond Kitchen into a destination and into a Vagabond empire of different concepts and different locations. And to continue to build and grow and give back. I believe that success is helping other people.
Chef Matt Welsch is a local boy who, after touring the country on a motorcycle (writing a travel-cuisine blog about being a vagabond chef), returned to his hometown and set up shop.
Matt and Katie Welsch own and operate The Vagabond Kitchen in the bottom of the McLure Hotel. Starting out catering events, they were attracted by the large kitchen that allows them to prepare foods they serve up from scratch. About a year in, they continue to cater and now they also serve lunch, Sunday brunch, and dinner.
COME TO JESUS
Matt Welsch, the Vagabond Chef, says he had a “Come to Jesus” moment several years ago when he realized that… he was going to have to work for the rest of his life. So he and his bride Katie decided to hone in on what they felt was a life worth living: cooking.
“I never thought it would work out so well in my hometown that I love, here in my home state that I love,” Matt said.
Life as a vagabond has taught him a lot about the value of time and life.
Vagabond goals:
Provide a fulfilling workplace for employees.
Hand-craft cuisine.
Live locally.
Serve Community.
As for the style of food, he calls it New American Cuisine.
“I think that’s generic enough that I can make it mean whatever I want,” he said with a laugh.
LIVE LOCAL
Matt grew up on a dairy farm in the area and has ties to other farmers throughout West Virginia. He’s working with these local producers to prepare the food they provide, because above any dietary trends or food fashions, local food is of paramount importance to him. Whatever farmers produce, they’ll serve. Matt said he and his team are flexible, creative and they welcome culinary challenges.
In addition to the local food, Matt and Katie have local artists filling their walls with art, and local musicians filling the restaurant with sound.
SERVE COMMUNITY
“If we weren’t as passionate about helping Wheeling reinvent itself,” Matt said, “I don’t think we would be as successful as we are.”
There’s new enthusiasm in Wheeling that Matt said he’s never experienced in his years growing up in the area.
“There are still people who are kind of negative and stuck in the past, but there’s an active minority of really positive, excited people. And that’s the train that we want to get on board and help fuel.”
Matt says that new-found enthusiasm in Wheeling is making businesses like his possible. He’s hopeful that a spirit of collaboration will continue to grow.
