Chef Matt Kern: A Culinary Conservationist

A love for the land
The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, native developed an interest in agriculture after his grandmother taught him to care for rhubarb. “She made a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and I loved it,” Kern recalls. She also thought nothing of walking a mile to get butcher bacon for her bacon-tomato sandwiches. “There was no lettuce; she said it got in the way,” he notes. Meanwhile, her boyfriend taught him to fish for trout, catfish and bass, a hobby he still avidly pursues in the Pennsylvania mountains. (He won’t keep his catch unless he can eat it fresh. “I don’t like frozen fish,” he explains.)

At 14, Kern didn’t have many friends. “I was in my own little world,” he says. That changed when he got a job in a restaurant kitchen. He moved up the line without cutting corners, which was the expected path in the 1990s and early 2000s; there was no time or money for culinary school.

While at Starfish Brasserie in Bethlehem, Kern admired Chef Dick Barrows’ use of farm-fresh ingredients. At Edge restaurant, also in Bethlehem, Chef Tim Widrick used local goods. Then, at Bolete, he met farmer Jeff Frank of Liberty Gardens. “He came in two or three times a week with dirty hands and a big old smile,” Kern recalls. “He grew some of the coolest things I’ve seen to date—wild fennel flowers, all these different leaves and lamb’s quarter, which is so tasty, but most people can’t identify it.”

At Bolete, Kern was impressed by Lee Chizmar’s “from scratch” approach to cooking. The chef also butchered whole animals in the restaurant rather than purchasing packaged cuts and avoided waste.

From chef to owner
Kern moved to Delaware beaches to work for a Bethlehem-based restaurant group, but the downtown Rehoboth restaurant didn’t survive one summer. Although far from Lehigh Valley's hills and trout streams, Kern elected to stay at the beach. The reason? He’d fallen in love with a local girl, Karen, who would become his wife.

He worked at Bluecoast Seafood Grill, Blue Moon, and Salt Air, all the while wanting to run a kitchen committed to sustainability. When Jordan Miller left Heirloom, Kern saw a chance to work in a high-end restaurant with a sparkling new kitchen. While cooking in the Lewes restaurant, Kern received two James Beard nominations.

Kern’s summer commute from his Dagsboro home wasn’t easy. What’s more, Heirloom was the vision of owner Meghan Lee. The two parted ways, and Kern considered moving to a city. Then he learned that One Coastal in Fenwick Island was going up for sale.

In 2022, Kern and his wife, Karen, purchased the intimate eatery from Scott and Carlie Carey. The Careys opened it in 2014 to support local agriculture and took the concept further by growing organic produce on their 25-acre Frankford property.

The Kerns admired the restaurant’s mission and met with the sellers before it hit the market. In August, Kern became the executive chef while One Coastal traded hands, and all the licensing was complete.

One Coastal’s kitchen reminded the new owner of Bolete. The small space lacks Heirloom’s bells and whistles, such as a sous vide machine, vacuum sealer, and deep fryer. (The chef won’t make soft-shell crabs—his favorite—because he doesn’t feel he can cook them properly in a pan.)

“I remembered what I did at Bolete under Lee [Chizmar]," Kern says of using ingenuity to make “less” turn into “more.” “I’ve always been the underdog. I like figuring things out, which means using what’s in season to produce the best flavors.

Kern still buys produce from the Careys’ farm. Other vendors include East View Farms and Baywater Farms in Salisbury, Maryland. This approach is what turned The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine, into a reservation-only destination with a TV program.

Kern is a fan of owner Erin French, who cleverly makes do with whatever her growers can provide. For instance, when Kern had trouble finding salad greens, he purchased whatever field greens East View provide, including beet greens, baby romaine, pea tendrils and lamb’s quarter. He tossed the mix with Fifer Orchard strawberries, house-made ricotta, and honey-vinegar dressing. He also puts leftover herbs in salads. “It adds more flavor and texture,” he notes.

The waste-not-want-not philosophy might lead to a garnish of fried carrot peelings. “Take an ingredient and figure out 20 or 30 things to do with it,” he says. “It helps you build the menu but still cross-utilize ingredients.”