Matheson Food Company: A Review
Matty Matheson. He’s Canadian, he’s a chef, and he’s also an actor on FX’s The Bear. If you’ve been following this blog for a while now, you know that we’re big fans of Matty. (His YouTube videos are the best.) So when we found out that he started a food company and launched a line of mac and cheese, salad dressings, and BBQ sauces, we were like, “Huh? What? We NEED it. Now.”
We searched high and low, got our hands on as many Matheson Food Company products as we could, and taste tested them. Here’s our honest review!
Macaroni & Cheese
It’s no secret that we love mac and cheese — we wrote a whole blog post about making the perfect baked mac and cheese. (Which you should most definitely read.)
We’re Canadian (like Matty) and grew up with Kraft Dinner (that’s Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for you Americans). So when someone says that they’re releasing their own boxed mac and cheese, we have to compare it to the KD we grew up with. So how does Matheson Food Company Mac and Cheese compare?
Classic KD vs Matheson Food Company Macaroni & Cheese
Trevor’s Mediocre Take: Kraft Dinner tastes awful. That’s it, that’s the tweet.
Brittany’s Mediocre Take: Kraft Dinner noodles are trash, but the cheese powder is awesome.
Original
The original flavor is your basic mac and cheese. Its main flavor is cheddar — similar to KD, but much more mature. It’s what KD should taste like (more than just salt). Not much more to say here, it’s just a slightly elevated KD.
Smokey Mac
This one is a step up from the original flavor. Its main flavor is… smoke. However, the smoke isn’t overpowering (in our opinion) and is balanced by a creamy cheddar sauce. It’s a nice change if you’re tired of regular ol’ mac and cheese.
Cracked Pep Pep
We LOVE this flavor. The pepper is the real star of the show here. Matty also switches it up and adds in parmesan and pecorino romano as well. The end result is very much reminiscent of a cacio e pepe. It’s delicious. 1000/10.
NEW: Creamy Sharp Ched
It was good, but it's no Cracked Pep Pep — the definition of adequate. That being said, we think it’s better than the Original.
Our Verdict
Cracked Pep Pep wins, hands down. It has that extra wow factor that the other two were missing. It’s tangy, it’s creamy, and the cracked pepper makes your brain tingle. To quote Trevor:
“Cracked pep pep just makes me feel alive.”
That being said, all 4 are good, but if you only want to drop $4 instead of $16, try Cracked Pep Pep. It’s AMAZING.
Also, we need to comment on the noodles. They are superior to KD noodles in every way.
Ditalini is a delightful shape that is perfect for holding onto all of that cheese sauce!
Salad Dressings
To start, we just wanna say that we appreciate that Matty uses a mix of olive oil and canola oil for his dressings. Most dressings, such as Kraft, just use vegetable oil which is much cheaper.
If you're calorie conscious, his dressings might not be for you. For example, Matheson Food Company’s Italian Dressing is 100 calories per serving while Kraft’s Zesty Italian Dressing is 50 calories per serving.
(Sidenote: we wrote a post all about how to make your own salad dressing at home. Check it out!)
Italian Dressing
The Italian dressing is very much reminiscent of a house-style Italian dressing that you would find in any North American Italian style restaurant. (Maybe even one where, when you’re there, you’re family.) It’s bold, and the olive oil flavor really shines through. 10/10.
Greek Dressing
Herby. Punchy. Acidic. These are the notes Matty has for this dressing, and they are spot on. This is a very good salad dressing. It’s similar to Italian, but definitely different enough that you could justify buying both.
Balsamic Dressing
We love a good balsamic vinegar, especially when in vinaigrette form. Balsamic vinaigrette tends to have a “punch you in the face” kind of flavor when you eat it. Matty’s balsamic has none of that — it’s very subtle and smooth. Unfortunately, the subtleness and smoothness is a bit of a downfall. To quote Brittany:
“I like being punched in the face though.”
We liked this one the least of the bunch, however, it’s still a good dressing and there’s probably a dish where this dressing would shine.
Green Olive Dressing
Review coming soon.™
We can’t find this one! (Someone send us a bottle…)
NEW: Pep Pep Caesar
If it has Pep Pep in the name, we like it, apparently. Punchy, sharp, strong. It’s great! In our opinion it could have a bit more pep pep in it, but it’s overall we dig this salad dressing and would buy it again.
NEW: Ranch
This dressing was … underwhelming. Maybe it was because we tried it after Pep Pep Caesar? We had high hopes for it, but it wasn’t our fav. You know the ranch dip that comes with the vegetable trays? Yea, that’s way better. This was a bummer.
Does it Marinade?
Yes. We marinated chicken breast with the three vinaigrettes to see how well they stood up to being cooked. The Italian and the Greek dressing worked really well as marinades. Unfortunately, the balsamic dressing didn’t work as well. We think it probably has something to do with it being a much more subtle balsamic vinaigrette.
The only recommendation we have is to make sure to either season your chicken breast with salt and pepper before cooking, or add some salt to the marinade. This will prevent your chicken from being bland, and help the flavors really pop.
Our Verdict
Salad dressings are really easy to make. The one downside to store-bought salad dressings is that you’re paying for water — it’s often the first ingredient. However, most salad dressing and vinaigrette recipes you find online don’t use water. Companies add water to make their product go further.
Matty’s use water, but many also use a better oil (olive oil) than Kraft dressings do. If you enjoy the convenience of bottled salad dressings, you’ll like Matty’s. If you always make ‘em on your own you can still take inspiration from MFC’s salad dressings. Try adding green olives to your salad dressing (something we never thought of!) or use a combination of both white and red wine vinegar in a single dressing (like Matty does for the Greek salad dressing).
If you want tot try one, get the Italian, Greek, or Pep Pep Caesar! They’re our top picks.
BBQ Sauce
We haven’t reviewed his BBQ sauces yet, as we just got one in the mail the other day. (Yes, we ordered BBQ sauce online lol.) It’s been hard to find in Alberta (more on that below). Reviews coming soon!
Original
This BBQ sauce is good, but it’s not for everyone. If you’re like Brittany and sometimes mix ketchup and BBQ sauce to make a delicious dip for your chicken nuggies, you’ll like this sauce. It’s very tomato and vinegar forward, so if you’re into that, you’ll like the OG. If you’re looking for a molasses-forward BBQ sauce, you won’t like this.
Heater
Review coming soon.™
Maple Molasses
Review coming soon.™
NEW: Bama
Review coming soon.™
Where Can I Find Matheson Food Company Products?
You can find Matty’s macaroni and cheese and salad dressings at Wal-Mart, with the exception of the Green Olive salad dressing for some odd reason. (Hence why we haven’t reviewed it.)
His BBQ sauces are more elusive. They aren’t at Wal-Mart but you can order them on Well.ca (along with all of his other products, again, minus the Green Olive salad dressing).
Oddly enough, we did see a page on Indigo’s website for the BBQ sauces (found via Google search), but the pages resulted in a 404 error (not found). They seem to have disappeared now, but maybe in the future Matty will be selling his BBQ Sauces at a bookstore? We wish we took screenshots!
If you’re in Ontario, you’ll probably have an easier time finding his products, as they are also sold at Longos and Farm Boy. If you’re in Quebec, check out IGA.
June 2025 Update:
MFC can also be found at select Costco locations in Ontario. We haven’t seen it where we live, but it’s out there. We recommend buying the smaller products to see if you like it before committing to a 1L container of BBQ sauce.
We haven’t seen the salad dressings stocked at Wal-Mart in a while. It looks like they are just carrying MFC mac and cheese.
At the end of April 2024, Canada (or at least Edmonton area) experienced The Great Matheson Food Company Food Shortage™. Wal-Marts were sold out of his macaroni and cheese — we had to drive from Edmonton to Fort Saskatchewan to get our hands on some.
Edmonton, thine fields are barren.
Luckily, the supply chain seems to be back in order and we can see it’s available again. Fingers crossed Matheson Food Company mac and cheese doesn’t become as hard to find as toilet paper during COVID.
How it felt when Brittany delivered Trevor his portion of Mac and Cheese in the parking lot of a sushi restaurant.
Are Matheson Food Company Products Available in the USA?
Nope. Canada got something first for once. Suck it, Americans.
(Jk, we hope you get it soon because it’s good.)
How Much Do Matheson Food Company Products Cost?
So, how much does Matheson Food Company’s products retail for? Here’s a quick breakdown:
Mac & Cheese - $3.47 @ Wal-Mart | $4.29 @ Well.ca
Salad Dressing - $6.97 @ Wal-Mart | $6.79 @ Well.ca
BBQ Sauce - ??? @ Wal-Mart | $8.49 @ Well.ca
We know you’ll want to compare the price of his products to the price of Kraft Dinner, and Kraft salad dressing and BBQ sauces. But you can’t — it’d be like comparing a Lexus to a Ford Fiesta.
Matty’s products come in glass bottles, Kraft comes in plastic.
Matty’s ingredients lists are simple, Kraft has a bunch of ingredients you can’t pronounce.
Matty’s products taste better. Kraft’s are good, don’t get us wrong, we grew up on them so they have a place in our heart (they’re nostalgic), but Matty’s are A++.
Packaging & Branding
We are getting older, and so whenever a company decides to release something with retro branding we are immediately on board.
Are they tugging on our nostalgia? Are they making a savvy business decision? Yes.
It’s clean, simple, and fun. (And inspired by Hereford Corned Beef.)
Wedge: Matheson Food Company (Copyright © Wedge, 2024)
The Missing Sauces?
The below was written before Matty released these salad dressings. We’re keeping it because it’s funny.
We’ve noticed a few things… Odd things. Mentions of sauces that don’t exist. Missing sauces. Have you seen these sauces? 🕵️
The below screenshot is from this video on Matty’s YouTube channel. It mentions a Ranch salad dressing. RANCH. Matty is holding out on us. WHERE IS THE RANCH? Kraft ranch sucks, we need this in our life stat.
A second missing sauce — the below screenshot is from this page on mattymatheson.store. It mentions Caesar dressing. CAESAR. WHERE IS THE CAESAR DRESSING MATTY, HUH?
But wait, there’s more! When we were doing research for this blog post, we found a Google image search result for ANOTHER BBQ sauce called Bama. ALABAMA BBQ SAUCE? MATTY, YOU’RE HOLDING OUT ON US.
Update: we published this on May 29 and on June 3 Matty announced the Bama sauce on Instagram. Coincidence? 🧐
We’re gnawing at the iron bars of our enclosure. GIVE US THE SAUCE MATTY.
Closing Thoughts
We are simps for Matty Matheson. But his products are good. For real. Buy them.
P.S. - If your name is Matty Matheson and you’re reading this, we’d love some MFC swag. 🥰