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More Knoxville Magazine - June/July 2009

• From the editor: June issue of Knoxville Magazine
• UT football coach Lane Kiffin and his family get settled in Knoxville
• Luxury Inn Blackberry Farm gets back to its roots

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Owner and Executive Chef Matt Bolus stands in his kitchen at Red Sky sifting through bunches of fresh fennel he brought from his home garden. He is adamant that none of the fresh, beautifully harvested herb will go to waste. The hearts become puree on soft shell crab for an upcoming wine dinner. The ferns are used to infuse and make fennel oil. Remnants strained from the oil result in chlorophyll he'll use in pasta to turn it a bright "alien" green. "My culinary class students are so quick to throw the fennel ferns away," says Matt. "It's so much easier to order product than to take the time and make it from scratch, but then your food has no heart or soul."

Originally from Knoxville, Matt graduated from Farragut High School , then UT and became a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch. "I always loved to cook and would entertain all the time when I was a broker," he says. "One day I realized I'd rather be cleaning up a kitchen at midnight than sitting behind a desk and getting off at 4."

Culinary trained at London's prestigious Le Cordon Bleu, Matt worked his way up the ranks before purchasing the former Red Sky Grill on Seabrook Island in South Carolina, including a tenure as Sous Chef at The Ocean Room in the Five-Star resort, The Sanctuary on Kiawah. "I wanted to take everything fine dining from my previous experience and make it casual," Matt explains. "My goal is to facilitate simple food done perfectly and not get intricate."

Before Red Sky opened less than two years ago, Matt asked another Knoxville native Josh Schwartz to join his kitchen. Josh helped open former Knoxville eatery ChaCha and realized he wanted to cook professionally. He moved to Charleston where he graduated from culinary school at Johnson and Wales.

Josh's culinary path led him to Charleston's "best of" hot spots, Slightly North of Broad (S.N.O.B) and McCrady's where he fine-tuned his cooking and learned how to take the heat in the kitchen. "I came up through a system of yelling and screaming, not unlike Hell's Kitchen, he laughs. "Now it's nice to just develop your own voice in food." Since joining Red Sky he's discovered the fun factor (Matt's primary ingredient) and has been responsible for getting the charcuterie program going. "We used to buy our bacon; now we make our own - the same with our Canadian bacon and patés," he says.

"It's a great time for us right now. Everyone in the kitchen has 10 to 12 years of experience. We're able to just play off each other and experiment instead of learning new techniques."

Matt's philosophy and culture in his kitchen repeatedly revert to "simple." Other than the raw products, everything at Red Sky is made from scratch and bought locally - all within a 13-mile radius, including a farmer who has chicken coops and whose duck eggs Matt uses for pasta. "I'm trying to get him to let me put a beehive out there to make our own honey, that he in turn can use to pollinate," Matt says. "The more I get into it, the more I want to farm."

Matt will tell you you never know when inspiration will hit. For him it's often listening to a song or looking at art. Other times it's looking at honeysuckle on a vine or simply feeling the change of the seasons. "The first hint of winter makes me want to braise everything," he says.

He describes throwing ideas up on the dry-erase board in his kitchen so his staff can expound on an idea with their own visual taste buds. "Listen to what everyone has to say Ð my team, a busboy, a guest, even the dishwasher might have a great idea."

His inspiration also comes from wine which is why he and his wife, Kelly, are working on becoming certified sommeliers. The knowledge he feels will help produce even better food.

"I never think I've made the perfect dish," Matt says. "If I did I'd have to stop cooking because there's nowhere to go." redskydining.com