Speaking with Chef Matt Voskuil, you quickly realize he is not the kind of person who would be satisfied with anything that is simply “good enough.”
He admits to being competitive and continually pushes himself to get better at what he does. Add to that his background working in some extremely demanding kitchens, and you have a chef you can rely on to make THE PLAYERS Championship not only “the ultimate golf experience in Jacksonville” but also “the ultimate dining experience in Jacksonville.”
Of course, that same level of expertise and dedication will also reveal itself at Nineteen and at local banquets.
TPC Sawgrass hired Voskuil as its new executive chef in January, and he wasted no time preparing for the stadium course’s biggest event of the year. The dining venue’s relatively small operation balloons during THE PLAYERS for one week only and returns to its former scale afterward. Meeting the sudden culinary demands of the tournament poses a great challenge by itself, but Voskuil has taken that one step further.
“We’re actually highlighting something this year that’s going to be the first time that we’ve done it,” he said. “We’re doing all-organic everything for the players and player dining. It’s actually a relatively large undertaking for an event of this size.”
According to Voskuil, sourcing organic ingredients is very difficult.
“It’s an interesting challenge, and it’s one that definitely requires a bit of attention so that it’s done properly,” he said.
Voskuil, who has played golf since he was in the seventh grade, credits the game — at least in part — for his choice of careers.
Growing up in a small Wisconsin town, he took a job in the local clubhouse kitchen because that meant he could play the courses.
“It was there that I worked with European chefs for the first time, saw fine dining for the first time, and it just kind of lit something up in me that I decided was something I wanted to pursue as a career,” he said.
He compared the preparation of food to a kind of sport, something that appeals to him.
“Cooking in a professional kitchen is very team-oriented,” he said. “You feel like you’ve either won or lost every single day. And I like to feel like we’re trying to win every single day.”
He attended culinary school in Chicago and eventually landed some significant jobs. He led culinary teams at The Chanler at Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island; and three Las Vegas establishments, The Venetian Resort, ARIA Resort & Casino and Bellagio Hotel & Casino.
But one of the highlights of his career resulted from his being selected for the team that, in 2005, opened The Mansion, a five-star Joël Robuchon restaurant in the famous MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
He called the experience “intense and very rewarding.”
“The pressure there was unlike anything I’d ever seen before,” Voskuil said. “We were expected to be perfect from day one. The level of expectation was so high, we were working a lot of hours, going through a ton of food to train and learn these recipes.”
Another career highlight has been his work at Ocean House in Westerly, Rhode Island, where he has been group executive chef from 2019 until his hiring at TPC Sawgrass.
Ocean House is a five-star Relais & Chateaux resort where Voskuil and his team put guest experience first.
“We pushed ourselves tremendously to be creative and think outside the box, and open new experiences for our guests,” Voskuil said.
In fact, that constant need to improve is part of what makes Voskuil the chef he is. It also played a role in his decision to apply for the local position.
“When I was interviewing here, the thing that made this job really attractive to me was the group of chefs and cooks that were gathered here that are absolutely committed to doing the right thing,” he said. “Most kitchens these days don’t make their own stock, they don’t make their own bread, they don’t make their own dressings. They don’t do a lot of the stuff that this team does each and every day … I was really, really excited to get the opportunity to come work here and work with this team.”
