Television chef Matty Matheson is dead set on food

Matty Matheson, Toronto-based chef and star of Dead Set on Life, has just been on a whirlwind visit of Australia, filming for the second season of his show.

It's a style of food TV where production is spare, stories count for everything and all the usual trappings are stripped away. There's no pancake make-up, no rousing emotional intro music, no "think pieces" to camera and certainly no crying over pie.

There's an argument that Anthony Bourdain paved the way for a new generation of chefs and television hosts with the likes of No Reservations taking a punk, off-road approach to storytelling. But unlike Bourdain, Viceland's on-screen talent aren't jaded. Eating a ram's testicle in an Icelandic deli is still an exciting thing to do.

Alongside Matheson, Viceland's line-up includes rapping bon vivant Action Bronson and lawyer-cum-designer-cum-restaurateur-cum-television star Eddie Huang. Even Mario Batali, the world's most famous ginger-haired, Birkenstock-wearing American-Italian chef, makes an appearance.

Aside from Batali, the personalities you see on the channel start out as relative unknowns. Viceland shies away from making shows with people with established television careers. It's more likely to find talent through friends, or online. Matheson, for instance, was discovered after making a series of "stupid burger videos" with his Toronto restaurant, Parts and Labour.

(Side note for every Australian raised in the 1980s on ABC TV: Snake from Degrassi Junior High is a stakeholder at the restaurant and Spike, Degrassi's favourite punk teenage mum, DJs there sometimes. Matheson doesn't think this is a big deal.)

It's interesting to think all this was borne of Vice, an irreverent street press magazine massively popular in the early thousands for its smart, mean writing and outlandish, sexy adventure stories. That gonzo attitude of "anything, anywhere, anyhow to get a great story" has been instrumental in creating a whole groove for food-based television.

"I think food television is changing because they're letting people that are atypical have a go," says Matheson. "People are always like 'Oh great, another fat tattooed guy.' But when was the last time there were two fat tattooed guys on TV? What's the body type for someone that can go on television? I think [celebrating] different ethnicities and body types is really important more, now than ever."

You can see why Matheson makes for such good television. He's charismatic, affable and makes being on the heavy side work in his favour. And yes, every inch of him is covered in tattoos. Today, like any other day, he's dressed like a Canadian sea captain at a basketball game.

"Food is the foundation of what we're trying to do," says Matheson. "Within that foundation is a big beautiful house and each room there's a new story, a new way to look at something."

But for Matheson, food is only the beginning of the story. He uses the bowl of lava-hot tom yum he's eating as an example. "This might be a bowl of soup, but all of a sudden you talk to somebody about it and it has integrity and it has a story. The story is bigger than the soup itself. And I think people are just trying to find that story. Television is just becoming more organic."

There's an assumption from viewers that chefs live glamorous, peripatetic lives, flying in and out of cities, going on adventures most people only ever experience from the comfort of their Snuggies. But before filming Dead Set on Life, Matheson hadn't left North America. In fact, he has spent most of his life subsisting on a modest chef's salary. "And in Canada," he says, "that's not much at all."

But the show has changed things for him. He can finally take his wife on a holiday. And they've moved out of the shoebox they've been living in for most of their adult lives.

He may never have been to Thailand, Italy, or Portugal but the show has taken him to Vietnam ("the first time I've ever really been out of my comfort zone), Denmark ("I did Crossfit with Rene Redzepi – it was terrifying") and now he's in Australia, eating the city's spiciest soup at Dodee Paideng in downtown Haymarket. ("I just don't get why Australia isn't the food capital of the world. Am I wrong?")

He's definitely not afraid of letting the good times roll, on or off camera, though as a recovering alcoholic it's always clean fun. The name of the show is a call-back to his days as a Canadian party illuminati – too afraid he wouldn't be fun or interesting anymore if he quit the drink and drugs, he hit rock bottom a number of times before he finally stayed off the sauce. Dead Set on Life is a new lease, and he's embraced it with gusto.

In the weeks he's been here, he's taken to Australia like a decorative fish to water. He's donned electric blue budgie smugglers and taken a dip at Bondi Beach. He's hiked in Croc Country in the Northern Territory. Picked apples with Attica's Ben Shewry in a suburban Melbourne orchard.

Matheson may no longer spend much time rattling pans and picking up the wrong end of a knife could be a clear and present danger if he does get back in the kitchen for service, but he doesn't mind if he's never called a chef again.

"I'm like Mickey Mouse – I just turn up at the restaurant and have my photo taken. It is what it is. I just want to travel and do something with my life. If it makes people happy to watch that, then that's as chill as it can be."

Will we ever catch Matheson appearing on the likes of MasterChef? Unlikely. "Chefs have a choice to either do a show or don't. And if you want to go do goofball shows, expect to be made fun of. I've turned down way more money than I've ever made not doing that."

Season Two of Dead Set on Life premiered on SBS Viceland on Monday, June 5, at 8pm.