Matt Hutchins, 51, a Newburgh resident and Beacon-area chef, died unexpectedly on June 29.
After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and completing a seminal internship at Chez Panisse, Matt (“Matty” to his friends) immediately started a buzz upon landing in 2010 at the Birdsall House in Peekskill.
It wasn’t long before he moved upriver to Beacon, having success with bold but unfussy locally sourced farmhouse cooking at The Hop at 458 Main and later 554 Main.
That now seems like it was the launch of a culinary and cultural boom in Beacon and the surrounding area, and Hutchins became chef or consultant to a litany of hotspots: the restored Beacon Hotel Restaurant, Mama Roux in Newburgh, Dogwood, Quinn’s, Untouchable (again in Newburgh) and, most recently, the Hudson Valley Brewery, reuniting with John-Anthony Gargiulo, who had worked with him at The Hop.
When news that Hutchins had died began to circulate, a crowd gathered under the trees in the park next to the brewery. Matty was, John-Anthony said, “the center of all the circles.”
Hutchins is survived by his wife, Bridget Kenny, and his stepchildren, Quinn, 13, and Luke Baumann, 8, as well as family members in his native Florida: mother Kelly Austin, brothers Adam, Jacob and Christopher and sister Vivian Ward.
