Chef · Sales Leader · Writer · NYC
Hospitality isn’t a job category. It’s how you move through the world — with intention, craft, and the conviction that how you treat people is the only thing that lasts.
Let’s build something together.
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About
I’m Matt Sadownick — a CIA-trained chef turned sales leader, with a Writing and Philosophy degree from Ithaca College and a career that has never moved in a straight line. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I came up in some of New York’s most demanding kitchens — training under Chef Carmen Quagliata at Union Square Cafe and Chef Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern — where I learned that excellence isn’t a standard you enforce. It’s a culture you build, one conversation at a time.
Outside of work I’m a writer, a photographer, and a devoted student of this city. The East Village is my classroom. The dive bar is my boardroom. The kitchen is still where the best lessons live.
Where I’ve Been
Line Cook through Tournant. Four years under Chef Carmen Quagliata at Union Square Cafe and Chef Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern — where hospitality is a philosophy, not a policy. The foundation everything else is built on.
Executive Sous Chef. Union staff, tasting menus tied to upcoming exhibits, guest chef dinners for up to 400. The art on the walls made the food matter differently.
Led a multi-concept café with union kitchen staff. Created content for Google’s internal food platform. Selected for a global CIA-partnered L&D secondment on sustainability and plant-forward mentorship.
Relaunched Storico Restaurant and Parliament Cafe post-pandemic. New menus, new team, operations rebuilt from zero for lunch, dinner, and events.
Leading a team of four specialists across New York’s most demanding accounts in premium seafood distribution. Dock to plate — with a chef’s eye on every account. The culinary background isn’t decorative. It’s the edge.
As Seen In
Forbes · The New York Times · I Just Want To Eat
New York City — 2018–2021
As the storied Museum Mile institution reopens post-pandemic, Constellation Culinary Group names a new executive chef to lead the kitchen at its in-house restaurant on Central Park West.
The New-York Historical Society — one of the oldest museums in the country, at 170 Central Park West — reopened its dining destination with Matthew Sadownick named Executive Chef through Constellation Culinary Group. Sadownick, CIA-trained, built his foundation on the line at Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe before rising through Restaurant Associates and Compass Group.
At the Historical Society, Sadownick develops a seasonally driven American menu reflecting the institution’s curatorial spirit — local, rooted in New York’s history as a port city and agricultural crossroads — for both the restaurant and its event programming.
Among the week’s notable openings, the New-York Historical Society restaurant resurfaces with new culinary leadership.
The Historical Society announced Matthew Sadownick as executive chef of its on-site restaurant operated by Constellation Culinary. Sadownick, who trained at the CIA and cooked at Gramercy Tavern, most recently served as Chef de Cuisine at Compass Group’s Food+ program.
When this Hell’s Kitchen restaurant opened in frigid weather several weeks ago, its garden was irrelevant. But finally, the 25 outdoor seats are a draw.
Like the rest of the two-level restaurant, the garden is decorated with vintage touches — a setting for American food that sticks to comfort, not adventure. The chef, Matthew Sadownick, worked at Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe.
310 West 53rd Street — 917-409-3661
“Executive Chef Matthew Sadownick, who worked at Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe, crafted an interesting menu that he calls comfort food” — a concept that sparked a genuine philosophical debate at the table.
Ruumy’s Tavern occupies a warm, rustic space in Hell’s Kitchen — exposed brick, terra-cotta floors, reclaimed wood tables — spread across a main dining room, a downstairs wine cellar, a private room, and a back garden. Chef Sadownick’s menu earned highlights across the board: a phenomenal dry-aged brisket burger, perfectly cooked red snapper on a pickled enoki salad, and flatbreads that drew raves.
The steak frites — NY strip with Chef’s béarnaise twist and herb fries — was “succulent.” Dessert, a chocolate mousse with dulce de leche and candied peanuts, prompted the review’s best line.
CIA-trained chef turned sales leader. Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe alum. Executive Chef at the New-York Historical Society. Reviewed in Forbes, The New York Times, and I Just Want To Eat. The story keeps going.
How I Think
The through-line of my career isn’t a job title. It’s a set of convictions that have never changed, regardless of whether I was behind a stove, building a team, or sitting across a table from someone I wanted to earn.
I believe excellence is a function of uniqueness. That communication and self-motivation are the only sustainable advantages. That the kitchen — more than any boardroom or business school — is where you learn who you really are under pressure.
I lead the way I cook: with precision, with generosity, and with the understanding that the person in front of you is always the most important variable in the room.
Double major. Philosophy taught me why things matter. Writing taught me how to say it so someone actually hears you. Still the most useful thing I’ve ever studied.
Hyde Park. AA in Culinary Arts. First Place, CIA Chowder Cook-off. Perfect Attendance. The CIA doesn’t just teach you to cook — it teaches you to think inside a system, then know exactly when and how to break it.
USHG, Restaurant Associates, Compass — from line cook to Executive Chef. The Met, Google, the NY Historical Society. Every room taught something different. Every team left a mark.
The pivot that wasn’t really a pivot. Same mission: understand what excellence requires for this kitchen, this chef, today — and show up for that. The chef’s jacket just moved to the closet.
The Table
Wine · Cheese · The table · Always
Right Now — Where I’m Focused
Get In Touch
Whether we’ve crossed paths in a kitchen, a sales meeting, or somewhere in this city — I’m always open to a real conversation with interesting people.
Off the Clock
Dividend growth, a few names I believe in long-term, and an unhealthy interest in how markets and menus tell the same story about supply and demand.