{"id":21485,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=21485"},"modified":"2023-08-03T06:42:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T06:42:36","slug":"ozarks-cook-brings-a-taste-of-america-to-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=21485","title":{"rendered":"Ozarks cook brings a taste of America to Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Matt Van-Kirk, lead cool at the Arena on Caserma Ederle, is grilling some of his take on the \u201cSmashburger\u201d in preparation for the lunch crowd wearing his recognizable beard net. Photo by Azurelyn Mathis
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VICENZA, Italy \u2013\u00a0The lead cook at the bowling alley on Caserma Ederle, Matt Van-Kirk, gets ready to prepare his locally famous \u2018Smashburger\u2019 style burger, for the day\u2019s lunch crowd, by putting on his instantly recognizable beard net.<\/p>\n

Van-Kirk began his path in the culinary world at a young age because his dad wanted to sleep through the Saturday morning cartoons. His dad taught a young Matt how to cook two things: eggs and pancakes. After the quick lesson his father told him \u201cThat\u2019s all you need,\u201d leaving Van-Kirk to his own devices.<\/p>\n

At only 22, Van-Kirk began his professional career smoking American barbeque- Kansas City style at a little BBQ joint sitting between Kansas City and St. Louis and did so for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

After working as a cook in restaurants across Missouri, he changed paths completely and traveled across the states as a sound technician for bands. Now he is living overseas for the first time and cooking in the kitchen at the on-post bowling alley.<\/p>\n

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\n Matt Van-Kirk is ready to serve his locally famous burger at the Arena on Caserma Ederle.
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To kick start a much requested breakfast menu, Nick Roos, business manager for DFMWR, found his mastermind in Van-Kirk, a Midwesterner from the Missouri Ozarks, who now serves his dishes to guests at The Arena and has amped up the breakfast menu with American classics like chicken fried steak and biscuits and gravy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt has completely transformed our menus, and we\u2019re not done yet,\u201d said Roos.<\/p>\n

Honing in on his culinary influences, Van-Kirk was recently by IMCOM-Europe Director, Tommy Mize, for his efforts at The Arena and for generating over $35K in only 7 months for his \u2018American\u2019 breakfast menu.<\/p>\n

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\n Matt Van-Kirk, lead cook at The Arena Bowling Alley on Caserma Ederle, received recognition for his role in generating over $35K in revenue with the Arena\u2019s new breakfast menu.
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\u201cI did change up the breakfast menu quite a bit,\u201d said Van-Kirk. \u201cWe have a country fried steak now, and food that is \u2018American.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did Van-Kirk mix up the breakfast menu, the recipe for his version of a \u2018Smashburger\u2019 will soon be found on the menus of other MWR restaurants in Europe in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Being able to bring a little bit of our American cuisine to our Italian home is what motivates him to continuously bring new ideas and creations to the members of the Vicenza military community, said Van-Kirk.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the people that are homesick, especially with things like breakfast, such as biscuits and gravy; it\u2019s the simplest little thing, but you\u2019re not going to find it in Europe,\u201d said Van-Kirk. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice to get to see those people every day, they come in and they\u2019re thankful for this and it means so much for me to be here for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Van-Kirk, lead cool at the Arena on Caserma Ederle, is grilling some of his take on the \u201cSmashburger\u201d in preparation for the lunch crowd wearing his recognizable beard net. Photo by Azurelyn Mathis (Photo Credit: Courtesy) VIEW ORIGINAL VICENZA, Italy \u2013\u00a0The lead cook at the bowling alley on Caserma Ederle, Matt Van-Kirk, gets ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21487,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21485"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21491,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21485\/revisions\/21491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}