Then & Now: McClure comes full circle with return to Vermont

Editor’s Note: The following story appeared in the Jan. 29 issue of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Then & Now” is a profile of a past member of the Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class.

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In the past decade or more, Bentonville’s culinary scene matured from nascent to nationally recognized, and award-winning chef Matthew McClure played a central role in its development.

McClure was the founding executive chef at The Hive, a restaurant inside the 21c Museum Hotel, which opened in downtown Bentonville in September 2013. He relocated in 2012 from Little Rock, where he’d been sous chef at Ashley’s inside the historic Capital Hotel.

While working in Northwest Arkansas, preparing locally sourced ingredients to showcase the state’s unique culinary identity, McClure was a semifinalist seven times (2014-19, 2022) in the prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards, recognizing him as one of the most accomplished chefs in the South.

In 2019, 21c Museum Hotel appointed McClure to an expanded role overseeing its hotel restaurants in Oklahoma City and Kansas City, and the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame named him Proprietor of the Year in 2021.

“What an incredible experience,” said McClure, 44, who was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 2014. “I had more successes than I ever thought I would. I got there in the early days and saw the growth throughout the decade, and it was incredible to be part of that.

“If not for those experiences, I wouldn’t be ready for the position I’m in and where I can take this place.”

The “place” McClure refers to is The Woodstock Inn & Resort, a year-round destination in Vermont’s Green Mountains with 142 rooms, a golf course, cross-country skiing and even its own alpine ski area. McClure has been executive chef there since Sept. 1, 2022.

McClure’s new job returns him to the state where his culinary career began. A Little Rock native, he left Arkansas to train at the New England Culinary Institute in Essex Junction. After that, he worked in Boston at No. 9 Park, under leading chef/restaurateur Barbara Lynch, and then at high-profile spots Troquet and Harvest before deciding to return to his home state.

In his new position, McClure oversees all culinary operations within the Woodstock resort, including five farm-to-table restaurants, in-room dining, the employee cafeteria, and corporate, social and wedding events.

He oversees about 140 employees, including 19 managers on the culinary side, while providing oversight to both front- and back-of-the-house operations.

McClure also works closely with the Kelly Way Gardens team to build seasonal menus for the resort’s restaurants. Kelly Way Gardens is a Vermont-certified organic garden and farm-to-table program that provides the Woodstock with an on-site holistic food supply.

He said his goal is to make the resort the culinary destination of New England.

“The content is here,” he said. “The food is awesome, we’ve got a great team, the service is awesome, and it’s a great community. The piece to tie it together is a narrative. It’s not dissimilar to what I was doing in Arkansas but doing it in a place that is not used to the contemporary approach to marketing. It’s really about storytelling.”

McClure said he wasn’t job-seeking when he heard from a recruiter to discuss the Woodstock job.

“I was familiar with the state [because of culinary school], but I had never heard of the property,” he said. “I just wasn’t in the resort world. But the more I learned, the more I was interested.”

When the resort offered him an opportunity to visit for an on-site interview, he accepted, even though he was content with life living and working in downtown Bentonville.

“I view employment as a two-way street; they’re interviewing me, but I’m also interviewing them,” he said. “I wasn’t necessarily looking for a job, but if I did depart, I was going to pick the right one.”

McClure and his wife have two children, ages 6 and 8, and they are enjoying life at a slower pace in rural Vermont, with its calmness and ambiance. Woodstock has a population of approximately 3,000 people, contrasting with bustling Bentonville.

“The job is bigger; the town is smaller,” McClure said. “That’s probably the biggest adjustment. In Bentonville, I had four grocery stores within a seven-minute drive to choose from. These days, I go to town once a week to get my supplies.”