Matthew Kempf was about 20 years old, a line cook turning out burgers and fries in a casual local pub, when he strode into one of Minneapolis' fanciest restaurants and announced that he wanted to work there.
"He decided he was going to be a chef and he was going to do fine dining, so he went downtown to Goodfellow's, arguably the best restaurant in town at the time," recalled Kempf's longtime friend Jarret Oulman. "They said, 'You can work here, but it will be for free. You can volunteer to work here.' He said, 'OK, I'll do it.'"
Kempf was told he'd probably have to work without pay for a year — "and even after that, you're just going to make salads," Oulman said. But about a month later, he was getting paid, his friend said, and within a couple of years was sous chef, the kitchen's second in command.
"He pushed and he hustled and he worked really hard," Oulman said.
Kempf died May 13 of complications from an undiagnosed liver condition that came on in October. He was 44.
Friends said Kempf was creative, intellectual and generous, with a sense of humor variously described as subtle, dry, dark, goofy and self-deprecating. Above all, he was determined — in the kitchen and in other pursuits.
"Once he set his mind to something, he became very good at it — skateboarding, reading, music," said friend Ben Pagel of New York.
"He was always kind of curious, would just sort of start doing something out of nowhere," said Jessica Nielsen of St. Paul, who worked with Kempf and lived with him for more than 10 years. "I think his brain was always going, trying to think of something else that would be interesting to try."