Popular social media apps like TikTok and Instagram have made it easy for people to express themselves while showing off their creativity.

One Rio Grande Valley native is taking his chef skills to the next level online. He now has thousands of followers and has caught the attention of celebrities. 

He's just a kid born and raised in Brownsville, who turned chef and now a social media influencer. 

"I would say my childhood was filled with curiosity, it was definitely filled with curiosity, and it was also instilled in me that I could do anything, strive for anything," Matthew Broussard said.

Matt graduated from Brownsville Pace High School in 2011. He says that drive for success is something that's deep-rooted in the Valley.

"I don't know what it is, but it just seems like there's something about the people that come out of this area, that they just have a drive," Matt said.

Growing up, he always had a love for food and music. So after finishing high school, Matt packed up his things and took a chance.

It landed him at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin. 

"That it is when I dove deeper and deeper into the culinary side," Matt said. "I worked all around Austin, San Antonio, I ended up working in South Padre Island at some spots and Brownsville as well."

Matt was also hired at the Rancho Viejo Country Club. He was later inspired to take his talents outside of the Valley.

One of the chefs he worked with knew he had what it took to make it big.

"I left with a letter of recommendation from Senator Eddie Lucio and I came to Seattle, in 2014, that's when I came here," Matt said.

In Seattle, Matt worked with chef Tom Douglas and stayed in the area. He says moving outside of the Valley led him to great opportunities, and it all started thanks to social media. 

"It mainly started as a way to document what I was doing, learning all these cool things, documents the dishes I was creating and what I was learning, and it started off on Insta," Matt said.

Matt has 616,000 followers on Instagram and 4.8 million on TikTok.

His trendy videos of recipes and his life in the culinary arts world made their way to a list of celebrities and chefs he was inspired by.

"Fast forward to COVID, that's when everyone was just at home watching, that TikTok thing really accelerated it to an exponential level," Matt said.

Matt even got to film some videos with actress Jessica Alba. He says he couldn't have gotten where he is now without the help and support from his family.

"I grew up with a lot of love and a lot of good food," Matt said. "This journey, it's just begun in my eyes, there's still so much to do."

Matt has gone from being a chef to a published author. His cookbook will be released next summer. He also has plans of returning to the Valley and opening a wood fire Mexican concept restaurant. 

In 2021, Matt was also featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for the category of food and drinks.

Matthew Broussard is this week's made in the 956.