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Matthew Basile

Creator of Fidel Gastro's, restaurant Lisa Marie and host of Travel and Escape's Rebel Without A Kitchen

Matt Basile is the creator and leader of the Fidel Gastro street food revolucion. A former copywriter obsessed with food, Matt started Fidel Gastro's as a popup sandwich shop in Toronto. Matt would use social media and unique menu concepts to drive traffic to to whatever event or venue he set his table up at.Within a few months Fidel Gatsro's started to establish large caterings and big festival gigs as well had the opportunity to collaborate with distinct brands and prominent local chefs. Fidel Gastro's began to build the brand and the business quite quickly by adding a food truck, a reality TV show entitled "Rebel Without A Kitchen" on Travel and Escape, and now it's first brick and mortar restaurant, Lisa Marie. Fidel Gastro's embodies fun food and that being different is the only way to break through the food scene in Toronto. Matt and his business partner, Kyla Zanardi, launch their first cookbook with Penguin Publishing called Street Food Diaries in fall of 2014.
Rebel Without a Kitchen:

Rebel Without a Kitchen: Montreal

What separated Montreal from the other cities on our tour was that we did not have an actual food event to tap into -- instead we decided that Montreal was going to be the city that I did an old school popup at -- just build it and pray to the food gods that someone will hopefully come.
05/13/2014 12:02 EDT
Detroit: A DIY Food Truck

Detroit: A DIY Food Truck Paradise

When I was told to that Detroit was on the agenda for cities being featured on Season 2 of <em>Rebel Without A Kitchen</em> I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it. But being in Detroit, eating in Detroit and being a part of Detroit's vibrant up-and-coming street-food and art scene actually paints a very different picture of the city.
05/06/2014 09:08 EDT