Blue Plate Special benefits beloved Thea Foundation

Rusty Mathis created the Governor’s Culinary Challenge — now Thea Foundation’s Blue Plate Special — over lunch with foundation co-founder Paul Leopoulos. The annual benefit, Oct. 15 at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock, features chefs, cocktails and creative artists.
Rusty Mathis created the Governor’s Culinary Challenge — now Thea Foundation’s Blue Plate Special — over lunch with foundation co-founder Paul Leopoulos. The annual benefit, Oct. 15 at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock, features chefs, cocktails and creative artists.

The bright, shiny, still-new North Little Rock headquarters of Ben E. Keith Co. Mid-South doesn't have a cafeteria.

"But we have a test kitchen, and we have a chef," says General Manager Rusty Mathis, "so I do OK."

Mathis is also the co-creator, and this year's chairman, of Thea Foundation's Blue Plate Special, 6-9 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Capital Hotel, 111 W. Markham St., Little Rock. The hotel, the food supplier and Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits are in-kind sponsors.

The fundraiser brings together 10 area chefs, two prominent mixologists and a passel of area artists who are assigned to them as sous chefs and assistants.

Proceeds from the event benefit the foundation's mission to ensure that all Arkansas students have access to the arts. This year the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation has offered to match the first $25,000 the event raises.

Mathis, a northeast Arkansas native, has been a part of the hospitality industry since he was in his teens. "My parents bought a mobile home" and put it in Hot Springs for their eventual retirement. "They weren't ready to retire yet, so it was a place for me to stay, and to get a job."

That first job, in 1978, was as a bellman at the Holiday Inn on Lake Hamilton; he worked his way up to become the assistant general manager by the time he reached 21. Then he branched out into restaurant work, including the Sawmill Depot. "I ran that in my mid 20s," he says.

He says he certainly never envisioned at the time being on the other side of the restaurant supply chain. "I thought sales was kind of tacky," he admits, "until I started to have a family."

He started working for Ben E. Keith Foods in Mountain Home in 1994 as a sales representative, worked his way to district sales manager in Arkadelphia, and was assistant general manager and, subsequently, general manager of the New Mexico division. In 2007 he moved back to Arkansas to take over the Mid-South Division in 2007. He and his wife, Stacy, make their home in North Little Rock.

Not long after he moved back to the Natural State, Argenta furniture salesman Joe Thomason took him to Paul Leopoulos, who with wife Linda created the foundation and named it for his 17-year-old daughter, Thea, who was a budding artist, six months after she died in a car wreck in 2oo1.

"I had lost a child, a son, the same year Thea passed away; they were a year apart in age," Mathis recalls. "It increased my drive for philanthropic work. I enjoy doing grassroots charity work."

Mathis served on the foundation board for several years, and he came up with the idea for a culinary-centered fundraiser over lunch with Leopoulous and his son, Nick.

"We had our main fundraiser in place, and were looking for another one," Mathis explains. "My roots are culinary, and those kinds of events are popular."

Initially it was called the Governor's Culinary Challenge, but it wasn't really a competition, Mathis says. "It was more of a popular brand, a phrase I thought had a good sound to it."

He'd been off the foundation board for a while, but came back on board, so to speak, to chair this year's event because he sits on the board of presenter Malvern National Bank, so it was a natural dovetail.

There will be small bites for sampling and guests can travel among stations and graze as they go. Glazers is providing wine for the occasion. The list of chefs and their establishments: Amanda Ivy, Sauce(d) Bar and Oven; Payne Harding, Cache; Gilbert Alaquinez, Forty-Two; Marc Guizol, Capital Bar & Grill; Matcha Norwood, Cinnalightful; Kim Henderson, Heritage Catering; Capi Peck, Trio's; Greg Wallis, Kemuri; Kelli Marks, Cathead's Diner; and a chef, to be announced, from Petit & Keet. The mixologists -- that's a term meaning "high-end bartenders who create their own cocktails" -- are Alex Smith of The Fold and Luiggi Uzcategui of Big Orange Midtown.

Helping them out will be artists representing the six categories in which Thea Foundation awards scholarships each year -- visual art, performing art, film, creative writing, spoken word and fashion design: fashion designers Bryant Phelan and Linda Rowe Thomas; glass artist James Hayes; filmmaker Gerry Bruno; musicians Genine Latrice Perez, Rodney Block and Amy Garland Angel; author and historian Janis Kearney; artists Matt McLeod, Kevin Kresse and Barry Thomas; and poets Stacey and LeRon McAdoo. Danny Fletcher and Co. will perform.

Tickets are $100. Call (501) 379-9512 or visit theafoundation.org/blue-plate-special.

photo

Rusty Mathis joined the board of Thea Foundation shortly after he moved back to Arkansas in 2007 to take over as general manager of Ben E. Keith Co. Mid-South.

High Profile on 09/30/2018

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