Matt Allen has lived a unique life; he has spent much of his time as an adult in both the culinary world and in the army.
At the moment, he’s running a small business creating soups in a Fort Thomas catholic school’s kitchen.
Allen, who has worked in the culinary industry for over 15 years, said he started in the business because of his older brother.
“He was my role model when I was a kid, and he worked in restaurants,” Allen said. “So I was like, ‘Well, I’ll work in restaurants and be cool too.’”
Originally from the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati, Allen said he left at the age of 19 but eventually ended up back in the area.
He attended the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont and then proceeded to work in restaurants all over the world.
“I worked in San Francisco for a couple of years,” Allen told LINK nky. “I worked in New York City for about six months. I worked in Paris for a year and a half, and then I worked in Portland, Oregon for six years.”
Parallel to his culinary career, Allen has also been in the army for 15 years. After getting back from his latest deployment in April of 2024, he decided to start Cincinnati Soup Company.
“I had a lot of time to plan while I was overseas,” Allen said. During this time, he said “I mailed out like 80 letters with my resume with who I was and what I was looking to do.”
Father Ross Kelsch at Saint Thomas Catholic School in Fort Thomas got one of those letters.
At first, Kelsch said he wasn’t sure about renting his school’s kitchen out to Allen because of the logistics, but he happened to look at the address on the letter and noticed Allen’s address was just one street away from the school.
“I thought, ‘if he’s that close, I guess it’s at least worth a conversation,’” Kelsch told LINK nky.
Since then, Kelsch said the two have had a great relationship. Allen, who needed a commercial kitchen to develop and cook his soups, uses the cafeteria kitchen in the evenings and on the weekends, and he has also started to cater some events for the parish, and “everyone raves about his soup,” Kelsch said.
Kelsch said that he has been great to work with and that “it was just sort of providence” that he noticed Allen lived nearby because, to him, it’s been great for the parish.
A standout among the soup offerings, according to Kelsch, is the curry, which he said is the one everyone raves about the most.
Allen’s soups are unique and focus on seasonal food. The menu at the moment consists of charred carrot and fennel minestrone, roasted garlic potato cream plus a coconut curry with butternut square, mushrooms and chrysanthemum leaves.
Right now, Allen is selling soups at Findlay Market in Cincinnati. He is soon going to start selling at the North Side Market, and he hopes to set up shop at the Fort Thomas Farmers Market this spring.
Previously, Allen was just selling packaged soups, but he recently built his own handwashing sink (which is a requirement from the Hamilton County Health Department for selling ready-to-eat food) that he can take with him to farmers’ markets, allowing him to sell hot soup that can be enjoyed at the market.
In the future, Allen hopes to open a brick-and-mortar soup and sandwich shop. There have been some roadblocks but right now, he said he’s focused on marking good soups.
The Cincinnati Soup Company’s Instagram bio is: “Soup! We’re bringin’ it back, Baby! A.I. can’t make this soup! Soup and Sandwich Shop coming in 2025! Or maybe 2026!”
You can check out some Cincinnati Soup Company creations at Findlay Market on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to sell out. Follow the company on Instagram for updates.