Chef Victor Matthews began his career in the professional kitchen at a small neighborhood pizza joint in 1982. Over the 37 years since he has won almost every award possible including fifteen competition medals, an ACF Chef of the Year, and four or five stars many times. In 1997 he was named the youngest four star chef in Louisiana history from the Times Picayune newspaper in his hometown of New Orleans. That was also the same year he founded his first culinary school, the Culinary Institute of New Orleans. In 1999, Matthews relocated to Green Mountain Falls to buy and upgrade the 50 year old Black Bear Restaurant. By 2000 they had four stars and had won the state championship. By 2003 they were the only restaurant outside of Denver to receive the coveted 4 stars from the Denver Post, and Chef Matthews had won ten more awards. To build on this success and the creation of several high school culinary programs, the chef opened Paragon Culinary School in 2004, the state’s first elite private five-star culinary institute. In 2005 he was chosen through a nine month selection process to become the United States Culinary Ambassador, representing American Culinary Arts all over the world. Soon thereafter he also received the honor of World Master Chef from London. In 2010 Chef Matthews started a charity called Restaurant As Mission which helps people escape slavery and poverty worldwide through job training. After opening Southern Hospitality and Bourbon Brothers Restaurants he turned his attention to the Black Bear Distillery which was founded in 2013. In 2017 he received his Doctorate in Theology from Warnborough College in Canterbury England and was asked to join the ruling council of the college, then he won two gold medals for his single barrel whiskey, and was then asked to lead the Theology Department with a focus on upgrading and modernizing as Dean. It sounds crazy, but it is the blessed life of Victor Matthews. God has been so good. At the present time it appears that he is the world’s only Triple Master (Chef, Service, Spirits) PhD. In 2019 the school began classes in the legendary Briarhurst Manor and Paragon International began the East African Project.