Delaware restaurateur injured in motorcycle crash

Delaware restaurateur and humanitarian Matt Haley is recovering after being injured in a motorcycle crash in India. 

The founder and CEO of Rehoboth Beach-based Matt Haley Companies was hospitalized in critical but stable and improving condition, according to a statement released by Scott Kammerer, president and COO of the Matt Haley Companies. Kammerer said Haley was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. 

The crash occured on Monday in Leh, India. Haley arrived in India last week to take part in a three week long high-altitude motorcycle ride, based on posts to his Twitter account, @matthewjhaley.

Haley, the 2014 recipient of the James Beard Humanitarian Award, was on a six-week humanitarian mission through northwestern India and Nepal. 

“The Matt Haley Companies would like to thank everyone for their support,” Kammerer said. “Please keep Matt in your thoughts as he recovers. We have an experienced, tight-knit staff, and we will keep all eight of our restaurants running smoothly while he is recuperating.”

The winner of many “Best Chef” awards, Haley’s culinary empire includes restaurants in Delaware beach towns like Rehoboth Beach and Fenwick Island, a catering business and a vineyard in Tuscany. 

Haley’s passion for the restaurant industry, however, is only eclipsed by his passion for doing good. In 2011, he founded the Global Delaware Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports education and the arts, and protects children both locally and around the world.

Haley has visited India and Nepal frequently, where a considerable amount of his charity work has been carried out. Through his nonprofit, he has funded two Nepali schools, provided scholarships each year for 50 children in grades 2 through 10, supported a boys’ orphanage in India and donated computers to schools in Nicaragua. 

Here in Delaware, Haley’s nonprofit has donated money, services and time to the Delaware Adolescent Program, the Boys & Girls Club, the Food Bank of Delaware, the Delaware KIDS Fund, Children and Families First, the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, Camp Barnes, Casa San Francisco and the United Way of Delaware.

WHYY interviewed Haley this past winter shortly after the chef learned he was selected as the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year. The story ran on First on April 11, 2014.