Scott Conant

Scott Conant (born February 19, 1971) is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He has been referred to at times as "The Maestro of Pasta".

Conant was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. He is of Italian descent on his mother's side. He began cooking at a young age, taking cooking classes at the local community college at age 11. At 15, he enrolled in W.F. Kaynor Technical High School for culinary arts, and then attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

While at the CIA, Conant interned at the famous New York City restaurant San Domenico, an experience that had a decisive impact on the young chef. After graduation, he spent a year in Munich, Germany, mastering the art of pastry at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof. He returned to the United States and San Domenico, working as a sous chef and helping the restaurant garner three stars from The New York Times.

In 1995, Cesare Casella selected him to be chef de cuisine at Il Toscanaccio, an Upper East Side Tuscan-style restaurant. A year later, Conant went on to revamp two institutions: Barolo in SoHo and Chianti on the Upper East Side. Conant then became executive chef at City Eatery, located on the Bowery in New York City.

Conant and his modern take on Italian cuisine got the attention of New Yorkers, earning him a loyal following and a glowing two-star review from The New York Times in 2000.

In September 2002, Conant opened L’Impero in Tudor City. Within weeks, the restaurant received a rave three-star review from The New York Times, which stated, "[Conant is] turning out dishes full of flavors that are joyous and highly refined. From the simplest preparations to the most complex he is almost always in control and in tune."Gourmet declared that Conant “raises the roof on the Manhattan school of Italian cooking.”