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" Specialty: Italian With the ability to coax the very best out of ingredients as simple as a tomato, Scott Conant is known in the culinary world for his passion and dedication to honest Italian cooking. However, Conant didn&amp;#039;t always dream of new ways to work with basil. If not for chance, the world may never have heard of this chef \u2014 he had originally planned to take plumbing classes at his vocational high school. Plumbing was full, so Conant signed up for cooking. While not his first choice, he quickly delved into the subject matter. &amp;quot;Really into it&amp;quot; doesn&amp;#039;t begin to describe Conant&amp;#039;s passion for food: At 15 he was carrying around a personal copy of Escoffier&amp;#039;s pivotal book La Guide Culinaire, and while taking classes at the Culinary Arts Institute in Hyde Park, NY, he scored an internship at San Domenico, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan. Dedicated from the start, Conant often spent nights sleeping on the restaurant&amp;#039;s floor, as he usually finished work too late to make the trip back to the CIA. This passionate work ethic has carried through to all of the New York restaurants he&amp;#039;s put his stamp on, including City Eatery, L&amp;#039;Impero, and Alto. Proving that hard work and talent have their worth, he was named one of Food and Wine&amp;#039;s Best New Chefs in 2004, who chose Conant based on his &amp;quot;full spectrum of Italian cuisine, whether it&amp;#039;s rustic homemade pastas or a refined truffle-infused mushroom fricassee.&amp;quot;  In between running some of New York&amp;#039;s most notable Italian kitchens, Conant found time to publish his own cookbooks, starting with Scott Conant&amp;#039;s New Italian Cooking, which was heralded as &amp;quot;a handsome book of sophisticated, relaxed, and inspired recipes&amp;quot; by Chef Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar and Grill. Conant&amp;#039;s follow-up, Bold Italian, was released in spring 2008. More recently, Conant has opened Scarpetta, a restaurant in Manhattan&amp;#039;s meatpacking district. Meaning &amp;quot;little shoe,&amp;quot; or the shape bread takes on when used to soak up a dish, Scarpetta is Conant&amp;#039;s first effort as both a chef and owner. It opened to rave reviews, including the New York Times three-star review by Frank Bruni, who noted that it &amp;quot;leaves you stuffed and happy.&amp;quot; Scarpetta continues Conant&amp;#039;s tradition and is dedicated to fine Italian dining. Recipes: Moist Roasted Baby Goat (Capretto) with Peas, Fingerling Potatoes and Shallots Light and Crispy Fritto Misto with Fried Lemons &amp;amp;amp; Herbs "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/restaurants/best-chefs/a959/celebrity-chef-scott-conant/>