Scott Conant

Coming Up

Technical training gave the kitchen work its first frame through W.F. Kaynor Technical High School and Culinary Institute of America. For Scott Conant, those foundations were followed by service inside restaurant discipline at San Domenico in New York City, where an intern learns pace, hierarchy, and repetition under pressure. Pastry training at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany added a different kind of control: measurement, timing, and the precision expected when small errors show quickly. Kitchen work in New York tightened after the return to San Domenico in New York City as sous chef. The next stations — chef de cuisine at Il Toscanaccio in Upper East Side, New York City (from 1995), then executive chef at City Eatery in Bowery, New York City — moved Scott Conant through the practical demands of running food, shaping menus, and answering to a city that notices both polish and weakness. The New York fine-dining phase put the cooking into a wider public conversation. As founder / chef at L'Impero in Tudor City, New York City (2002–2007), Scott Conant carried that cuisine into a room where clarity and control mattered. As founder / chef at Alto in Midtown Manhattan, New York City (until 2007), the work continued in a more formal register without losing its savory center. As founder / chef at Scarpetta in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City (from 2008), the idiom became more closely associated with direct flavor, confidence, and a less cluttered idea of refinement. Television added another trade setting: tasting under compression, explaining judgment, and reading whether a dish holds together. As judge of Chopped (since 2009), Scott Conant worked in that evaluative register. As host and head judge at 24 Hour Restaurant Battle in Food Network (from 2010), and later host at Chopped Sweets in Food Network (from 2020), the work shifted toward public assessment without separating from the same kitchen habits: palate, structure, execution, and the ability to say why something succeeds or fails. The current restaurant group extends the same cross-cultural vocabulary across formats. As founder / chef of Mora Italian (since 2017), founder / chef of Cellaio (since 2018), and founder of Sprezza (since 2018), Scott Conant’s work remains organized around flavor, craft, and rooms built for service rather than around a single restaurant identity.

Today

The modern osteria format at Mora Italian in Phoenix, Arizona, gives the cooking a setting built around ease, sharing, and a table that can move between casual appetite and composed execution. In Scott Conant’s larger body of work, the restaurant treats familiar flavor as active material rather than memory alone: clear enough to read quickly, flexible enough to support a contemporary room.

Career - judge — Chopped (2009–present) - founder / chef — Mora Italian, Phoenix, Arizona (2017–present) - founder / chef — Cellaio, Resorts World Catskills, Monticello, New York (2018–present) - founder — Sprezza (2018–present) - intern — San Domenico, New York City - pastry trainee — Hotel Bayerischer Hof, Munich, Germany - sous chef — San Domenico, New York City - chef de cuisine — Il Toscanaccio, Upper East Side, New York City (from 1995) - executive chef — City Eatery, Bowery, New York City - founder / chef — L'Impero, Tudor City, New York City (2002–2007) - founder / chef — Alto, Midtown Manhattan, New York City (until 2007) - founder / chef — Scarpetta, Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City (from 2008) Education: W.F. Kaynor Technical High School; Culinary