Scott Conant isn’t just a fantastic chef who can take the simple and make it sublime, he’s also a funny and charming guy, who insists that each of his restaurants be the sum of all of its parts, not just the (delicious) food coming out of the kitchen, but also the service, décor, and ambiance.

I recently spoke to the man who made spaghetti an epicurean must, in anticipation of his Las Vegas appearance, this Thursday, at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, inside his Scarpetta restaurant, where he will be autographing copies of The Scarpetta Cookbook (his just-released third cookbook). All proceeds from the event will benefit Keep Memory Alive and its mission to support the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

The Scarpetta Cookbook is a bit of a departure from the de rigueur cookbook – even your own two bestsellers, New Italian Cooking and Bold Italian – in that the emphasis on learning how to cook as opposed to following a recipe. A welcome change in our foodie culture, to be sure; but what was the impetus?

What I always say is that people come to the restaurants and have a certain experience; and with this cookbook I want them to be able to recreate that experience. And it’s not limited to the food – it’s also maybe some lighting choices and some textural choices or things of that nature – because I always think of Scarpetta as an experience; from the service, the food, and from the ambiance.

You’ve become very active in the Las Vegas community, becoming one of the chefs for KMA’s Ali70 celebration gala, last year, celebrating the 70th birthday of Muhammad Ali. How do you cook for a thousand people and still ensure the quality is good enough to be sent-out under your imprimatur? Because I was there, and it was delicious!

Well, it was actually 2,200 people, that night. You know, Larry Ruvo called me and said “Scott, I really want you to do this event.” And anything that Larry does, I’m such a huge fan of his, and a good friend; and I know what Las Vegas means to him – it’s his home, and it’s the town he grew-up in – so I said “Of course, I’ll do it. What do you want me to do?” And he said “I’d really love for you to do your spaghetti.” And I said “Sure! No problem! How many people?” And he said “It’s gonna be about two-thousand.” (laughs) So, I realized I’d have to reset some expectations – ‘cause this was gonna be a tough one. So instead we did a really fun pappardelle with a smoked guinea hen ragù.

I’ve gotta hand it to you. You make hearty food that – pardon the cliché – actually sticks to your bones. What I mean is, I never leave your restaurants and then stop for a burger on the way home.

You know, there’s a balance that I really try to find, with a certain level of elegance, but also rustic. So, merging and juxtaposing those two elements is really important to me; because I want a person to eat something that is really deeply beautiful and just simply delicious. And if you don’t know what the word “scarpetta” means, it’s when you grab a piece of bread, and sop-up what’s on the plate. That’s the inspiration. The end goal is the beginning of the thought process, for me. How to we achieve that level of “scarpetta” – where someone is gonna love the food so much, they’ve just gotta drag a piece of bread through it?

Speaking of your food – what’re you serving over in the American Express Centurion Lounge? Is it a full menu? Is it snacks? What’s going on, over there?

It’s a beautiful space, Red Rooster was the company that designed it; and American Express asked us to come-in and do some food-programming for them. Right now, for breakfast, it’s a buffet: We haven’t yet started an a la carte menu. But it’s just a little buffet, with small bites. Things like a frittata, and the Salted Caramel Budino (a pretzel toffee) we do over at D.O.C.G. You know, it’s just a really nice, well-appointed lounge that I feel is unlike the experience you get in any other lounge in the US, other than the Centurion Lounge.

You know, you can’t have a Scott Conant conversation without talking about spaghetti. I’m so excited for my copy of The Scarpetta Cookbook, so I can attempt to recreate it; but what the hell is your secret? I mean, it’s spaghetti. I’ll be honest; before I ate your spaghetti, I was like “Um, it’s spaghetti. How great can it be?” And friends would say “Oh, you don’t understand…” To which I’d say “I understand: It’s spaghetti. I’ve seen Lady and the Tramp. I’m no stranger to pasta. But seriously – how good can it be?” Then I ate at Scarpetta, and in addition to eating your spaghetti, I was forced to eat my words. It really is that good. What the fuck are you doing to your spaghetti, Man?

(Laughs) You know, believe it or not, it is the simplest process. But I always say “It takes a lot to get to simple.” It takes years. “It’s simple plus thirty years,” is what Geoffrey Zakarian always says to me. It takes a very long time to get to that place where you’re like “I’m gonna take away all the bells and whistles, and we’re just gonna focus on labor development and the actual ingredients, themselves.” So this tomato sauce, I don’t cook for more than 40 minutes. They’re all fresh tomatoes that are peeled and seeded, and then I make this infusion of olive oil – and I treat it like a tea, with crushed red pepper and garlic and basil – and then I strain that oil inside. And then we make fresh pasta, that’s semolina-based (and everything is done in-house). And we finish with a little bit of butter, a little bit of Parmesan cheese, and fresh basil---

Did you say butter?

Yeah, a touch of butter (let’s say a half a tablespoon of butter, per serving). And there’s plenty of olive oil, too; so if you’re on a diet, this might be something to avoid.

What was the best advice you ever received in the kitchen.

Oh my goodness. I hate to say it, but I’ve been kicked-around in this industry so badly, over the years; that the best advice was probably learning from various people what not to do – whether they realized it at the time, or I realized it at the time. I think in hindsight, looking at the way people wouldn’t pay me for months on end, or the poor way my colleagues and I were treated by people, has probably made me open-hearted enough, to really learn how to manage people the “right” way, and use those experiences to build a hospitality company that treats customers the “right” way, as well. And it took years of therapy to figure that out.

Meet the Author | Chef Scott Conant – The Scarpetta Cookbook
Scarpetta | The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Thursday, October 24th | 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Click HERE for info

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