Celebrity chef Scott Conant says his Waterbury family table sparked his love of cooking

Celebrity chef Scott Conant told CBS Saturday Morning that his culinary experience started in Waterbury, at his grandparents’ home on Martone Street.

The two-time James Beard Award-winning celebrity chef, restaurateur and author told “The Dish” that his passion for cooking started to simmer while growing up in that home.

“I will never forget the scent of the house,” he said in the episode, which aired May 16. “It had this old-world Italian scent to it.”

Earlier this year, Conant, known as a long-time judge on the Food Network series “Chopped,” released a new line of jarred sauce called Martone Street. It is intended to evoke the taste and smells of the house in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of Waterbury.

“One of my first memories is sitting at that table with all the chatter and all the talk and all the stories and all the characters and all the people and all the food,” said Conant, 55. “I feel like food is this conduit for connection.”

Conant told the network he only got into cooking because he was unable to get into the plumbing program at W.F. Kaynor Technical High School.

Conant’s career took off with the opening of L’Impero in 2002, which earned a three-star review from The New York Times and the James Beard Award for “Best New Restaurant.” He later founded the highly acclaimed Scarpetta, which expanded to multiple locations across North America, according to the Food Network.

He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, and began running the kitchens of famed Italian spots, including l Toscanaccio, Chianti and City Eatery, according to The Food Network. In 2021 he published “Peace, Love and Pasta.”

However, in the CBS News segment, Conant’s mother, Anne, said she cooks a better red sauce.

“I’m not going to argue,” Conant said in the segment.

Anne Conant acknowledged that prior to her son releasing the sauce, she had never used jarred sauce before. However, she told the program, when she first tried the sauce, “I was amazed.”

About his new sauce, Conant said, “I think it tells the story of a lot of people’s childhoods.”

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This article originally published at Celebrity chef Scott Conant says his Waterbury family table sparked his love of cooking.