Host Jaymee Sire chats with chef and Chopped judge Scott Conant to talk about his 35 year industry career. Scott talks about how crucial travel has been in influencing his cooking style, his next dream destination, and his admiration for his wife’s Turkish culture. He talks about the change of scenery from New York to Arizona and what excites him about the food scene in Phoenix. He shares his secrets to restaurant success and needing to love what you do and have fun in such a tough industry. Scott also talks about his memories and experiences as a longtime judge on Chopped and the most common kryptonite basket ingredient.
Host Jaymee Sire chats with chef and Chopped judge Scott Conant to talk about his 35 year industry career. Scott talks about how crucial travel has been in influencing his cooking style, his next dream destination, and his admiration for his wife’s Turkish culture. He talks about the change of scenery from New York to Arizona and what excites him about the food scene in Phoenix. He shares his secrets to restaurant success and needing to love what you do and have fun in such a tough industry. Scott also talks about his memories and experiences as a longtime judge on Chopped and the most common kryptonite basket ingredient.
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Find episode transcript here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/choppeds-scott-conant-on-the-secrets-to-restaurant-success
[MUSIC PLAYING] JAYMEE SIRE: Hello, hello and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast where we dish on all things Food Network with your favorite Food Network stars. I'm your host, Jaymee Sire, and today we have a seasoned Food Network star on the podcast to talk all about his journey to world-renowned chef and restaurateur with a career spanning more than 35 years.
He talks about adjusting to life in the Southwest after cutting his teeth in New York City, why the landscape of owning and operating a restaurant isn't quite what it used to be, and his key thoughts on restaurant success. You most certainly know him from his long-running role as a judge on Chopped and more recently as the host of Chopped Sweets. Coming at us from Arizona, let's welcome Scott Conant to the pod.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Scott, welcome to the pod. So great to have you on. I like this casual Scott that I'm seeing in the reflection here. For our listeners who can't see, we've got the Yankees cap on, a sweatshirt. It's a departure from what we normally see with you on Chopped all dressed to the nines. So I like the casual version.
SCOTT CONANT: Well, thank you. Even If I don't make it to the gym I'm trying to play the part.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: I do that a lot.
SCOTT CONANT: It makes me feel better.
JAYMEE SIRE: I do that a lot. I wear yoga pants almost exclusively.
SCOTT CONANT: I can't get away with that.
[LAUGHING]
JAYMEE SIRE: I do have to say you are certainly in the running for one of the best-dressed Chopped judges. In your opinion though, who takes that title? Is it you? Marcus? GZ? I mean, I feel like you guys are all always trying to outdo each other.
SCOTT CONANT: No. There's no internal competition. It's really hard to compete with Marcus.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's true.
SCOTT CONANT: He got that look and he wears those hats and he is, I mean, he's Marcus. And GZ, I would say is a close second. Listen, in that list of three, I don't mind coming in third.
JAYMEE SIRE: No.
SCOTT CONANT: It's all good.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's a good place to be. Absolutely. Obviously, we're going to dive into all things Food Network with you. But before we get to that, I wanted to take a little bit of a step back and just talk to you about your past because I think it is really incredibly interesting.
You didn't have a typical high school experience. You attended a vocational school at 15 to study culinary arts, but that actually wasn't your first choice. So tell us about Scott Conant, the aspiring plumber.
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT CONANT: I'll tell you in hindsight, it's such a bad idea to become a plumber because I despise physical labor. So it just never going to work out. It's hard to wear a suit and be a plumber simultaneously.
But I couldn't get into the plumbing program because too many people had applied. So as a second choice, I chose culinary arts. Unfortunately, I got in there because my third choice was actually hairdressing.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, OK.
SCOTT CONANT: There's a whole hairspray joke in there somewhere.
[LAUGHING]
JAYMEE SIRE: We'll try to think of that and come to it by the end of the interview. But as it related to culinary arts, why was that your second choice? Why was that something that you took an interest in at a young age?
SCOTT CONANT: I loved it. I walked into that kitchen for the first time and I remember just really doing well. I remember making things like lasagna. And we would cook for the students and we would also have a little separate restaurant for the teachers, instructors. And anyone can show up. We had a lot of senior citizens that would show up and things like that.
But I took to it immediately. And I come from an Italian American family, so food was always such a huge part of growing up and the table in general. And simultaneously, I started working in a family friend's restaurant, so it all clicked all at the same time.
I was the dishwasher to start, and then a few months into it I started prepping food in the basement, and I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the camaraderie in that kitchen environment. I played a lot of baseball as a kid and that camaraderie that I found was really similar to being on a team.
JAYMEE SIRE: Absolutely. You mentioned your family, and how much did that experience growing up in an Italian American family, the Northeast? I'm sure there was a lot of cooking going on at all times, how did that shape your love of food?
SCOTT CONANT: It was a big part of it. My father grew up on a farm in Maine as well, so that was another big part of it. There was always that attention on the table. And I was a chubby kid, so the more food around me the better. Let's just call it what it is.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: Is there a specific dish that any of your parents or your grandmothers made that brings back those vivid memories from childhood?
SCOTT CONANT: Oh my God, yeah. I have my mom visiting me right now and she's already made sausage and peppers. And she's made chicken cutlets for me and that Sunday sauce with meatballs and sausage stewed together inside a tomato sauce that she cooks for like 24 hours.
I grew up with that stuff, so for me it's like coming home. And that's the first thing I wanted her to do when she arrived was all right, let's go shopping and we'll get chicken cutlets and stuff because I want my daughters to experience those same things.
JAYMEE SIRE: Absolutely. When you think back to those days in school, what was a typical day for you at a vocational school because I would imagine it's quite different than a typical high school?
SCOTT CONANT: Yeah, it was very different. We would do three weeks of academics, so your traditional reading, writing, arithmetic. And then we would do three weeks of our shop, what we call their shop. So I had culinary arts.
My friends were in plumbing and carpentry. And actually, the plumbers, carpenters, electricians, all that said, they would build a home. That was their vocation, so they would build this home and whatnot.
And so we would do three weeks of that and then three weeks on three weeks off. So I always say I got 50% of the academic education I needed to really compensate when I got out of school.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, more importantly, you got the culinary education. I know you also got bit by the travel bug at a fairly young age as well. How much has travel also shaped your point of view as a chef?
SCOTT CONANT: Oh, the travel is everything. It's given me an understanding of people and cultures and appreciation of those cultures and appreciation of particularly of the immigrant experience. My grandparents came here in my mother's side. Well, my grandfather came here in the '30s. And my father's family funny enough came to this country in 1620 and founded Salem, Massachusetts.
JAYMEE SIRE: Wow.
SCOTT CONANT: So that was a long time ago.
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT CONANT: Yeah, it was a long time ago. So if you ever go to Salem, there's a huge statue of a guy named Roger Conant, and that's my great, great, great grandfather.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's so cool.
SCOTT CONANT: It's been downhill ever since.
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT CONANT: Yes.
JAYMEE SIRE: No, no. You think back to some of those travels, what's your favorite trip or visit or even meal that you had while abroad?
SCOTT CONANT: There's so many. I love going to Asia. I love experiencing the foods there. I grew up obviously with, as I said, the traditional Italian American foods, so I've always cooked through a European scope and a European lens, particularly with Italian food. But I went to CIA and cook French food, all that kind of stuff.
So for me going to Asia and going to different parts of the world that don't necessarily cook to that European lens, it's always eye-opening, and I love that food. I remember going to Thailand for the first time and walking through an outdoor market-- I was a guest of someone, it was a business trip, and they were taking me through this outdoor market and I saw this woman with, I don't know, maybe 20 pots of different curries.
And I just tasted all the different curries and I swear to you, I felt like I'd never had Thai food before. The flavors were unlike anything I'd ever experienced with Thai food. They were so developed and so layered and so complex. It was really fun.
JAYMEE SIRE: Where's next on the list?
SCOTT CONANT: Well, we have a trip set up to Turkey. My wife is Turkish, so we're going to go back to Turkey. We have a home there. And it's great for my daughters to be able to experience so much of Turkey every year. So that's the next trip that we have coming up.
JAYMEE SIRE: What do you love about the Turkish culture?
SCOTT CONANT: Oh my God, there are so many things. It's so similar to the Italian culture that I grew up with. There's just such a warmth and such a soulfulness and that appreciation for food and everything on the table, such a pride in their culture, which I just love.
I love seeing that. That's my favorite part of travel is experiencing the pride that everyone has towards how they grew up. I mean that sense of nostalgia, of course, and just that what they're bringing forward and how generous they are with the emotions of it all and the nostalgia of it all and generous with their food as well.
So there's just so many fun things. And Turkey has such a long history of things, good and bad. I mean, we could identify the negative aspects of it as well and how so much of that food stems from Armenian culture. Most Turks I've always spoken to have always acknowledged the Armenian aspect of those items.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you guys balance those influences from your Italian heritage and her Turkish heritage maybe in the kitchen at home when you're cooking as well?
SCOTT CONANT: Oh yeah. I have a book coming out in September and there's a whole chapter with a lot of the Turkish foods that I cook at home. And a lot of the things that I've grown up with as well, maybe a little play on some of it, updated, and things like that. So there's so many fun aspects of what these girls, what my daughters get to experience that I was never able to experience in the past.
JAYMEE SIRE: You guys cook a lot together with your daughters as well?
SCOTT CONANT: I tried to. Yeah. My 11-year-old, she's starting to get into social media and stuff like that, so I'm trying to keep the phone away from her and spend more time with your father.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: That's always a struggle at that age.
SCOTT CONANT: Yes, it is. Yes, they do.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you see them following in dad's footsteps, either in the kitchen and/or on TV?
SCOTT CONANT: I have no idea. I would never put it on them. I always tell them whatever you do make sure that it's creative, make sure that it's something that you love. I always feel like creative people are the best people.
JAYMEE SIRE: What do they think of dad being on TV?
SCOTT CONANT: I think they don't care much.
[LAUGHTER]
In the beginning when they were little and they would see me up there, they would spend about three seconds saying, "Dada," and then they were over it. So I think it's pretty much taken over. I had told them that I'm friendly with Jacques Pépin and Jacques Torres and they were like, you know the chef Jacques? They were so excited that I knew Jacque Pépin and Jacque Torres. They are more impressed by the people that I know as opposed to me being somebody to know.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, I'm sure you met a lot of people throughout your career. You've been cooking for 35 years now since you were a teenager yourself, very long.
SCOTT CONANT: Thanks for reminding me. Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yes, sorry.
[LAUGHTER]
But people can do the math if they want. But how do you manage to stay inspired and continue evolving as a chef?
SCOTT CONANT: We are in really unique times when it comes to the food world and all things culinary. And I think back when I was 15 years old and the opportunities that exist now simply didn't exist back then, so I had no idea what I was getting into.
At this point in my career, I consider myself more of a food entrepreneur because I have so many things that I do between restaurants and other things on television as well and just constantly keep myself busy through that scope and that lens of food.
JAYMEE SIRE: Are there any chefs older or younger that you look up to?
SCOTT CONANT: Oh my God, there's so many. So many. I always say the big three in New York City-- Jean-Georges, Daniel, and Eric Ripert. Those are the big three that I always look at. Chef like Thomas Keller and look what he's accomplished over the years. I'm always inspired by them.
It's not what I do. It's actually not what I want to do, but I always have such respect for the craft. And when you think about the food scene, when I moved to New York City in 1990 and I worked at a restaurant called San Domenico on Central Park South, I think of who the top chefs in New York City were then. And you would talk about Le Bernardin, which Eric Ripert work there then. He's still there.
Talk about Daniel, he was at Le Cirque at the time, and you would speak about Jean-Georges, who had just left the Drake Hotel. I believe it was the Drake. And then he soon thereafter opened up JoJo and eventually went on to open up Jean-Georges. Those are the chefs that you talked about then, and they're still.
That's 31 years ago. They're still the chefs that you're speaking about. And that is from a creative perspective, from a chef like the cook in me has so much respect for that because it is really hard to stay on top of your game and they are doing it in big ways.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, absolutely. Staying on top of your game, staying relevant, evolving with the times and everything. I think that that's an incredible feat for sure. Do you have a favorite person that you've cooked for or maybe somebody you would love to cook for?
SCOTT CONANT: At the restaurant I used to work at years ago, once a month or so Pavarotti and Bruce Springsteen would come in for dinner together in a private room. And they would sit at 11:00 PM, as they would sit down for dinner, and they would just talk until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.
And those were the experiences at the time where it was like, God, I got to work late. I got to be here to cook for them. It was really annoying. You got to be back at 9:00 AM and I'm here until 1:00, 1:30 in the morning.
But in hindsight now, I would never have paired the two of them up. You know what I mean?
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, exactly.
SCOTT CONANT: I would never have thought that they have this tremendous respect for one another that they would just sit and talk for hours. Those are the stories and things in my career that I've done dozens of stories like that where it's just you've got to pinch yourself at a certain point because I forget that I've done a lot. I've been around for a long time as you were so quick to point out.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: To be a fly on that table or that wall to listen to some of those conversations, I'm so curious. I know you and your family moved to Arizona a few years ago. How has life in the desert been treating you and how many snakes have you found in your backyard?
SCOTT CONANT: None in the backyard. We had three rattlesnakes three years in a row in October, which was kind of wild. But they were quickly scooped up and brought back out to the desert. I don't know if the same one kept showing up year after year, but we didn't see him this past October and I hope not to see the him or her this coming October.
But I'll tell you, being out here after having been in New York City for 27 years, meeting my wife there, having children there, opening so many restaurants, it was time for me to turn the page. And a lot of people looked at me like I was crazy. Even Bobby Flay said to me on set one day, you were really moving to Arizona? What are you thinking?
[LAUGHTER]
By the way, Bobby has now has a--
JAYMEE SIRE: But now he's in LA.
SCOTT CONANT: He's in LA. So just saying. I'm not saying I'm a trendsetter or anything, I mean, I was, but--
JAYMEE SIRE: I'll say it. No.
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT CONANT: But I'll tell you, throughout this entire craziness of the past year or so, I'm really happy to be here. I was happy to be here before. There's just something about coming home. I travel a ton. There's something about coming home and feeling like I'm in a resort.
The weather is always spectacular here. It's always sunny. We really appreciate when it's a rainy day just for a little bit of a change in weather. But there's something about sitting outside at the pool doing phone calls out there, making people jealous when I'm doing FaceTime or Zoom meetings outside. It's a more active life, it's a more active lifestyle, and I appreciate that just kind of reining in the pace, the touch.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you think you would ever move back to New York or is Arizona, is this it for you guys?
SCOTT CONANT: Well, I'm too young to say this is it forever, right?
JAYMEE SIRE: That's true.
SCOTT CONANT: But you never know. I think it's all about potential opportunities. I'm really happy here. I don't see myself leaving unless something crazy would happen.
JAYMEE SIRE: Speaking of Phoenix and Scottsdale and the desert, what excites you about the food scene in that area?
SCOTT CONANT: There's so many things happening here. Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in this country.
JAYMEE SIRE: Wow, I didn't know that.
SCOTT CONANT: Yeah, people don't know that. It's a lot of people here and there's a lot of opportunities. It's very business-friendly, which is one of the reasons that I love it and I appreciate it and why I moved here in the first place.
There's great restaurants that have been here, there's great restaurants that are opening. There are so many opportunities for growth and expansion. There's a gentleman here named Sam Fox. And if you don't know the name he created True Foods. And a lot of people on the East Coast don't really know True Foods or Flower Child, some of these restaurants that he's created.
He has sold those concepts and he's been an inspiration for me and for so many other people. And it's a great incubator market to be able to work on something, hone it, and then potentially take it out. And that's one of the things that I'm working on with my restaurants is looking for that kind of growth.
JAYMEE SIRE: And you have two of them. so far, Mora Italian and the Americano. So you're obviously a pro at creating a new restaurant from the ground up. So I would actually love to know your process like what step one when you decide, OK, we're opening a restaurant, what's the first thing that you have to hone in on?
SCOTT CONANT: The first thing I think about is the experience that I want the customers to achieve. So I put myself in their shoes and mentally visualize what kind of experience they should be having. And then I try to visualize what that food looks like on the plate, and what are some of the small dishes that we can kind of ping pong ideas off of.
So if it's more of an Italian American style restaurant, what is that look like? Is it a fra diavolo? All this kind of stuff. That's what I envisioned initially. And I try to put those pieces together to really hone a concept so that we can zoom in on the details.
The fun part of doing a restaurant is when you first starting looking at it, you can look at a really high up and these are all the things I want to do. But as you start to hone in and you get closer to what that restaurant is going to be, you really got to pull some things away that aren't going to work.
And you want to ultimately make people happy. It's not about me. It's about me being who I am within the confines of this concept and staying true to what that is. And then once we step over those lines that's when things start to go a little sideways.
JAYMEE SIRE: What is that raspy testing process like once you've start to visualize some of these dishes and how you want that experience to go? How many times do you have to test a certain dish or recipe before that's signed off on and that's going on the menu?
SCOTT CONANT: Until you get it right. So sometimes it doesn't work at all. There are moments when I just say you know what, it was a great idea but it doesn't execute well. So let's get rid of it. Inevitably, when you put something on a menu, it's eventually going to settle. And where does it settle? That's the problem.
The problem is the ideas are sound, but if you're not executing them right, it's just a good idea. I try not to get overly emotional with the brick and mortar, but I do get emotional about the process of food. And I want to make sure that if it's nostalgic to me, it's going to be nostalgic to somebody else. If it conjures up a particular emotion in me, it's going to do the same for other people who are equally as passionate.
JAYMEE SIRE: Speaking of the brick and mortar, are you super involved in that or are you concentrate more on the menu and let somebody else take care of that or are you involved in the entire vision of the restaurant?
SCOTT CONANT: I try to be involved in everything. My business partners out here in Phoenix, they have a design-build company, so I really trust their vision on things. The Americano if you see pictures of it, it is an absolutely stunning restaurant. I couldn't be more proud of what that restaurant is. And I feel the same about Mora. It's a beautiful restaurant. It's casual, but it's still really well-appointed and thoughtful.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you have any advice maybe for an aspiring restaurateur that might be listening?
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT CONANT: Yeah, don't do it.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JAYMEE SIRE: Don't do it.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: Be a plumber.
SCOTT CONANT: Yeah, be a plumber. No. I'm kidding. Restaurants are not as easy as they used to be. There's a lot of changes that have happened in restaurants and the financial side, which make it tremendously difficult to own and operate when I think about the cost structure.
I'll tell you, just a year ago in March of last year until today, we've seen price increases on food up to 42% across the board. Now steaks are a little bit more expensive, other items are a little bit less expensive, but it's been 42% across the board.
There's not a lot of businesses that can adjust accordingly. There's a lot of challenges right now. But I think you need to be excited by the challenges. Nothing is going to go smoothly, and that's what I tell everybody. If you want to get into this business, do it. Jump in feet first and get ready to work because any success that you may identify is going to come with a ton of challenges.
And the key is they're going to come, they're going to be there, and you have to tackle them. But the real key is to never let the guests know that you've met any challenges along the way. And if you can do that, then get ready for tomorrow because it's going to happen again.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAYMEE SIRE: Chopped fan stay tuned, Scott is dishing on our favorite show coming up next.
I could say the same thing about television as well. Everything that you see on TV is not necessarily what's going on behind the scenes and you can certainly attest to that. You've been a judge on Chopped for over 10 years now. What do you remember about getting the call from the network initially to appear on the show?
SCOTT CONANT: Well, the back story on that is that I was asked to do a different show on a different network years ago and I turned it down. And my PR person at the time was really angry at me.
[LAUGHTER]
As you can imagine. And yeah, my whole team was pretty upset with me. So when I got the call from the network I decided I'm not going to lose this opportunity. I don't know where it's going to take me, but I also had a few restaurants that I really needed. The way I looked at it is television is such a great advertising platform. I'd be crazy to turn away from that.
So I did it begrudgingly. And I actually found myself having fun. And it was a good time, so I kept doing it. They kept inviting me and I kept doing it.
JAYMEE SIRE: At the time, what did you think of the show's concept, and did you think that it would have the longevity that it's obviously had over the years?
SCOTT CONANT: No way. I don't think you go into these things. You know, right? You don't walk into these things saying I'm going to do this for the next 13 years.
[LAUGHTER]
It's not up to you.
[LAUGHTER]
So no, I never thought that it would be as successful as it is, but I never thought it wouldn't be as successful. I was just along for the ride. And I feel the benefit is what we've created particularly with Chopped is great friendships. We are a family in the best ways.
And we fight like families and we laugh like families. And we reach out to one another when we're going through a tough time and we're there to support one another when someone else is having a hard time. And that's the best aspect about it that never shows on television itself.
JAYMEE SIRE: I think it shows in the sense that you guys obviously have a chemistry, a camaraderie, a respect for each other. But I love hearing that because you're not the first person on this podcast to say that. I think, in fact, everybody has said that it really is a family, and that is the most important thing about being part of the Food Network family is that it is a family.
When you think about just over the years on Chopped, obviously, it's become just like this iconic show for Food Network. Are there any stories from sad or moments that you haven't told anyone before that you can share with us here?
SCOTT CONANT: No.
JAYMEE SIRE: No?
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: Taking them to the grave.
SCOTT CONANT: No, nothing ever happens. We just sit there. When the camera's not on, we don't speak. That's the way, you know.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: I do not believe you for one second.
SCOTT CONANT: Nor should you, nor should you. The best part of Chopped is unfortunately on the Edit room floor. Most of that stuff doesn't fit into the show itself, but we have had such great laughs.
People don't know this about me, I have a reputation for being a little bit stern and maybe not so nice, but I'm the biggest clown on set. I have to rein myself in sometimes because I'll start getting side-eyes by the producers saying like Scott, we're in this. We're in this, Scott. Let's go. And I, yes, Chef.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: Let's get through it. Let's get through it.
SCOTT CONANT: Let's get through it. Be serious.
JAYMEE SIRE: What is the hardest part about filming because I have to imagine those days are pretty long and you shoot a lot of shows in chunks and it's probably long days and that kind of thing. What is the most challenging part about it?
SCOTT CONANT: Let's be honest, if I weren't doing that I'd be stuck in a kitchen someplace. I have no complaints. I am grateful for the opportunity and it's no BS. Mark Murphy says it all the time. If it wasn't for this, we'd be running restaurants all the time. We'd be inside kitchens night after night after night and not spending time with our families.
Yes, the days are long on set. Yes, sometimes it's a little bit much. But when you think of the alternative, it is a blessing for us to be there. And I take that to heart. I am full of gratitude for the opportunity.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's really nice to hear, actually. No, I mean, because I think it goes back to just what you were saying about being part of this family. And you see these contestants coming in who I'm sure would love to be part of that family as well, but they have to get through this gauntlet that is Chopped before they could even have an aspiration of doing that. What do you think is the biggest mistake that you see contestants make show after show?
SCOTT CONANT: I will tell you like life it is all about the attitude that you have towards it. I think that is the biggest thing. A lot of the chefs come on the show and there's a chip on their shoulder. You know how chefs are, right? We're a wizard with a little bit of sassy.
[LAUGHTER]
And you have to have fun in the process. And if you're not having fun, just don't do it. I don't like to compete on TV. I just don't. Everybody who knows me knows that about me. I don't like to do it. I don't have fun. I get overly competitive and I lose my sense of humor. And I think that my sense of humor is one of my favorite things about me even if it's only me, but it's one of my favorite thing.
[LAUGHTER]
So I don't want to lose the part of myself that loves it. I don't want to lose that part. I always tell chefs when you come in, make sure you come in with a positive attitude. It may not go your way. You're putting a puzzle together using food in pieces frankly that don't fit, so you need to make it work somehow. And there's very few who can really excel at that. I mean, really very few.
I can count the number of great dishes that I've had where I was blown away by it. And that's nobody's fault that some people can figure it out better than others. As simple as that.
JAYMEE SIRE: What is maybe the worst or most difficult basket ingredient you've seen throughout all the years?
SCOTT CONANT: I feel like meat in the dessert baskets are always a challenge. On Chopped Sweets, I think we had an entire pig head at one point, which was a real challenge.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, you mentioned Chopped Sweets, which you are hosting, a slight change of scenery for you. Can you tell us how that show came to be?
SCOTT CONANT: I got to tell you, it's so much fun to do that show and--
JAYMEE SIRE: Really?
SCOTT CONANT: --talent of the pastry chefs. I almost feel like pastry chefs have been sitting on the sideline watching Chopped for years. And then at one point, there's an opportunity on Chopped Sweets and they are just ready for it. And some of the desserts that they make are truly mind-blowing. Among the best desserts I've ever had in my life, truly.
JAYMEE SIRE: Really?
SCOTT CONANT: Really think about that this is happening in a 30-minute time frame or a 40-minute time frame with ingredients as I said that don't necessarily belong together. It has been an honor for me to be affiliated with that show in any way much less to host it. I would even venture to say that the quality of food on Sweets is much better than the food on Chopped across the board.
JAYMEE SIRE: Which competition do you think is more difficult?
SCOTT CONANT: It's hard to say because pastry chefs have a different language. They're speaking a completely different language and there's a knowledge that's a little bit more-- there's a little more uniformity in that knowledge although it feels broader to me.
You have some chefs come in like me who cook through a European scope and other chefs come in with an Asian or a South American or whatever the case may be, but pastry chefs they're just seems to be a little bit more of a guidebook. Even if you're making some kind of an Asian dessert, there's still a similarity, I would say, with something through a European or South American scope.
So for the most part. I don't want to stretch it too much and I definitely don't want somebody to say to me you don't know what you're talking about.
[LAUGHTER]
So but I'm painting with a broad brush here. I don't know which one's more difficult. I will say that the pastry chefs. They seem more prepared. Let's put it that way.
JAYMEE SIRE: Which would you rather judge, a sweet or a savory dish?
SCOTT CONANT: Well, the challenge for me with the sweet stuff is I'm judging every course and that's about nine dishes a day and we were filming five, sometimes six a week. It's tough. I'm not as young as I used to be.
[LAUGHTER]
So that's a lot of sweets. It's hard to say. I don't necessarily have a sweet tooth. So I love savory food and I cook savory food. I hosted Best Baker in America for a couple of seasons as well. And that was a whole new respect for pastry chefs after having experienced that, and Chopped Sweets to a whole new level.
JAYMEE SIRE: You're not a sweets person, but do you have a guilty pleasure like dessert or sweet food that you will gravitate towards? Like it's 11 o'clock at night and you just want something sweet?
SCOTT CONANT: If I see a souffle on a menu I'm ordering it. I'm ordering the souffle no matter what. But 11 o'clock at night, I'm a little bit more of a chocolate person like chocolate-covered cashews or something like that. Dark chocolate, not milk.
JAYMEE SIRE: That sounds delightful.
SCOTT CONANT: You can give me a peanut butter cup or Reese's peanut butter cup and I will-- I love peanut butter.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's the best combo-- peanut butter and chocolate. Especially if you put them in the freezer first, or you get one of the fresh ones like one of the holiday ones because it's super fresh.
SCOTT CONANT: No, I like them in the freezer.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: All right, well, we're going to wrap this up with some rapid-fire questions and then we'll finish it off with our question that we ask everybody but rapid-fire round. So what music do you listen to while you're cooking?
SCOTT CONANT: It depends on my mood. I'm a huge Dylan fan, huge Willie Nelson fan, so I normally lead with one of those two. But I came up in the '80s and the hip-hop music was a big part of my life, so old school hip-hop, I like it a lot.
JAYMEE SIRE: Hip Hop BBQ station on Pandora is my recommendation for you.
SCOTT CONANT: Oh, yeah?
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, it's a good one. It's only about 50 songs. I feel like that cycle through, but it's all the hits. It was definitely my go-to for a very long time.
SCOTT CONANT: Hip Hop BBQ, got it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Hip Hop BBQ. Worst American mistakes when cooking or eating Italian food?
SCOTT CONANT: Oh the list is long.
[LAUGHTER]
Not salting the water, olive oil inside the pasta water, overcooking the pasta. A lot of people do this it drives me nuts. Taking the pasta, pouring into the colander, putting it on a platter, putting the sauce on top, and then that water just pools around the exterior of the pasta itself. One of my pet peeves.
I think the biggest issue that I have with Italian American food is that it's almost like a game of telephone through generations. And a lot of times, some of the nuances of the food that say my grandmother would cook with is kind of lost through that game of telephone and then it becomes something overly heavy-handed. Rustic and sloppy are two very different things, but in the wrong hands, people call sloppy-rustic and that's one of the issues.
JAYMEE SIRE: That would be incorrect. All right. Clean up as you cook or clean up once you're done cooking?
SCOTT CONANT: Oh, clean up as I cook. Absolutely. Clean as you go. Absolutely.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: What is your go-to takeout order?
SCOTT CONANT: You give me some great New York Chinese, I'm the happiest guy ever. You kidding? Yeah, I love it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, I agree with you. I live in New York as well, so at least once a month, if not every couple of weeks, I got to go the Chinese food order and takeout is the best.
SCOTT CONANT: It's the best. Yeah, go ahead.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: No. Favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate?
SCOTT CONANT: I'm really simple, vanilla. Like--
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, vanilla.
SCOTT CONANT: --heavy vanilla. I like double down on the vanilla. Love it.
JAYMEE SIRE: If you could have dinner with anyone alive or dead who would it be?
SCOTT CONANT: I get this question a lot and I always feel like I give the wrong answers because nobody ever airs it and nobody ever prints it. So yeah--
JAYMEE SIRE: All right, this is staying in. I'm saying it right now.
[LAUGHTER]
SCOTT CONANT: So I've said everything from Buddha to Jesus to Martin Luther King Jr. to Gandhi to Frank Sinatra to my grandmother. That's a pretty long, that's a good--
JAYMEE SIRE: It's a broad list.
SCOTT CONANT: It's a broad list. It's a broad spectrum. But it's all of those people. I mean, I love it. But I will tell you one time I was in Las Vegas, they were doing a photoshoot there, and I was with Bobby and I was with Marcus Samuelsson and Geoffrey Zakarian, and we had a raucous time. It was bananas. How fun and funny it was. So I would love when we get back to it to have another one of those dinners. Good time.
JAYMEE SIRE: That sounds like a good time. A good time that you will not tell us any of the goings on for--
SCOTT CONANT: I mean that was all that happened-- dinner.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, that's all. You guys had a great, a really fun dinner.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, this has been so much fun. But before you go, we do have one last question and we ask everybody this question at the end of our Food Network Obsessed interviews and that would be, what would be on the menu for your perfect food day? So breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert.
And there are no rules, so you can time travel or you can just travel like on super fast jets, I guess, if you need to go in between countries, spend all the money in the world or not. There are no rules. It is your perfect food day.
SCOTT CONANT: I would start with a Japanese breakfast in Tokyo, one of the best breakfasts, or I would have a Turkish breakfast because I just think both of them are about sampling and tasting a lot of different things. I'm going to say Tokyo, even though I might get some grief at home. But in Tokyo for Japanese Breakfast. Absolutely, one of my favorite things in the world.
Lunch, somewhere on the Amalfi Coast. Even if it's just walking through the streets of Naples and having fried Naples street food. What's better than that? Nothing. I took a tour just one time down south of Naples. I drove down to a small town called Paestum, which have phenomenal ruins if you ever get down there, but fresh mozzarella.
The mozzarella is so fresh they put it inside completely unrefrigerated. It's still warm when you take your bite out of it and it just oozes [NON-ENGLISH] and it's just absolutely spectacular. So that would be part of the lunch if that's OK.
JAYMEE SIRE: Absolutely.
SCOTT CONANT: And then dinner, I'll tell you I had a phenomenal meal one time at Meadowood in St. Helena. It burned down last year during the fires. If I can go back in time and have a meal like that again cooked by Chris Kostow, I would do that in a heartbeat. True talent. One of the great chefs of this country.
JAYMEE SIRE: Absolutely. I agree with you. I did not eat at Meadowood, I ate at the more casual one. The name escapes me at the moment. And then dessert. I know you're not a dessert person, but I guess a souffle, right?
SCOTT CONANT: I am a souffle. And who cares who cooks it.
[LAUGHTER]
It's great no matter what as long as it's done right.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, that sounds like a fabulous food day and hopefully you don't get in trouble for choosing Tokyo over Turkey. Although, I guess, I said there's no rules, so maybe you could do both. You could just start an early morning in Tokyo and then finish off breakfast over in Turkey.
SCOTT CONANT: Maybe on the plane from Tokyo to Turkey I can have the Japanese breakfast and then--
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, there you go.
SCOTT CONANT: --land and have another breakfast in Turkey. How about that?
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it.
SCOTT CONANT: Can I change it?
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, absolutely. I think we're on the record now. No one can be upset with you and it sounds sounds perfect, exactly what it's supposed to be. Thank you so much for taking the time. This has been so much fun chatting with you and thank you. We'll do it again sometime.
SCOTT CONANT: Thank you for thinking of me.
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JAYMEE SIRE: So good catching up with Scott. It always amazes me how many Food Network stars said no when they were first approached by the network. Obviously, there is power in changing your mind and Scott is a testament to just that. You can catch Scott at the Chopped judges' table on Food Network and you can watch all episodes of Chopped Sweets streaming now on Discovery Plus.
As always, thank you guys so much for listening, and make sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss a single thing. And if you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to rate and review. We love it when you do that. I read every single one of them. That's all for now. We'll catch you, foodies, next Friday on Food Network Obsessed.
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