Grilled: 2009 James Beard Awards

Scott Conant | Scarpetta

First restaurant job?
I was a dish-washer at a restaurant in Waterbury, Conn., called the Sea Loft, and it was just about as bad a restaurant as it sounds.  

What was the most important thing you learned there?
I learned that cleanliness in the kitchen is important, because that place had none.

What's your most economy-friendly dish?
It's certainly not the spaghetti on my menu, that's for sure. I get a lot of grief for the pricing of that. But probably the polenta.