La Strada chef Stephen Scott comes from strong Italian roots If you want to get an idea of how industrious executive chef Stephen Scott is, drop by Alexandria’s La Strada restaurant some mid-afternoon. During those quiet between-meal hours, Scott and staff will be in the kitchen out back, and it’s likely you’ll find them unloading and repackaging box loads of chicken parts before refrigerating them or preparing vegetables for the night’s dinner rush.
If you can get him to sit down long enough to chat, you’ll find out he heads the kitchen for this all-family destination.
If you go
La Strada Osteria and Enoteca
1905 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
703-548-2592
Hours: Dinner –Ê5 to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; Brunch — 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
“My dad is the owner and maitre d’,” he said. “My mom oversees us all. My sister does the computer work.” And that’s part of La Strada’s charm: no bustling, big-business, big price tags at this intimate and cheery destination.
Turns out that this Massachusetts native comes from sound Italian stock.
As he noted, “My grandmother was Italian and came to the United States when she was just 20 years old.”
She may have lived a lifetime in America, but she never forgot how to cook traditional Italian dishes, a skill she passed along to her grandson.
“As a little boy, I became Nonna’s [grandmother’s] ‘fifth son,’ ” he said. “I was with her constantly, and she got me into cooking.”
Together, they made fresh pastas and stuffings, and a variety of other dishes.
“She got the cooking bug in me,” he said.
Although Scott did not attend culinary school, he did receive some pretty sophisticated kitchen training, particularly when he moved to the Washington metro area from Arizona in the early 1990s. As chance would have it, he was hired by Mark Miller, one of the founders of the since-defunct Red Sage, a high-glam Southwestern eatery that took D.C. by storm in its early days.
But a move to work as a sous chef for renowned Italian chef Roberto Donna at his local I Matti restaurant and as manager of Donna’s three casual Italian Il Radicchio eateries before moving on to Donna’s Galileo certainly immersed Scott in the ways of his grandmother’s kitchen, but added a certain level of sophistication, lifting Scott’s Italian cooking above the at-home level.
“I prepped the food for all his cooking classes and parties,” he said. “He taught me a lot. I worked for him for about seven years.”
As he paused to reflect, Scott toted up further benefits to his years spent with Donna, important benefits that have shaped his present-day Italian cooking style.
“I learned so much,” he said. “He sent me to Italy for eight months where I took cooking classes, went truffle hunting and tasted wines. … And his friends who taught at the Italian Culinary Institute would come over, and I would learn many different things. He [Donna] took me under his wing.”
Scott moved on to open his own restaurant in Falls Church, a little place he named after his grandmother, Argia. After selling that, he then worked as chef de cuisine at D.C.’s Zola.
And then, with his family, Scott started a whole different chapter of his life, presenting to folks in the area his concept of cheery Italian home cooking with his own particular twist. And without any formal publicity, this 1 1/2-year-old restaurant has already been named among the 50 best in the Northern Virginia area. After all, success may seem predestined.
“My mother, being Italian, gives me input on my food,” Scott said.
Q&A with chef Stephen Scott
What is your comfort food?
I love pasta. We make all our own fresh, except penne, which is dried. I also love bacon with polenta or polenta with duck ragu.
What is your cooking philosophy?
To be passionate about what you do. Have the food speak for you and respect and have love for your craft.
What’s in your fridge?
To be honest, basically nothing. I live above the restaurant, so that is my refrigerator.
What is your basic approach to cooking?
To be passionate about what you do and to have your food speak for you. You must have respect for your craft.
Where is your favorite place in the world?
I love Italy. There is nothing like going to Italy. Plus I have family and lots of friends there. The atmosphere and the people are so welcoming and relaxing.
From the chef’s kitchen
Flourless Ricotta Cheesecake
Serves 12
3 pounds fresh ricotta cheese
8 large eggs
2 cups sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 1/2-quart baking dish.
In a bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, sugar and lemon juice, and beat until smooth. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and sprinkle the cinnamon on top.
Bake one hour or until set and the cheesecake puffs up like a souffle. Cool before serving.
