Scott's Bio
Chef Scott Pelletier was raised on the New Hampshire seacoast and began his culinary career as a teenager working in seasonal seafood restaurants. He studied leisure management and tourism at the University of New Hampshire before his passion for food took him across the country to San Francisco’s California Culinary Academy. While studying at CCA he worked in such illustrious kitchens as Coconut Grove with Chef Jeffrey Inahara, and with Elka Gilmore at Liberte. During Pelletier’s time at Liberte, Esquire Magazine named it “One of the Top Ten Best New Restaurants in the Country” and Zagat Review gave it a near perfect score of 29 in the food category, an honor bestowed on only one other restaurant in northern California at the time. In 1996, the east coast beckoned him back, and he quickly became a chef/partner at Perfetto in Portland, Maine. There, Pelletier enjoyed high praises from “Travel and Leisure,” “The New York TImes,” and “Portland Press Herald.” He subsequently opened two more restaurants in the Portland area, Cotton Street Cantina and 15 Independence. 1999 brought Pelletier to Boston’s Back Bay and the White Star Tavern of Copley Place. During his 3 ½ years as Executive Chef there, the restaurant received the coveted praises of the Improper Bostonian, and Boston Magazine’s award for “Best Wine List” in their “Best of Boston” issue. Robert Nadeau, of the Boston Phoenix wrote of Pelletier’s White Star menus, “It’s great eating and great fun, and marries high and low cuisines with a world-beat reference in there as well.” Pelletier credits his grandparents (on whose farm he spent many summers) for impressing upon him the uniqueness of New England’s seasonal produce. His appreciation for local, in-season ingredients, coupled with his formal French training, defines Pelletier’s cooking style. And cooking runs in the family. Pelletier’s brother is in the business, and his step father attended culinary school after retirement. Pelletier and his wife Hillary and son Grant live in Methuen where he is teaching Grant to fresh herbs and vegetables. Skiing and basketball are also counted on a short list of good things to do if his motorcycle is out of commission. In the five years with Scott in the kitchen Evenfall has earned great reviews from The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, the Portsmouth Herald, Taste Magazine, Eagle Tribune, along with winning the prestigous 'Best of Boston' award for General Excellence from Boston Magazine in the August 2007 Best of Boston Issue.