When Tony Conte opened a pizzeria in Darnestown nearly a decade ago, he didn’t necessarily expect to draw praise beyond the borders of the quiet Washington, D.C., bedroom community.
“When you first open, you just hope that people like it, you keep the lights on and keep going,” he said.
Still, renown found its way to Conte’s Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana: first, with rave reviews in The Washington Post, and then, with Conte’s nomination for a James Beard award in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category. The Beard awards are one of the restaurant industry’s most prestigious honors, akin to the Oscars in the film world.
Miles away on the Eastern Shore, chef Harley Peet always hoped for more recognition for the local dining scene. When he started working for the Easton-based Bluepoint Hospitality Group, an operator of nine restaurants in one small town, he saw an opportunity to spark some interest.
“We always used the standard of James Beard and Michelin,” Peet said, “hoping that someday, someone would notice.”
Eventually, they did: This year, Peet is another finalist in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category, marking the first time since 2015 that two Maryland chefs have made it onto the Beard awards’ shortlist at one time.
Both chefs will travel to Chicago for the awards ceremony at the Lyric Opera on June 10. For this week’s column, I spoke with them about their culinary careers and aspirations.
Harley Peet
Two passions occupy much of Harley Peet’s time: cooking and boating.
“I don’t have an office; I’m not a paperwork chef,” says Peet, who was nominated for his work as executive chef at the Austrian-inspired Bas Rouge, but who also supervises the kitchens at Bluepoint’s other establishments.
“When I’m here, which is all the time, I’m usually on the schedule, I’m running a station, I’m cooking, I’m actively in a kitchen,” he said. “It’s really hard to get me to go to a meeting.”
In his downtime — at least when the weather is nice — Peet and his husband can be found on the water. “We are out in the summer pretty much every minute that we can get out,” he said.
It was the Eastern Shore’s cultural connection to the Chesapeake Bay that convinced the chef to build a career there.
After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 2002, he planned to head to Chicago, where he had internship experience. But he decided to stop by a recruiting fair on Tilghman Island first. The waterfront community reminded him of Harbor Springs, his hometown on the banks of Lake Michigan.
Peet started his post-graduate career at the Tilghman Island Inn, where he rose to the rank of chef de cuisine. He later worked at The Inn at Perry Cabin — famous for its cameo in “Wedding Crashers” — where he forged connections with local watermen. He joined Bluepoint Hospitality in 2014, just as the restaurant group was getting off the ground.
Bluepoint was founded by Paul Prager, the CEO of zero-carbon bitcoin mining company TeraWulf Inc. and founder of Beowulf Electricity & Data, an energy company. Prager and his family have a farm in Talbot County and decided to open restaurants and shops in nearby Easton to give the small town some cosmopolitan flair. The restaurant group’s portfolio now includes a scotch bar, salad shop, patisserie, Roman-style pizzeria and cold-pressed juice bar.
Bas Rouge serves rustic, “mountainous” Austrian cuisine with sophisticated touches, like foie gras ganache; warm spargel salad with braised leeks and blood orange; and herbed pork loin with broccolini and a ramp chimichurri. The restaurant also offers local catches like wild oysters and rockfish. Peet describes the menu as “Old World, but refined.” (The name “Bas Rouge,” French for “red socks,” is a reference to the red paws of the Beauceron, a dog breed that is a favorite of Prager’s.)
Peet’s nomination makes him the first chef from Maryland’s Eastern Shore to be shortlisted for a Beard award. He hopes the recognition will bring more attention to the area’s culinary offerings.
“It’s a podium, and I think it’s extremely important for our local clientele, our local labor pool to understand that there are people in small towns who do care, who are open to new things,” he said. “Small towns can get a bad rap sometimes, but we’re moving with the times — we’re actually moving ahead of the times.”
“And,” he added, “you can park your car in front of the restaurant.”
Tony Conte
Pizza was an early staple of Tony Conte’s culinary career: As a high-schooler, the Connecticut native worked at a local pizzeria serving New York-style pies.
After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, his path turned to white tablecloth venues: country clubs in Connecticut, the Michelin-starred Jean-Georges in Manhattan and then on to the Oval Room, a haunt for power brokers across from the White House.
After nine years in D.C. fine dining, he wanted a change, and pizza felt like a departure.
“I was getting tired of all the driving in D.C., I was getting tired of fine dining; I wanted something a little bit different,” he said, “and this was definitely something different.”
Conte opened Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana in 2015, in a Montgomery County strip mall. The 44-seat restaurant’s neighbors are a California Tortilla and a butcher shop.
Despite the nondescript locale, news about the pizzeria spread even before its doors were open. Conte tried to open the restaurant quietly, but found eager customers waiting outside the door on the first night. Nearly a decade later, diners still line up around 4:30 p.m. to claim a seat when the restaurant opens at 5.
Though Conte’s pizza is Neapolitan in style, he’s no traditionalist. The chef originally thought about pursuing a Verace Pizza Napoletana certification — confirming the pizza is made according to traditional techniques — but quickly scrapped the idea in favor of room to experiment.
Conte is inspired by an Italian movement that encourages chefs to play with flour, hydration of the dough and oven types. He says his dough, made daily, is about 2 ounces heavier than a traditional Neapolitan pizza dough ball. He tested three different mixers before landing on one that pumps ample air into the dough, resulting in a “neo-Neapolitan” pie with a puffier crust.
“We take a lot of time trying to create something that’s unique to us,” he said.
Conte has been nominated for a Beard award before, for his work at the Oval Room and at the pizzeria, but this is the first time he’s made it to the shortlist. If he or Peet take home the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic award, they will be the first from Maryland to do so since 2015, when Baltimore’s Spike Gjerde won for his work at Woodberry Kitchen.
They’re up against three other chefs: Kevin Tien from Moon Rabbit in D.C., Jesse Ito from Royal Sushi & Izakaya in Philadelphia and Matt Kern of One Coastal in Fenwick Island, Delaware. Separately, Baltimore’s Clavel Mezcaleria is vying for the Outstanding Bar honor.
Conte said he feels fortunate just to be in the running. Making the shortlist is “just phenomenal in its own right,” he said.
Now, “whatever happens, happens.”