SBWFF 2010: Scott Conant's Barilla Interactive Lunch

Paula Niño | February 28, 2010 | 11:05am

Female fans rushed Scarpetta's Scott Conant at yesterday's South Beach Wine & Food Festival Barilla Interactive Lunch at the Biltmore Hotel. They wanted to snap his picture. "I haven't gotten this much attention since my wedding," he told an audience of about 200. Some jumped on stage as Conant prepared farfalle with spicy garlic shrimp, baby tomatoes and bread crumbs, the second dish of the afternoon.

The first dish, a campanelle with fresh artichokes, cherry tomatoes,

buffalo mozzarella and buffalo ricotta was prepared by Lorenzo Boni,

the executive chef at Barilla America and the first chef Conant worked

for in New York 20 years ago.

You have to be a trusting person to participate in these lunches, where

your table mates are in charge of preparing your lunch with help from

students of the Coral Gables High School Culinary Program. It's

tempting to get all control freakish and tell the person cooking to

stop stirring so much so the pasta doesn't turn into mush, but as long as the end result is good.

Anyway,

here are some pictures.