Chef Chad Scothorn brought his culinary vision to Telluride, Colorado, in 1996 after 22 years in restaurants from Oklahoma to Argentina. The Cosmopolitan, a fine-dining, 80-seat restaurant that serves contemporary cuisine, is in the Hotel Columbia, just steps from the gondola in downtown Telluride. Scothorn also operates a private dining room, the Tasting Cellar, on the same premises. The Cosmopolitan has been featured in Wine Spectator as “one of the prime movers of the local dining scene,” listed in the Zagat guide, and has earned the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectatorevery consecutive year since 1998.
In May of 2007, Scothorn expanded to a new market by opening the Cosmopolitan of Durango. The establishment resides in a building on Main Avenue that is over a century old, and Scothorn took pride in carefully reviving many of the structure’s authentic components, including exposing the original brickwork, and infusing modern elements into the final design. The remodel mirrors his approach to cuisine, where old-world cooking techniques combine with new-world food, resulting in classic fundamentals that entertain contemporary concepts. Freshness is the other key to Scothorn’s cooking, and the Durango restaurant relies year-round upon local growers to provide ingredients for its lunch and dinner fare.
Scothorn has received national attention for his innovative cuisine over the years. Food critics fromThe New York Times, Nation’s Restaurant News, Snow Country, Esquire, Bon Appetit, Connoisseurand Town & Country have praised his creative approach. He appeared at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City in 2002 and has also prepared another James Beard Foundation meal off-premise in Aspen.
Before coming to Telluride, Scothorn opened a cafe and bakery, Cafe 501, in Oklahoma City, which was best known for its artisan breads and pastries. In 1994, he was the chef of Log Haven in Salt Lake City, Utah, a 220-seat restaurant with banquet and a la carte service. In October 1992, Scothorn opened Chadwick’s at the Chateau in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Within one year of opening, the restaurant was recognized in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Nation’s Restaurant News and other publications as one of the best alpine restaurants in the country.
Scothorn also received praise as the opening chef for six years at Beano’s Cabin in Beaver Creek. An on-mountain restaurant that functioned as both an exclusive private lunch club and as a public restaurant accessible by sleigh ride in the winter and horseback in the summer, the award-winning establishment was named by Esquire magazine as one of the top new 100 restaurants in the United States.
Additional culinary experience for Scothorn includes grand opening executive chef at Hotel Pisces, a three-restaurant, four-star establishment in Las Lenas, Argentina, and he worked for Val-Gene Associates in Oklahoma for over 11 years in management positions that culminated as executive chef. In 1990, as a consultant for Val-Gene, he designed Pepperoni Grill, a 120-seat Italian restaurant that is now a national chain.
Scothorn has a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant administration from Oklahoma State University and an associate’s degree from the Culinary Institute of America. He has continued his education at the intensive cooking class at the Culinary Institute of America in Sicily, Itlay, and in classes for bread making and advanced pastries at the internationally recognized Ecole Lenotre, near Paris, France.