Kevin Cleary: Chef and Owner, L’Amante, Burlington
In 2003, Kevin and his wife, Kathi, decided to move the original L’Amante restaurant they had started four years earlier in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Burlington, doubling the size and winning rave reviews.
A graduate of the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Kevin started his career cooking in the kitchens of some of the most highly acclaimed Italian restaurants in the Boston area including Pignoli and The Tuscan Grill. After four months in Italy working in the kitchens of the Ristorante San Domenico in Imola and the chef-owned Osteria di Rendola in the Chianti hills, he returned to Boston where he was sous-chef at Il Capriccio for two years before fulfilling his dream of cooking the best northern Italian cuisine in his own place.
Kevin is also a WSET Certified Wine Educator, an Associate of the Institute of Wine & Spirits and a member of the Society of Wine Educators. In 2011 he founded the Vermont Wine School, which teaches the WSET Levels 1–3 Awards and the French Wine Scholar program.