Samuel Clonts is the co-owner and Michelin-starred executive chef of Sixty Three Clinton, a new restaurant serving modern, seasonal American fare with global influences located at 63 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side. Sam leads the team at Sixty Three Clinton alongside his longtime friend and business partner Raymond Trinh.
Growing up in Tucson, Arizona, Sam enrolled in his high school’s culinary arts class while simultaneously working as a dishwasher at the local neighborhood restaurant. By the time he turned 18, he had worked his way up from chef de partie at The Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain just Northwest of Tucson, overseeing multiple kitchen stations before graduating high school.
Drawn to New York City’s world-class hospitality industry, Sam left Arizona for Manhattan, studying at the Institute of Culinary Education while working at The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park. Towards the end of 2011, a holiday dinner with friends brought him to three Michelin-starred Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare; by January 2012, Sam began an externship there and over the course of the next five years worked his way up in the famed kitchen. Early on, Sam called Raymond – whom he’d met years earlier while in high school – to join him at Brooklyn Fare. The two have worked side by side ever since. In early 2017, he left Brooklyn Fare for an opportunity to join Uchu Hospitality as Bar Uchu’s executive chef, while Raymond came on board as the restaurant’s team captain overseeing all front and back of house operations. By October 2017, Sam’s cooking earned Bar Uchu a Michelin star, making him the youngest, starred American chef at 26 years old.