Matt Conroy and Isabel Coss. Credit: Deb Lindsey

From Pastry to Partnership: How Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy Built a Culinary Life Together

8 Minute read

09 Jun 2025

Journalist

The husband-and-wife chefs behind Pascual met on the line at Empellón, bonded over tacos and cake, and now run one of D.C.’s hottest restaurants. Here’s how they make it work.

Matt Conroy and Isabel Coss met in 2012 on the line at Empellón Cocina, Alex Stupak’s ambitious East Village restaurant. He was a French-trained savory chef diving headfirst into Mexican cuisine; she was a pastry sous chef with sharp instincts and sharper questions. From the beginning, there was chemistry—in and out of the kitchen.

Their stations were side by side, which sparked the kind of casual flirtation only a kitchen can foster. Coss asked a million questions—what’s your favorite knife? what are you doing over there?—while Conroy bribed her with mini tacos that always earned the same reply: too spicy. “She didn’t like spicy food back then,” he says. “She’d give me cake. I gave her tacos. Always make friends with the pastry chef—they have the good stuff.”

A Recipe for Romance

Their first date snuck up on Conroy. “I asked him out, but he didn’t know I was asking him out,” says Coss. Her casual “let’s grab lunch sometime” turned into a full-day affair. First, they admired the origami Christmas tree at the American Museum of Natural History. Then they ambitiously aimed for dinner at Per Se, only to land—more realistically—at Bouchon Bakery, where they devoured pastries. Back home, they watched Battle Royale. “I like cult movies,” says Coss. “So I showed him one I loved to see how he’d react.”

The couple married in 2015 with a low-key city hall ceremony, followed by a celebratory round of beers with friends at a favorite garden spot.

Credit: Deb Lindsey

Credit: Deb Lindsey

A Shared Vision, Years in the Making

By then, Conroy had moved on from Empellón, first taking the helm at Little Prince in SoHo, then Virginia’s in the East Village, and finally landing at Oxomoco in Brooklyn, where he cooked modern, wood-fired Mexican fare alongside chef Justin Bazdarich.

Coss’s path led her from Agern, a progressive Scandinavian spot tucked inside Grand Central Terminal, to Enrique Olvera’s Cosme in the Flatiron District, where she deepened her creative take on Mexican pastry.

Keeping It Separate, Keeping It Strong

Despite the intensity of running a restaurant together, Coss and Conroy make a conscious effort to keep their personal lives out of the kitchen. “If we have something at home that we’re disagreeing on, I think we do a very good job of not bringing that into the restaurant,” says Conroy. “I’ve worked in places where that happens, and it’s never fun for the rest of the staff.”

Their success hinges on deep respect and mutual trust. “There’s just a lot of respect between both of us,” Conroy adds. “We’re always there to help each other with whatever it is.”

The Chef

Born and raised in Mexico City, Isabel Coss trained as a ballerina before swapping the stage for the kitchen. As a teenager, she rebelled against the rigidity of ballet and discovered a new passion—baking bread at Enrique Olvera’s Michelin two-star Pujol.

In 2011, she joined the pastry team at Alex Stupak’s Empellón Cocina in New York City, where she met savory chef Matt Conroy. The pair began dating within a year and married in 2015. Coss went on to cook at Agern, a progressive Scandinavian restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, and later returned to Olvera’s world at Cosme in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.

Throughout their careers, Coss and Conroy shared a quiet ambition to someday build something together. “It was an unspoken understanding that we would both work to get better at our craft,” Coss says, “so that one day we could be the best versions of ourselves and work together.”

In 2020, Conroy moved to Washington, D.C., to lead the kitchen at Georgetown’s Lutèce, operated by the Popal Group. Coss joined later as pastry chef, helping elevate the restaurant to national recognition. She was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in America in 2023. Lutèce, meanwhile, earned accolades from The New York Times, Washingtonian, and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

In 2024, Coss, Conroy, and the Popal Group opened Pascual, a wood-fired Mexican bistro on Capitol Hill. It was named one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants and earned a spot on The New York Times list of America’s Best Restaurants.

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The Chef

Matt Conroy began cooking at 14, working as a short-order cook at a diner. His career took a more refined turn when he trained under James Beard Award winner Tony Maws in Boston, mastering French bistro technique. In 2012, he moved to New York to join the kitchen at Alex Stupak’s Empellón Cocina—specifically because he didn’t know anything about Mexican cuisine.

“I had done a lot of French food,” he recalls, “and I wanted to do something completely out of my comfort zone.”

At Empellón, he met pastry sous chef Isabel Coss. The two were dating within a year and married in 2015. Conroy went on to lead the kitchens at Little Prince in SoHo and Virginia’s in the East Village before joining chef Justin Bazdarich at Brooklyn’s Oxomoco, where he deepened his passion for wood-fired, modern Mexican cooking.

Eventually, Conroy relocated to Washington, D.C., to helm the kitchen at Lutèce, a French-inflected neo-bistro run by the Popal Group. Coss later joined as executive pastry chef. The restaurant quickly garnered national acclaim, including a spot on The New York Times’ list of “The 50 Most Exciting Restaurants in America,” a #2 ranking in Washingtonian’s “100 Very Best Restaurants,” and a 2024 RAMMY Award for Upscale Casual Restaurant of the Year.

In 2024, Conroy and Coss launched their first joint concept: Pascual, a wood-fired Mexican bistro on Capitol Hill. Backed by the Popal Group, the restaurant was named one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants and appeared on The New York Times’ list of “America’s Best Restaurants.”

09 Jun 2025