The Knife’s Chef of the Year 2025: Carlo Scotto, BEAR

There are comebacks. Then there are rebirths. Carlo Scotto’s return to the culinary world with BEAR is emphatically the latter.

After the painful closure of Amethyst, Carlo's high-end Mayfair restaurant, he did something unusual: he stepped away. Not for a press cycle, not for a pivot, but to travel. To cook in kitchens that stripped back ego and artifice. To work with ingredients and traditions that challenged him. To breathe.

The result isn’t a headline-grabbing splash, it’s something more considered, more intimate, more enduring.

Carlo Scotto / Image: Lateef Photography

A Personal Journey, Translated Through Cuisine

"For BEAR, I wanted to create something intimate and honest," Carlo tells us. "A restaurant guided by the day and by nature itself. The inspiration comes from nostalgia. Memories of growing up around food that told stories and changed with the seasons. I wanted to bring that feeling back, but in a refined, modern way. There’s nostalgia for the guest too, the flavours are inspired by my travels, and I want people to feel as though they’re travelling with me through each dish."

BEAR is his answer. A 14-seat counter-only restaurant in the Crazy Bear hotel in Beaconsfield, where guests share space with the team, and where the menu speaks not just of technique, but of experience, of memory, of landscape, and of discovery.

BEAR by Carlo Scotto interiors / Image: Lateef Photography

A Menu That Travels, Yet Always Returns Home

What sets BEAR apart isn’t just that the cooking is exceptional, it’s that it feels real. Half the menu is foraged from the local woodlands and hills that cradle the restaurant. Every dish reflects a dialogue between the terroir of the Chilterns and the influences of Carlo's global journey: from south-east Asian spice wisdom to European precision and Japanese subtlety.

This is not fine dining that hides behind smoke and mirrors. It is narrative, served course by course:

• Chalk stream trout with wild sea beets and green walnuts – fresh, bracing, completely of the earth.

• Agnolotti of seasonal squash and black garlic – soft, resonant, memorably pure in its nod t Carlo's Italian roots.

• Miso-glazed duck with damsons and umeshu jus – a balance of savoury weight and vibrant lift.

Desserts carry the same clarity of intention: quince tart with local honey and black truffle; apple with marigold and bergamot granite,, each ending the meal on a precise, elevated note.

The drinks programme mirrors the food’s ethos: thoughtfully curated pairings that slip between rare wines, vintage sakes, and an inspired non-alcoholic selection, all chosen to amplify each course rather than overpower it.

Trout dish at BEAR by Carlo Scotto / Image: Lateef Photography

The Space, The Philosophy

BEAR’s horseshoe-shaped counter is more than a seat, it’s a conscious design choice. Fourteen places, no separation from the kitchen, no distance between guest and maker. You watch every plate land, every flourish applied, every thoughtful gesture. It's even more intimate than the setting at Amethyst, which boasted an impressive table bejewelled with the quartz of the same name – Carlo's birthstone.

It’s rare to find a restaurant where restraint feels thrilling and where size doesn’t equal ambition. Where humility protects rather than weakens. BEAR isn’t loud. It doesn’t need to be.

Dessert at BEAR by Carlo Scotto / Image: Lateef Photography

Strength in Stillness

The reason Carlo Scotto stands here, now, as our Chef of the Year 2025, isn’t just because his food is remarkable. Plenty of chefs cook beautifully. It's that too few have returned from personal and professional disillusionment with their voices intact – and stronger for it.

Carlo could have walked away from restaurants after Amethyst – he nearly did. Many would have understood. Instead, he chose to return with purpose: to honour flavour, to honour craft, and to honour the diners who believed in him long before the accolades.

"My hope for BEAR is to put Beaconsfield on the map as a true culinary destination," he says. "A place where fine dining can support the planet and where we create an experience that diners have never experienced."

In a year defined by bold openings and trend-chasing concepts, BEAR by Carlo Scotto stands apart; quiet and resolute, humble yet unshakeably confident.

This is more than a comeback, this is a new chapter. A reminder that the greatest chefs are not only those who dazzle, but those who endure.

Visit BEAR by Carlo Scotto