The top line: Located within Beaconsfield’s Crazy Bear hotel, BEAR by Carlo Scotto is described as chef Carlo Scotto’s most ambitious venture to date. The bijou spot has has only 14 covers and serves British cuisine with influences from Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It follows Scotto’s previous projects that have included Mayfair restaurant Amethyst, Marylebone’s Xier, and his time under Angela Hartnett at Murano in Mayfair, at Galvin La Chapelle in Spitalfields and Babbo in Mayfair.
The food: For those people who say the tasting menu is dead, then Scotto is here to tell them otherwise. His tasting menu-only restaurant is described as a highly personal, interactive dining experience and, as such, there is no printed menu with each dish presented to diners as a surprise and no two menus every being the same. What you will get is some very refined cooking with a focus on technique as well as flavour, evinced in Scotto’s beautiful and intricate creations. Diners can expect a selection of canapés such as langoustine with kohlrabi, oyster leaf, shiso, sorrel, jalapeño, ättika and salad burnet; followed by eight courses that will include his signature laminated brioche and three-layer butter and sample dishes such as agnolotti with rolet gem squash, black garlic, mascarpone and tagete leaves; miso-glazed duck with blue moon radish, girolles, damsons and umeshu jus; and quince tart with St Helena, Beaconsfield honey and black truffle. The tasting menu is accompanied by an optional globe trotting drinks pairing of rare wines, artisanal meads, vintage sakes and spirits, with a non-alcoholic option also available.
The vibe: Those familiar with the Crazy Bear aesthetic will be unsurprised that the look and feel of the restaurant continues in its sometimes dramatic decor. The experience starts at the smart wood-panelled lounge area with floor-to-ceiling windows with views over the hotel pool, where you can sip on ‘foraged forward’ cocktails such as a mushroom Old Fashioned; wild garlic Martini; and rhubarb Negroni. Guests then descend in the subterranean chef’s table-style dining room where they sit at a Nero Portoro black marble horseshoe-shaped counter and watch Scotto and his team at work. Here the decor is more intense, with deep iridescent blues and golds, geometric wallpaper, aged brass wall sconces, and amber glass pendants, providing a dramatic backdrop to proceedings.
And another thing: Scotto has been in kitchens for a significant part of his life. As punishment for a misdemeanour as a child the courts forced him to find a job outside of school and so he entered his first professional kitchen at the tender age of just 13 when he became a chef apprentice at the Michelin-starred restaurant Don Salvatore.
Crazy Bear Hotel, Old Town, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, HP9 1LX / www.crazybear.co.uk