Culinary Director
Lydia Shire
Fifty years in Boston kitchens. The first female James Beard Award winner and the first female Executive Chef at a Four Seasons Hotel.
A homecoming to Harvard Square
Lydia Shire has shaped Boston’s restaurant scene for more than fifty years. She became the first woman to serve as Executive Chef at a Four Seasons Hotel, and went on to become the first female recipient of the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northeast.
Her restaurants — Biba, Pignoli, Locke-Ober, and Scampo — have defined eras of Boston dining. She is known for a bold palate, an insistence on the finest ingredients, and a butchery skill that is legendary in professional kitchens. Her son Alex now leads the kitchen at Scampo.
Bar Enza is something of a homecoming. Lydia first worked in Harvard Square in the 1970s at Harvest, a few blocks from where she now runs the menu, bringing her techniques and her taste for local and imported ingredients to every plate that leaves the kitchen.
The record
- James Beard Award
- Best Chef: Northeast, the first woman to receive it.
- Four Seasons
- The first female Executive Chef at a Four Seasons Hotel.
- Her restaurants
- Biba, Pignoli, Locke-Ober, Scampo.
- Harvard Square
- Harvest, in the 1970s. Bar Enza, in the room that was Rialto, today.
- In the press
- Read the coverage of her arrival
Dinner Monday through Saturday, 5 to 10 PM.