Lydia Shire
Executive Chef/Owner

DESIGN FIRM: Alvarez-Brock Design

A powerful creative force, Lydia Shire's passion for excellence and culinary talent is evident in all that she does. Scampo, the dynamic first floor restaurant in Boston’s Liberty Hotel, is her sixth culinary destination. In Scampo, Shire’s reputation for defying tradition translates into Italian-inspired cuisine unrestrained by borders, drawing on flavors from the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Born in Brookline, Mass., and raised by artist parents, Lydia grew up learning the importance of bringing quality to everything you do in life. At age four, Shire was peeling garlic alongside her father, as he cut out recipes from The New York Times. Her first professional position was slicing paté and opening oysters as the “salad girl” at Boston’s revered Maison Robert. In 1971, Shire attended London's Cordon Bleu Cooking School, after which she returned to Maison Robert, but this time as a line cook.  Three years later, in 1974, Shire became the head chef of this prestigious dining room.

Throughout the mid- to late-70s, Shire made her mark in Boston's most respected restaurants: Harvest, Café Plaza at The Copley Plaza Hotel and Parker's at the Parker House Hotel. In 1982, she opened Seasons at the Bostonian Hotel. The restaurant and the chef quickly became nationally recognized for culinary “excellence” and “daring” – two descriptives that still embody Lydia Shire today. The James Beard Foundation awarded Shire the coveted “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage” award in 1984.

In the fall of 1986, Shire was asked to open the new Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.  This move made Lydia the first female Executive Chef in the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts Company to open a luxury property. A few years later, the sun and glamour of California could not sway Shire from her ultimate dream of opening her own restaurant in Boston, and in 1989, she returned to Boston and opened BIBA (“Back in Boston Again”). It was here Shire was recognized as a chef of amazing vision and talent, as she presented an internationally-inspired menu arranged by types of food: fish, offal, meat, starch, legumina and sweets. 

In 1992, the James Beard Foundation honored Shire as “America’s Best Chef – Northeast.” That same year, Food & Wine reported that Shire was “One of America's Top Ten Chefs.” After opening Pignoli, a robust Italian bistro in Copley Plaza, to rave reviews in 1994, Shire earned the prestigious Ivy Award by Restaurants & Institutions magazine, and The James Beard Foundation again acknowledged Lydia, this time nominated as “One of America's Top Five Chefs,” in 1996.