i. Biography
The Path
Executive-chef work at Legare is built around quiet restaurant craft: dough, sauce, shellfish, vegetables and seasonality handled without spectacle. In Matt Beardmore’s kitchen, the plate is direct, but the work sits in repetition, touch and restraint.
The Practice Today
Pasta-focused Italian cooking at the restaurant depends on daily mise en place that can be felt by the guest: fresh pasta and bread made in-house daily, with Seasonal British produce running through the menu. The style asks for immediacy rather than ornament — pasta rolled, cut and shaped with care, bread folded into the rhythm of service, and ingredients used while they still read as of the moment. Rustic Italian-led cooking here is not treated as strict authenticity. That distinction shapes the place. It is not a museum version of Italian food, and it does not police a single tradition. In his hands, the frame is broadly Italian-led while drawing on Italy, Spain, Portugal and French Provençal ideas alongside UK produce. That wider register gives the kitchen room to move between pasta, antipasti and seafood without reducing the work to one category. He has said the restaurant is not just a pasta restaurant, and the cooking keeps that range visible. Fresh pasta gives the menu its pulse, and the daily making of bread and pasta gives the dining room its handmade texture. Around that centre, the cooking can move in tone: earthy and comforting, briny, sharpened by heat, or lifted by greens. Seasonal British produce keeps the work connected to its place, even when the references move across southern Europe. Two dishes mark the range. Orecchiette with braised rabbit and Swiss chard sits squarely in the Legare repertoire: shaped pasta, slow-cooked meat, greens and balance. Palourde clams with Chiu Chow chilli oil, agretti and pancetta chilli jam takes a more lateral route, setting clams and agretti against chilli oil and chilli jam. The dish stays grounded in appetite and produce while showing how this pasta-focused cooking is not hemmed in by pasta alone.
Recognition
Recognition for this register of cooking includes Michelin Bib Gourmand for Matt.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Matt
What is Matt Beardmore's present role?
Matt Beardmore is Executive Chef at Legare.
What recognition has Matt Beardmore received?
Michelin Bib Gourmand.
What is Matt Beardmore known for?
Pasta-focused Italian cooking at Legare.
