Riley Aitken
Head Chef and Owner – Bella Restaurant in Old Strathcona
Riley Aitkin, head chef developed his early cooking interests while living in Denmark, on the island of Samsø. Working at the regional restaurant of Ilse Made, Riley fell in love with produce-driven food. He worked closely with head chef Kasper Gaard to curate a daily changing 5-course menu.
His next adventure took him Biota, a 2-hatted regional restaurant in Australia, where he became head chef later that year. Biota received Two Chefs Hats in the Australian Good Food Guide all three years that Riley was at the helm, and was recognized as a restaurant in Australia’s AFR top 100, Hot 50, and Delicious magazine. Riley fostered many special relationships with the land, people, and produce of Australia, and was involved in discovering and logging many native ingredients in Tasmania, Gulf of Carpentaria, and Melbourne.
In 2017, Riley attended the Food on the Edge symposium in Ireland to speak on cooking using native ingredients. He returned to Canada in 2019 top open his restaurant — Smokey Bear, a wood-fired eatery with a focus on high quality, seasonal produce and ingredients cooked over an open flame. After four years, he has begun his second venture, Bella.
