One year ago, Macau’s only Michelin starred Italian restaurant, 8½ Otto e Mezzo BOMBANA at Galaxy Macau, reopened after a long Covid-induced hiatus. Now, 12 months on, the talented new team headed by executive Chef Riccardo La Perna and General Manager and Chief Sommelier Marino Braccu, is busy serving up exquisite dining experiences to full bookings almost every night of the week.
“With a new chef, new manager, new team, and many policies to manage, we knew it would be a challenge,” acknowledges Chef Riccardo. “We needed to train them and they needed to absorb the philosophy of BOMBANA. We are very satisfied with the efforts of our new team. We are like the conductors, but they are the credit of the restaurant, they are the future.”
Both Chef and Sommelier have a long history with 8½ Otto e Mezzo BOMBANA, with Chef Riccardo having headed up BOMBANA Shanghai for nearly nine years and Marino having worked at BOMBANA Hong Kong for five years, both as Chief Sommelier and General Manager. During their respective tenures, BOMBANA Shanghai earned two Michelin Stars and two Black Pearl Diamonds, and BOMBANA Hong Kong was ranked ‘Asia’s 4th Best Restaurant’ on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2017 list. Marino was also named ‘Best Hong Kong Sommelier’ and ‘Outstanding Sommelier of the Year’ in 2017 and 2018.
“With our skills and experience, we bring the BOMBANA standards to Macau with a great level of synergy,” notes Chef Riccardo. “We know what we want to achieve and what we want to offer. We don’t compromise our philosophy, even if the market is restricted at the moment.”
What they aim to achieve is to offer guests a truly authentic and complete Italian hospitality experience, from the service and environment, to the food and wine, all with highly personalised attention to detail.
“8½ Otto e Mezzo BOMBANA has been the benchmark for fine dining outside of Italy for the last 10 years, and I think we have both absorbed and developed great experience from working with Chef Bombana, and now we bring to Macau his philosophy of how an Italian restaurant should be at this level,” notes Marino. “We are putting all our effort into making this a great restaurant not only for Macau, but also one of the international hubs as an Italian restaurant in Asia.”
“We also want to be accessible and friendly,” adds Chef Riccardo. “Eating and hosting in Italy is a big thing. If you come to my home, I won’t just make you a simple salad, not because I’m a chef, but because I’m Italian. This is the spirit of Italian hospitality.”
Recently, the restaurant presented a superb white truffle pairing menu, and there will be more exceptional festive dishes on the way for the Christmas season, but Chef Riccardo readily admits he is not one for planning his creations too far in advance.
“I don’t work with regular recipes. I work with my soul and feelings. Once I see the ingredients and get a feel for them, then I decide how to cook them,” he explains. “You need to have a huge sensitivity towards your ingredients. Creating new dishes is a bit like jazz, a jazz song can be played in a hundred different ways, it’s still the same song.”
However Chef Riccardo decides to prepare his dishes, guests can be assured of savoring the most delicious ingredients and flavours, inspired by his ‘Luxury of Simplicity’ philosophy and encouraged by owner and visionary founder of the renowned brand, Chef Umberto Bombana.
“Chef Bombana gives us a lot of freedom, especially as a chef. Each of us has our own personality, background and region. The sense of responsibility is high because we need to maintain our standards and philosophy, but still include our personality,” Chef Riccardo notes. “I’m from Sicily, Chef Bombana is from the North, so we have two different food cultures, but in the end, you’re going to have the same experience.”
Complementing Chef Riccardo’s culinary mastery at every turn is the vast knowledge and experience of Chief Sommelier Marino Braccu. Hailing from Sardinia, Marino spent eight years working in Australia before meeting Chef Bombana in Hong Kong and being invited to work with him there. In particular, he is credited for sourcing and introducing a wide variety of smaller regional wine producers to the Asian market.
“To work at 8½ Otto e Mezzo BOMBANA is not only a job, you have a social responsibility,” Marino notes. “In Hong Kong I was working at the only 3 Michelin star Italian restaurant outside of Italy. So many niche Italian producers broke into the Asian market because they were featured on the BOMBANA menu. For me that was a great responsibility, but I never felt pressure because I love what I do.”
Explaining his approach to choosing new wine labels for the restaurant, Marino says:
“As the benchmark Italian restaurant, we need to give the best products that Italy can offer, and what I really look for is authenticity and typicality of each region. A wine made in Tuscany needs to have the fingerprint and taste of the region. If you can’t feel and taste Tuscany, I won’t take it. We have a duty of care to transmit the typicality of the region.”
Just one year after opening in 2015, BOMBANA at Galaxy Macau earned its first Michelin star. And as the new year comes, it will be exciting to see what culinary delights the talented team has in store for guests, and what further accolades they will deservedly receive.
Dinner: 18:00 – 22:30
Bar: 18:00 – 24:00
Tuesday to Saturday
Galaxy Macau, 1/F, 1031
+853 8886 2169
