Five years ago, when renowned Michelin-starred Chef Umberto Bombana opened his restaurant 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Galaxy Macau’s then newly-finished Phase 2, he naturally put someone whom he truly trusted at the helm of operations in the kitchen. And today that person, Executive Chef Antimo Maria Merone, is still capably serving up superb contemporary Italian cuisine, and has put his own stamp on the identity of the restaurant.
“We initially opened as a reproduction of the original Hong Kong restaurant, with the same menu and setup, same service procedure and glassware, but over the years we have strongly developed our own identity. This is thanks to Chef Bombana who has allowed me to express myself and evolve in our own direction,” notes Chef Antimo.
“Of course, the concept is still strongly identified with the Hong Kong restaurant, but now this restaurant really has its own soul and identity. We need to understand that we operate in a different market from Hong Kong, so we have had to customize our experience to the market and guest preferences,” he adds.
Chef Antimo was clearly the right choice for 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana, but originally, his path to becoming a chef wasn’t so clear.
“Cooking has always been a great passion for me and I wanted to be a chef since I was a teenager, but I didn’t pursue this career initially. At university I studied finance,” he recalls. “After I graduated, I grabbed a backpack and went to Berlin when I was 25. That’s where I started to work in a professional environment. I stayed there for four years, then went back to Italy to do culinary studies.”
In 2012, he arrived in Hong Kong to open L’Altro restaurant, which immediately won a Michelin star, and it was there that he met Chef Bombana.
These days, the two chefs maintain a very close working relationship, operating their respective restaurants in both Hong Kong and Macau.
“We see each other nearly every week, we are very close. His support is one of the things that has kept me here so long. He is a great motivator and mentor. He comes across every month, no fixed schedule, just spontaneously. He loves the Noodle Kitchen at Galaxy casino,” laughs Chef Antimo.
While the Hong Kong restaurant has been awarded the highest three Michelin star rating, the Macau establishment maintains a very respectable one Michelin star. Later this year, the evaluators will of course come again, but Chef Antimo doesn’t feel any pressure.
“We have no expectations. We work for our customers. If we do this well, then the guides will recognize our work. Of course, we are trying to get better results, and we are always trying to elevate our experience year by year. I think since 2015 when we opened, the experience has improved incredibly,” he comments.
He also notes that having more or less stars is not what Chef Bombana prioritizes either.
“The awards are important, but it’s not only that. Chef Bombana has a vast portfolio of customers and they speak to him constantly, and he hears very positive things about the Macau operations. He is so impressed that in five years he has only heard good things, and that makes him very proud. He is extremely customer focused, so for him the satisfaction of the customer is everything.”
8½ Otto e Mezza Bombana is a contemporary Italian fine dining restaurant, but it is also very international in its philosophy and operations.
“We have four Italians in the kitchen and three on the restaurant floor, but the rest of our team is very international, and we are really proud about that because it really represents the place where we are. That’s our identity: a contemporary Italian restaurant in Macau in 2019, and this is represented by our staff and our way of approaching our customers,” observes Chef Antimo.
The international approach also extends to sourcing ingredients.
“We source ingredients from all around the world, we don’t try to source everything from Italy, for both seasonal and logistical reasons. We use the best ingredients from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and France, in a very Italian way. Our taste and experience is Italian, our ingredients come from all over the world.”
“What makes Macau special compared to other places in the world is that we are in the middle, so we can easily get ingredients from Australia, Japan, Italy.. maximum 24 hours everything is here. So we can combine ingredients from countries that are in different seasons – winter products from Australia and summer products from Europe. This gives us the possibility to explore combining flavours together that 20 years ago was impossible.”
One very important source of ingredients is China.
“China is making the best caviar in the world right now. They are doing an amazing job. Up near Russia, where you have some of the coldest water in the world, and it’s the place where the sturgeon grows the best. There’s no competition. There’s been lots of investment from US and Europe in the past few years. Now the business is huge and the quality is amazing.”
Chef Antimo also appreciates Yunnan mushrooms. “Matsutake, porcinni, they are amazing, super fresh.”
Working closely alongside Chef Antimo, to enhance the authentic Italian dining experience, is Sommelier Mirco Tarducci, who joined the restaurant about one year ago.
“Working for this restaurant is a great opportunity to showcase all the greatest wines that Italy has to offer,” says Mirco. “My philosophy is that the most important thing for the wine list is that it needs to be customer-focused, not sommelier-focused.
“There always needs to be a balance between recognizable brands that people are familiar with in this part of the world, as well as new and up-and-coming winemakers and more obscure varieties,” he observes.
“And there’s a real willingness to discover new things. Customers quickly go from what they are familiar with and what they like, to being more open about what they want to try. The most satisfying thing for me is when I can help customers discover wines that they may not have picked themselves, but that they enjoy.”
Dinner: Daily 18:00 – 22:30 (except Wednesday)
Bar: Daily 17:00 – 00:00 (except Wednesday)
Tel: +853 8886 2169
