When it comes to Italian cuisine, the quality of the ingredients is always a factor that can make or break a dish. That's why Chef Francesco Greco, the new Chef de Cuisine at Italian restaurant Aurora in Altira Macau, works very hard to make sure that his restaurant is using the right ingredients in order to deliver genuine Italian flavours to his customers.
Joining Aurora just two months ago, Chef Greco has over 27 years of experience in the culinary industry. A native of Milan, Greco has been living and working in many food capitals around the world, incluidng New York, London and Paris. The chef also has a rich Asian experience after working in several Asian metropolis like Singapore, Shanghai and Jakarta for around 10 years, giving him extensive knowledge of the demands of his Asian clientele.
Speaking about his Macau experience so far, Chef Greco says that the palate of customers from Hong Kong and Macau is pretty similar, with seafood and meats as their favorites. He notes that there are a lot of top chefs here, which makes him eager to work in this city, and suggests that, apart from the status of the Altira Macau and Aurora, what attracted him to Macau was the booming food and beverage industry here.
"The F&B industry [in Macau] is growing so fast, which is interesting for me", he says, "For me, it's important to work and live in a city that is interesting for my career."
Chef Greco says that Aurora has recently changed its menu, which now contains more traditional Italian cuisine with a modern touch. An example is the desserts on the new menu that are now available for lunch and dinner. One of the options for dessert is of course, tiramisu, but instead of making it in a traditional manner, the chef has created a lighter version using the same set of ingredients.
Chef Greco puts a lot of emphasis on the quality and the origin of the ingredients. He says that for some dishes on the new menu, he is using produce and ingredients shipped straight from Italy, including tomatoes from Sicily and hazulnuts from Piedmont. He believes that when it comes to great cuisine, the quality of the ingredients is always the key.
