We take a peek inside top Hong Kong Italian chef Umberto Bombana’s pantry

The chef-owner of three-Michelin-star restaurant Otto e Mezzo likes to keep things simple when he cooks for his family, and loves discovering new ingredients

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Umberto Bombana, of 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana. Picture: Dickson Lee

Published: 4:46pm, 20 Apr 2017Updated: 4:45pm, 20 Apr 2017

To food lovers in Hong Kong, Umberto Bombana is a household name. The chef has been in the city for more than 20 years, initially making a name for himself at Toscana, at the old Ritz-Carlton hotel in Central, and, since 2008, at 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana, the only Italian restaurant outside Italy to have been awarded three Michelin stars. There are outposts of Otto e Mezzo in Beijing and Macau, and the chef oversees branches of Ciak, a casual Italian restaurant, in Central and Taikoo Shing. This year, he was given the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants lifetime achievement award.

Although Bombana is a busy man, he finds time to cook for his children, Bartolomeo, 16, and Emma, 12.

“My children always ask me to cook pasta. Usually it’s artisanal dried pasta,” he says. “Sometimes I just buy different brands to try them out and compare them – I’m always curious and want to try different things.”

Currently, he’s using the Pasta Mancini, Giuseppe Cocco Fara S. Martino and Gentile brands.

“[Bartolomeo cooks with the] basics, just what we have at home all the time, such as garlic, pepper, olive oil. Sometimes, I’m sleeping and I smell garlic, and then [I find] he’s cooking pasta. He does it well.”