Lifetime achievement award for Umberto Bombana, Hong Kong’s ‘king of white truffles’, from Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants
Honoured in regional dining awards, the chef-owner of Michelin-starred 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana says he’s just a servant of nature who respects the ingredients he works with
Umberto Bombana has seen many changes in the Hong Kong food scene since he moved to the city in 1993 – not least in his own career. In that time the chef’s 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana restaurant in Central has attained a three-star rating in the Hong Kong Michelin guide, and it came in at No 13 on the 2016 list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. On Wednesday, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants announced that Bombana will receive The Diners Club® Lifetime Achievement Award for 2017 at a ceremony this month in Bangkok.
WATCH Bombana in a recent Hong Kong Tourism Board video
Bombana first came to the attention of Hong Kong food lovers when he was chef at Toscana in the Ritz-Carlton, back when the hotel was in Central; he was there from the opening of the hotel in 1993, until it closed in 2008. A native of Clusone, in the Italian province of Bergamo, he went to hotel school when he was 14, then worked in Milan at the now-closed Antica Osteria del Ponte, which at the time had two Michelin stars. (It later attained a third star.)
“The first time I stepped in the kitchen, I knew this is where I wanted to be,” the chef says over coffee at Otto e Mezzo. “It’s something I related to. It was hard work, and when my friends went out to play, I had to work, but I knew I really liked it and I was fascinated by it.
A hotel has too many structures, too many layers. It’s like the difference between driving a bus or a really fast motorcycle: if you want to get anywhere, the restaurant is much faster
“I have many friends who went to hotel school with me, but I was lucky because the second or third job I took was with one of the biggest chefs in Italy. I was lucky to get the job at Antica Osteria del Ponte – my whole career took off from there because you understand what refined food is, how to take care of the ingredients. This was a form of art, a form of expression by the chef – it was about technique and philosophy. That’s what changed me. I started there when I was 17 and left when I was 20.”