Why Hong Kong is perfect for chef Mario Carbone

What are your childhood memo­ries of food? “Vito [Sanna] was my mom’s dad and probably my biggest culi­nary inspiration. We spent a lot of time together in the kitchen and he always cooked – not professionally, but that was his biggest passion in life. He was a mechanic for a restaurant equipment company. As I got older and showed an interest, he started to show me a few things, but he passed too young for me to learn particular recipes. I only remember him with an apron on.”

How did your career begin? “At 15 I started cooking in a restaurant after school and on weekends. At that time it wasn’t cool to tell your friends and, when they found out, I said I was saving up for a car. I wasn’t scholastic, so I went to culinary school. When I started at the Culinary Institute of America, I was a really rough cook – there were other people far more experienced and polished than I was, so getting instruction was great. I interned at [Mario Batali’s] Babbo, then after gradua­tion I worked at Lupa [another Batali restaurant], and from there I left home for the first time to go to Italy, aged 20.”

Why Italy? “I packed a big bag of clothes and no return ticket and went to a small town in northwest Tuscany for about a year and a half. No one spoke English but I knew some Italian so it didn’t take me long to pick up, but it was a learning curve. I wanted to know where [my family] was from but also immerse myself in the food and culture. It was one of the best experiences of my life. [Food writer] Faith Willinger recommended the Ristorante La Dogana, and I just blindly went there. The chef and owner was also called Vito. He knew everyone who produced, grew or raised anything. It was literally farm to table. I have been back many times and I still send my cooks there for short stints. They stay in my old room and live my life experience. I try to give them a cultural experience so the recipes make more sense.”