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Michelin-star chef in Macau on minimalist cuisine and why ginger is more Italian than tomatoes

Antimo Maria Merone, the Naples-born executive chef of 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Macau, went to business school before leaving to pursue his passion full time

His favourite ingredient, he says, is the tomato, which he likes to eat raw in summer

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Chef Antimo Maria Merone of 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Macau.

Published: 8:00pm, 20 Nov 2019Updated: 10:33am, 25 Nov 2019

You went to business school before deciding to become a chef. What made you change your mind? “I was good at school, so all my teachers pushed me to go to university and my family wanted it as well. I went to Bocconi, in Milan, the most famous university in Italy for economics. I was pushed by my surroundings, rather than following my passion. I used to cook at home, with family and friends. At 24, I decided to go back to what I loved to do – cooking.”

How did you go about it? “I took my backpack and went to Berlin [Germany]. I had some friends who had moved to Berlin so I went there for a holiday and thought maybe it’s a good place to start a new life. I fell in love with the city at first sight – it’s eclectic, full of artists.

“I worked in very bad restaurants at the beginning, because with no experience in a professional kitchen, you take the first job you can get. Then I met a guy who set me on the right path – Gioacchino Conti, a Sicilian chef. He used to have Vai Mo, in Prenzlauer Berg, on the east side of Berlin. It was a small Sicilian place with 18 covers per night, open only for dinner, small menu. That’s where I started my professional training.”

How does 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana Macau differ from the original in Hong Kong? “Chef Umberto Bombana and I share a philosophy. Bombana is the patron – the chef-owner of the place. Here, we develop dishes that follow his philosophy but, in the end, have different results. I could say that Otto e Mezzo Macau is the reflection of his idea of food through my eyes and thoughts.”

Antimo Maria Merone with Umberto Bombana.

“I’m lucky because he’s given me the opportunity to express myself in this restaurant. Every month, chef Bombana comes here and tastes the food, and we adjust the dishes. Some chefs are strict and they standardise their dishes, so the branches are the same all over the world. But he believes that the chef in charge is the one who gives life to the place. The chef needs to have the freedom to express, as long as he respects the quality.

“It’s ingredient-focused cuisine – that’s common to both of us. If you go to his place [in Central] and then to this place, you will see a menu that is pretty different. In the beginning, we were a mirror for Otto e Mezzo Hong Kong, for reasons of standardisation; for the opening, we had to be like that. But now that I’m stronger, more mature as a chef, and my team on the floor is getting stronger, we are developing a full experience. It has diversified from what it was five years ago, and from what Otto e Mezzo Hong Kong is.”