What is the food philosophy at Osteria?

Philosophy’s a big word. For Osteria, we try to make comfort food. I really try to give the guest what he’s expecting. Around the 80s and 90s, there was the phenomenon of menu items with such names as spaghetti alla fantasia dello chef, or “spaghetti at the fantasy of the chef”, and you really didn’t know what to expect. This was something that always pissed me off. I try to keep my ego down and follow what I believe is tradition.

Does your food reflect the cuisine of a specific region?

When I began working at 15, I didn’t know what regional food was; it was a foreign concept to me. I became aware of northern and southern Italian cuisine when I moved to Asia. That’s when I started to understand and realise that the regions are very different. Now I’m more aware of what I’m doing and try to follow regional traditions based on the origins of each dish.

How authentic is Hong Kong’s Italian food?

In my opinion, Italian cuisine here undergoes a bit of improvisation and adjustments. I sometimes receive questions or complaints from guests such as why the minestrone doesn’t have tomato sauce – it’s because minestrone doesn’t have tomato sauce. The first few months were very tough, because people would ask for mint jelly for lamb or cream for carbonara, which is not how it’s done. Grissini is never soft and hot; it should be crunchy. If someone wants it soft, I can make it for them, but I try to explain the tradition to guests, and most of the time they understand and trust me.

Do you find that guests generally respect the chef?

The chef position has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Now you see [actress] Cameron Diaz going out with a chef. General Managers of important hotels often come from the kitchen. From the 70s when we started seeing novella cuisine [nouvelle cuisine], the chef became somebody who could speak more than one language, sit for an interview and articulate in sentences instead of somebody with a big belly and a glass of wine.

You seem like an amiable guy. But what are you like in the kitchen?

Well, I’m not Gordon Ramsay. But when you open up a restaurant, you’ve got pressure from the company, from yourself and from the guests – I can be tough, I guess. I can scream. I’m getting quieter in the kitchen now because things are going smoother. But as long as you don’t use foul language or be impolite, I honestly don’t see that as being tough – this is part of the kitchen.

Osteria is at Holiday Inn Golden Mile, 50 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Tel: 2315 1010