"Beijing Teaches Me Something Every Day" Says Newly Minted Opera Bombana Chef Eugenio Iraci

Eugenio Iraci certainly has big shoes to fill at Opera Bombana now that his widely known and beloved predecessor Marino D'Antonio has left to helm The Middle House's restaurant in Shanghai. And yet, it'd be tough to think of a better chef for the job. After all, Iraci is no stranger to the Beijing restaurant scene, having first arrived in 2008 among what he calls a "small pioneering group" of other Italian chefs.

Read our farewell Q&A with Marino D'Antonio

From there, he worked at Beijing's Ritz-Carlton and Nuo hotels, and as the Italian sous chef for the Four Seasons in Doha, Qatar. Yet the origins of the chef's career go all the way back to his childhood, where as a boy he learned to cook in his family's Italian kitchen.

Iraci's Italian heritage may come as a surprise when you first hear the spectacled and mild-mannered chef speak. Unlike many of his fellow countrymen working in Beijing, his accent is nearly imperceptible. 

Over the business set lunch during our recent visit to Opera, Iraci explains that this is due to his mother, an American who "was always speaking to me in English ... but my American accent fades away once I start getting a little bit nervous and waving my hands in the air, and then the Italiano starts to come out."

On a more serious note, Iraci says he's humbled to be part of the Bombana family. He aims to not only honor that brand's lofty dining standards but also put his own spin on the menu. One of the newest and most promising dishes he has prepared is a plateful of gnudi dumpling pasta. Sprinkled with truffle shavings along with a splash of savory truffle oil, Iraci says these dumplings should appeal to both those well-versed in Italian cuisine and uninitiated Chinese customers. The dish's ricotta cheese is rolled into semolina until they form small balls, absorbing excess water from the cheese and in turn forming a glutinous skin.

Why might that element broaden the dish's appeal? As Iraci puts it: "Some Chinese customers might not like regular gnocchi dumpling pasta, maybe because the balance between the potato, flour, and cheese isn't something they appreciate. So this gnudi dish should be a good solution because the glutinous dumplings might remind them of the rice balls they ate as children."

Of course, this dish doesn't have the sesame sauce that Chinese customers are used to in their glutinous rice balls (煎堆 jiān duī), but instead the exquisitely rich truffle that the Bombana brand is famous for. Among Iraci's other high-end toys at Opera is its renowned bakery. "It has hundred-year-old European yeast that gets fed every day by our pastry chef, so it's all natural fermentation and is much easier to digest than most bread," says Iraci with audible enthusiasm.

Such positivity carries over into our discussion of what Eugenio plans for the future: "To say I want to achieve more than what [founder Umberto] Bombana did with this brand would, of course, be too cocky. My first goal is really just to win over the people working here, to make them understand they can trust me and come to me anytime. Then, once I get that synergy I'm sure every customer will be able to walk here with the same level of satisfaction." 

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Photos: Opera Bombana