Umberto Bombana

Umberto Bombana, born in 1963 in Clusone, Bergamo, Italy, trained at Centro di Formazione Alberghiera and apprenticed under Chef Ezio Santin at the Michelin-starred Antica Osteria del Ponte before working at Rex Il Ristorante in Los Angeles in 1983 and Toscana at The Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong from 1993. In 2010, he opened 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Hong Kong, which earned three Michelin stars within two years, becoming the first Italian restaurant outside Italy to achieve this honor, and he expanded the brand to Shanghai in 2016 (two Michelin stars) and Macau in 2015 (one Michelin star). Hailed as the 'King of White Truffles,' he was appointed World Ambassador of White Truffle in 2006 and received the Diners Club Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.