Winning at fine dining
Prestige catches up with Mauri Restaurant’s MAURIZIO BOMBINI about his restaurant’s continued success and Bali’s culinary landscape
Maurizio Bombini once told us that a great chef must have passion and attitude, as well as a willingness to learn and to spend time in the kitchen. We can safely say that he practices what we preaches, which has led to an exceptionally good year for him and his eponymous restaurant. We visited him at his Mauri Restaurant in the Seminyak neighbourhood, just hours before they opened for dinner service.
Not only is Mauri doing well financially, but its reputation is also rising as new talents come in. All in all, Mauri has shown solid effort in business and teamwork. “In general, we are very happy with the results and the restaurant. The most important thing is that I feel and I see that everyone is enjoying what they are doing, very happy to be here,” Maurizio gushes. “That has been the goal since day one and I think we are achieving the goal because they are really happy to work here and the customers are happy also.”
The Discovery Menu, the restaurant’s special menu that changes every two or three days based on what they find in the market, is a crowd favourite. On that note, Maurizio observed that the team at Mauri realised quite quickly that they have a lot of returning patrons. “This is an idea that we created with my assistant in the kitchen and the manager in the restaurant,” he elaborates. “We want them to find something new when they are visiting us. It is also a good thing for us because it gives us a way to always create new things every season – as much as we can – and it allows us to implement new ingredients.”
Maurizio then continued: “The guests are very happy because every time they visit, they can try something new from the Discovery Menu or they can always come back to the classics that we already have in the menu. We are always working on new ideas, new menus, new à la carte sets as well as new collaborations with other chefs. That’s pretty exciting to look forward to.”
Growing up in the restaurant scene, Maurizio has always had a passion for food; although at first, he wasn’t really sure that he wanted to open his own restaurant. So, he worked his way up in restaurants and hotels after finishing culinary school. His journey took him from Switzerland to Monte Carlo as he gathered new ideas and techniques to add to add to his repertoire. Then, 10 years ago, he landed in Asia and started working at the Ritz-Carlton Sanya Resort in Yalong Bay, China, for one and a half years, before finally stepping foot in Bali. There, Maurizio joined the team at the Bvlgari Resort Bali in Uluwatu as chef de cuisine at Il Ristorante. Next, he decided to move to Ubud, to Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Resort, where he was in charge of the opening of the venue as executive chef. Finally, after three and a half years, the opportunity arose for him to open his own restaurant, Mauri, which has now become an extremely popular fine dining destination in Seminyak.
Having lived and worked in the island for nine years now, Maurizio has witnessed many important ups and downs in Bali’s food industry. Restaurants highlighting the finer points of gastronomy are popping up all over the place alongside fine dining establishments and casual restaurants. Vegan to gluten-free options are also more common now as new concepts bloom almost every day in Bali. It is not an understatement to say that the competition is pretty tight, especially in a tourist hotspot like Seminyak. But Maurizio is not one to back off from a challenge and he has even stated how impressed he is with the level of expertise and variety that he can find in Bali’s culinary scene.
“The competition is quite interesting now. Everyone is pushing to make it better and slowly the level is increasing. Every night when we talk with guests from overseas, they are very impressed with the level they find in Bali,” Maurizio reflects. “I think Bali in the next few years will become the best place for restaurants in the Asia Pacific region. The good thing is that we can really deliver on a variety of levels, but still at an affordable price compared to big cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Australia. I’m very happy with what’s happening now in Bali.”