Diner’s Diary | How a Macau fine dining Italian restaurant became a casual family friendly eaterie: the transformation of Don Alfonso 1890
On his first visit to Macau since sweeping changing were made to his 11-year-old fine-dining Italian restaurant, chef Alfonso Iaccarino is pleased with the new Casa Don Alfonso – and has big plans in store for next year
Alfonso Iaccarino is a bit jet-lagged but happy to be in Macau, where he was visiting his newly transformed restaurant in the Grand Lisboa hotel.
During our weekday lunch he made the rounds saying hello to guests, some of whom he has met before, and giving out big hugs.
Most of the 71-year-old’s time is spent in a small town called Sant’Agata sui Due Golfi near Sorrento, on the Amalfi coast in southern Italy. There he operates a restaurant, Don Alfonso 1890, that uses produce from his organic farm, including herbs, vegetables, fruit and olive oil made from his own olives. The restaurant is attached to a boutique hotel that has eight suites.
It is a family-run business: his wife Livia runs the hotel; his older son Mario looks after the overall business; and his younger son Ernesto is a chef who takes turns with his father visiting their various outlets around the world.
Iaccarino has developed such a rapport with his guests in Asia that more are coming to visit him in Sant’Agata. “More and more Chinese are coming, from Hong Kong and Macau. It’s nice to see friends visit me. Some stay in the hotel, others come and eat for lunch and dinner,” he says.