Oman Journal: A Chat With Chef Mariano Liuzza
By Zehra Fattah
Mariano Liuzza has been Executive chef with The Ritz Carlton Al Bustan Palace for two years.
The Ritz Carlton Al Bustan Palace offers a variety of exclusive international restaurants.
My personal favourite was Al Khiran which offered theme nights every day of the week and I absolutely loved the concept - and the extensive buffets of course!
Route 66 (It’s a culinary homage to Route 66, all the way from Chicago, Illinois through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at Santa Monica, California. Slide into the week with a delicious selection of tacos, quesadillas, burritos, ranch burger, Tex-Mex chicken, churros, and inviting live stations) was the Sunday theme and I decided to try out a variety of American-influenced dishes while having a casual chat with the Executive Sous chef who, just like me, had been living in Germany for quiet sometime but had immigrated to the Middle East a few years back.
1. You have been in Oman and with the Ritz Carlton Al Bustan Palace now for two years and before you have spent quiet some time at the Ritz Carlton in Jakarta and Qatar.
What made you leave beautiful Germany?
This is exactly the answer! Once you leave your home country and get the curiosity to explore you are out. For me there is no turning back.
2. Compared to its sister properties, the Ritz Carlton in Oman is one of the oldest which I immediately figured upon entering the beautiful lobby and admiring it's high ceilings. How does this property differentiate from the others?
This is a Palace. It wasn't the intention to be a hotel. His Majesty moved out and it got refurbished into a hotel. This makes it very unique compared to the others.
3. Being a multi talent chef juggling all these different restaurants, what is your favorite restaurant to cook at and what cooking style do you prefer?
Food wise I am specialised in Italian food. In Doha and Jakarta I was cooking Italian. Since we don't have an Italian restaurant on this property here I am involved in all areas. I don't really have a preference, I enjoy being in each one of the restaurants as they are all different from each other.
4. Having tasted the delicious afternoon tea which is certainly one of a kind. How did your team have the wonderful idea of customising afternoon tea. Really great by the way!
We wanted to make a change so Jorgen, the Executive chef who I work very closely with on a day to day basis, came up with this new concept. We created this menu one of a kind where the customers can customise the high tea. We also created the Ritz Carlton cake. This was a competition between all Ritz Carlton properties wordwide. In a nutshell it was basically creating a "to go cake".
With the afternoon tea we decided to have it locally influenced so we used incidents that are typical to this regions. Some of the examples are:
- Saffron crab with smoked salmon
- Rosewater Strawberry Macaroon
- Omani Halwa Eclair
5. Do you get involved in creating menus? What inspires you?
Menu creating is a brain storming thing. We give each other a lot of feedback and take it from there. It is something that evolves by working all together as a team.
6. How would you describe the food scene in Oman? What makes it special?
The food scene is not as developed as in other neighbouring countries such as the UAE where the restaurant scene is very well known. There are no celebrity chefs yet and only a few top scene hotels such as Al Bustan, The Shangri-La, Hyatt, Chaddy. These are mostly the options you have when wanting to dine out exclusively.
As the variety of restaurants is very much influenced by the local demographics good places here are mostly traditional Omani and Indian places.
7. What can you recommend to our readers when they visit Oman?
The Cave is something new and talk of town these days. It's a 5-star venue which offers international cuisine.
Trendy concepts don't succeed much yet in this region. It is more the simple and authentic places.
Restaurants such as Turkish House is a very basic conservative place but people love it for its simplicity. Dining there you can do nothing wrong. You know that you will leave happy.
There are some other very authentic places but it takes time getting to know them.
7. Where else does an Executive chef dine or get into when he is not behind the stove?
I personally like brunches, I was off last weekend and I did a BBQ with my neighbours. I like to spend time with my family whenever I am off and keep it simple.
8. Do you usually stay with the Ritz Carlton when you travel?
I recently visited the AD Ritz Carlton. You are tempted to be shown more attention to detail because you are curious to know about how others do it. You automatically examine others and test them. It's almost being like a mystery shopper. I think once you work in a service environment the service personality will always remain.
Al Bustan Palace, with its exclusive private beach surrounded by mountains and sea, was exactly what I was looking for and I can recommend to anyone that is looking for a quiet retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city.
- Savvy Angel Zehra Fattah was a guest of the Ritz Carlton Al Bustan Palace.
