Angelina at the Hotel Metropole Hanoi has recruited one of Macao’s finest Italian chefs, Egidio Latorraca, to supply some panache to the city’s Italian aspirations.

In a city where eating Italian was for a long time tantamount to ordering pizza or twirling spaghetti, Latorraca, beginning Oct. 24, is delving deep into Italy’s most esteemed culinary traditions.

Whether with a lamb ossobuco, a charcoal-grilled duck breast or porcini dusted sea scallops, Latorraca plans few concessions to the distance between Milan and Hanoi as he invigorates the Angelina kitchen.

“Egidio is a game-changer,” said Kai Speth, general manager of Hotel Metropole Hanoi. “In the same way that people tired of having to go all the way to Hong Kong for a stylish club scene now provided by Angelina, they were tired of missing great Italian food when at home or visiting Hanoi. Egidio’s kitchen is solving that problem.”

Latorraca comes to Angelina from a stint as chef de cuisine at Portofino in The Venetian at Macao. Until 2005, Latorraca worked in kitchens across Europe — principally in Milan and Paris — before heading East, first to Australia and then to Macao.

Those who’ve worked with Latorraca cite his focus on details, and his precision, whether he’s at work on a grilled artichoke heart or talking to a diner. His mission at Angelina, says the Metropole’s Director of Food & Beverage, Carl Gagnon: To introduce Italian culture to Hanoi.

“Our clientele, culturally, is incredibly ambitious,” said Gagnon. “It’s not enough for them to know a pinot from a Bordeaux, or conchiglie from campanelle. They want to know what they know in Milan when they’re ordering Italian.”