Follow your nose

Italian chef Fabrizio Bigi in Beijing. Liu Zhe / China Daily

Beijing

It's the aroma that entices when you walk into Prego in Beijing. Ye Jun sniffs out the best of Italian dining.

The heady fragrance of freshly baked bread sings out "buon appetito" to diners as they enter Prego Italian Restaurant.

The little basket of bread is waiting on the table, neatly wrapped and wafting a welcome.

Another heady aroma slowly drifts up from the bottle of extra virgin olive oil on the table, mixing with the fragrance of the tomato dip and the tapenade for the bread.

And as you settle down and browse through the menu, the irresistible smell of baking pizza from the wood-fire oven tries to influence your choice.

A year after Italian chef Fabrizio Bigi's arrival, Prego is seeing a full house every day for both lunch and dinner. The 36-year-old from Modena must be doing all the right things.

"For lunch we need to be flexible and meet guests' demand," he says.

That means instead of a petit risotto for dinner, he serves up quantity, as well as quality.

After all, this is a fine-dining restaurant, where a decent meal costs about 300 yuan ($44) per person.

For the long, hot summer season, the chef has prepared plenty of green herbs and vegetables as well as lots of citrus, cherry, prickly pear, and grapefruit.

He recommends risotto with wild mushroom, tagliolini aglio e olio with king prawns, and fusilli tomato clams and prawns.

The restaurant's seafood soup with fresh tomato, baked jumbo prawns and lamb rack are summer favorites as well.

Prego's rich menu has a list of seafood, as well as chicken, beef and lamb, for main courses. There are two pages on the menu dedicated to Australian beef - from wagyu to grain-fed to kobe.

Last but not least, the traditional Italian desserts are displayed in a collection of "the sweetest things". And there is always the time-tested appeal of crme caramel, tiramisu, chocolate cakes and gelato.

Chef Bigi has other surprises up his sleeve.

"I will start 12 dishes in September, in which I'll cook characteristic Chinese ingredients the Italian way," he says.

An example? Tagliolini sage with abalone.