Jakartans are used to navigating the three-in-one concept as they fight traffic at peak hours. But an innovative idea by the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Kuningan will have food lovers licking their lips.

The Ritz Carlton has come up with its own three-in-one. With the creation of Lobo, the hotel has combined a trendy bar and lounge and well-designed wine cellar, an Italian restaurant and steakhouse with private dining sections and a panoramic alfresco terrace that allows guests to relax with a cup of afternoon tea or a cocktail and take in the city.

From chef Mariano Liuzza’s kitchen emerges an array of mouthwatering Italian dishes that will tempt and caress any tastebud. The dishes also offer a twist of Mediterranean and Asian cuisine as chef Mariano uses his culinary expertise to create new and exciting dishes.

“I enjoy experimenting with new dishes and new sources,” says Mariano, who has been in Jakarta since 2008. “As a chef, you never stop learning and since being in Indonesia, I have learned a lot about other foods.”

His must-try signature dish is Branzino or European sea bass. Lightly pan-fried before it is cooked in the oven and garnished with Mediterranean salsa, it is definitely worth savoring.

It has taken 10 weeks, 18 emails in both directions, numerous phone calls and one informal meeting with the public relations and marketing representative of Montblanc Indonesia to reach this point. The questions have been negotiated, the date is set and the duration of the interview is timed to a precise 45 minutes.

This kind of strict organisation is a fair indication of how systematic and exhaustive is the Montblanc team: Without this kind of management, the world’s leading brand of writing instruments would probably not be where it is today.

The Peak meets Catherine Ang, Montblanc’s managing director for Southeast Asia. When the 44 year-old Singaporean arrives at the Pacific Place mall boutique in Jakarta, her entourage spring into action polishing a watch, a ring and a necklace that she wears for the photoshoot.

The first thing worth noting about Ang is her confident and charismatic personality. She is the kind of person who can strike up a conversation with anyone, and can discuss fashion with as much confidence as she can give a breakdown of the global market for luxury items – and all in the same breath.

Renaud Le Rasle, the new chef de cuisine at Riva restaurant at The Park Lane hotel, Jakarta, has a resume as impressive as one of his meticulously-composed dishes.

The well-respected, award-winning talent blazed onto the Jakarta food scene last month, having worked his way through some of the world’s most precious culinary gems including La Tour d’Argent, Le Bistrot de l‘Etoile and Guy Savoy Restaurant in Paris, as well as Le Cirque and Jean Georges Restaurant in New York.

Each continent added something different to his experience and skills, says the 39-year-old. “France was a good training ground,” he says. “I learnt all the basics – everything about ingredients and techniques, the discipline needed to be a top chef, and also the finer points of managing staff and service.

“In the United States, I continued to learn about new techniques and styles. I also encountered a clientele that was much more open to trying new things,” he adds.