You would never guess how the culinary career of Chef Patrizio La Gioia, who now runs the kitchen at Luma at The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, Miami, got started.
Born in Paris, La Gioia grew up in Torremaggiore, a town in the province of Foggia in Italy’s southeastern Puglia region.
“I was not what you would call an outstanding student,” he recalls.
Because La Gioia struggled in school, his father decided he would be most useful working alongside him in the family construction business.
La Gioia later followed his older brother to Bologna, in northern Italy, in search of “more opportunities” than Torremaggiore offered. What he found, or thought he found, was a career selling high-end vacuum cleaners door-to-door. He shared an apartment with his brother and another roommate, and it was there, purely by accident, that his kitchen skills began to take shape.
“My brother was in charge of cooking, and I would always complain about how bad his pasta was compared to my mom’s, which was delicious.”
His brother’s answer: If you don’t like it, do it yourself.
“So I started to take over the cooking,” he said. “I would call my mom and ask her how to make certain dishes and what techniques she used, and I found myself enjoying it and trying new things.”
Meanwhile, the vacuum business was not going well. Then a friend, Gigino, who had left Naples for Miami and was working as a busboy at Quattro Gastronomia Italiana on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, convinced him to follow, promising he could get him a job.
“So I came to Miami with $500 in my pocket and a three-month visa,” he recalls.
The owner of Quattro could not hire him after all, so he landed a busboy job at Hosteria Romana on Española Way. The money wasn’t great, and he toyed with returning to Italy. Gigino talked him into a quick four-day trip to Puerto Rico to think it over.
When he came back, he applied to be a busboy at Macaluso’s on Alton Road, the move that opened the door to his culinary career. The owner found out he was Italian and asked whether he could cook pasta. He loved what La Gioia made and put him on the line.
“I was hooked,” he said. “I loved the energy of the line and the tickets. I became a nerd, obsessed with learning more and more.”
His struggles as a student back in Italy, it turned out, came from undiagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
“That gives me the ability to hyperfocus,” he said. Many adults with ADHD describe hyperfocus as a state of intense, laser-like concentration.
Life in Miami was good, but La Gioia wanted more, to grow as a Chef. After six years in Miami restaurants, including The Forge, he headed to Aspen, Colo., and then to New York. There he worked in several high-end kitchens, including the former fine-dining Four Seasons Restaurant. That led to the Delta Sky360° Club, a 10,000-square-foot VIP space inside Madison Square Garden, where he prepared dishes for James Dolan. Dolan is executive chairman and CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports, owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers, as well as of MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment.
“He was demanding, but I learned a lot,” La Gioia said.
He eventually ended up in California, working at the California Club as an executive sous chef.
“A friend and former coworker contacted him about an opportunity in Redlands, Calif., at Citrone Restaurant & Bar, which the owner wanted to turn into a fine-dining Italian chophouse.
There, he started working on changing the menu for what eventually became Citrone Italian Chophouse.
“It is there that the Ritz-Carlton found me, and here I am,” he said, happy to be back in Miami, a place he calls “home.”
At Luma, his first venture working at a hotel restaurant, he is starting to rely on his experience to develop a new menu, which will debut November 1. His touches are already beginning to be felt. For example, he has introduced a pasta bar at the entrance, so diners can see the vast pasta offering at Luma, all made in-house using his special technique developed over time.
As for his favorite pasta to make and to eat? “Corn agnolotti,” he says without hesitation. The small, pinched pillows of fresh pasta come from Italy’s Piedmont region, and his version is filled with sweet corn.
“Pasta is in my soul,” he explains.
Chef La Gioia has a very definite vision for Luma.
“I think we have an opportunity to become one of the best Italian restaurants in Miami,” he says.
“I’m an executive chef at the Ritz,” he says smiling, adding that he has “a crazy passion for hospitality and a drive to make Luma a destination for those who enjoy fine dining.”
Based on his history of accomplishment, who could doubt him?
Luma is located inside The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, Miami, at 455 Grand Bay Drive, Key Biscayne. For reservations, call (305) 365-4156.