Chef Luigi Iannuario Brings Authentic Italian Food to South Beach

Behind the Line: Conversations With Our Chefs

Plenty of chefs will tell you they were born to be in the kitchen. But when Luigi Iannuario, executive chef of Donna Mare Italian Chophouse at Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club, says it, he means it literally. “While pregnant with me, my mother’s water broke while she was in the kitchen,” he says. Following this auspicious start to life, Iannuario slept in the kitchen of his family’s Milanese home for his first 14 years, all the while absorbing cooking tips from his grandmother. By the age of 15, he had bought his first set of knives (which he still has), was working professionally in kitchens, and was saving for culinary school.

In the decades since, the star chef has forged an impressive reputation in the industry by making his name at some of Italy’s most decadent and innovative restaurants. He trained under the legendary Michelin-starred chef Gualtiero Marchesi, the father of Italian nouvelle cuisine, whose elevated plating and use of gold leaf in the 1980s was far ahead of its time; was awarded Cremona Italy’s “Best Young Chef” in 2005; and served as executive sous chef at the Emporio Armani Caffè in Milan (where Mr. Armani set impeccable standards).

But despite a career punctuated with such grandeur, and now working in one of America’s flashiest cities,  Iannuario makes his mark by leading with simplicity and consistency. Stripped from his food are the gold leaf, molecular gastronomy, and other bells and whistles found in fine dining. What remains is soulful cooking grounded in his Milanese upbringing and Italian heritage, but executed with the discipline and high standards instilled in him by his mentors. 

To say Iannuario infuses his own Italian heritage into his dishes isn’t hyperbole. Take the heirloom yeast used in his pizza dough. “My mother always had this yeast, and she kept some for me when I was born. I’ve kept it going and share it with as many people as I can,” he says. “I use it in our pizzas and at Pizza by Luigi, a small restaurant I run in Texas. It’s got great flavor and uses a good process for my pizza fermentation. It’s easy on people’s stomachs because it doesn’t require aggressive chemicals to proof the product fast. I believe in the slow process and slow food.”

In the same spirit, Iannuario takes care to source flour from Italy as a more gentle alternative to domestic flours. “If the wheat has been treated with certain additives, it can be painful for me and a lot of other Americans who are sensitive to gluten,” he says. “So I try to use products that don’t have these additives. I use quality, healthy, and organic [ingredients] because I care about what I give people’s stomachs and bodies. Plus, I [like to] enjoy my food — I order and eat it all the time.”

Iannuario combines these must-haves from Italy (along with cheese from Sorrento, truffles from Alba, and tomatoes from Campania) with outstanding local ingredients, such as oysters, stone crab, and squash blossoms, when in season, or fresh ricotta from an Italian transplant who raises Sicilian-bred sheep in Orlando. When used in dishes like Chitarra Frutti di Mare or Veal and Ricotta Meatballs, the result is classics elevated by exceptional ingredients. 

“Many of the types of dishes we do are normal things you can find in other places, but ours tastes really good,” he says. “If you order our Tuna Carpaccio, seasonal Candy Crab (made with fresh herbs, a 12-hour stock, and handmade pasta), Branzino, or Shrimp Scampi, you’ll understand — we create a flavor memory that you want to come back for.”

Cooks often cite a method of “getting out of the way of the ingredients” as a way of letting quality food shine. This can make a straightforward and traditional approach like Iannuario’s seem easy. But there’s another aspect to his cooking that even the highest quality ingredients can’t account for: a drive for excellence ingrained in him from his glamorous Michelin star and high-fashion days. 

“Mr. Gualtiero Marchesi instilled the never-ending search for perfection and pleasing guests. And Mr. Armani’s expectations were the highest I’ve ever had in the restaurant business. He would push everyone way past their limits,” he says. Now it’s in Iannuario’s kitchen where the expectations remain high, “and it shows in the flavor of the dishes,” he says.

Even after 30-plus years as a professional chef, Iannuario clings to the idea that you’re only as good as your last meal. It’s a philosophy that demands relentless ambition. “I lead a pasta-making class at the hotel a few times a week. I get to teach people how to make authentic handmade pasta, which keeps me rooted in my heritage and feeds my will to cook the things nearest to my heart,” he says. “In today’s class, I made a sauce that I didn’t like, so I asked for everyone’s patience and remade the sauce. We have to make sure the [food] stays true to what we intended the dish to be.”

This month, chef Iannuario will lend his singular vision to the South Beach Food & Wine Festival: A Taste of Italy, presented by Pasta Rummo and hosted by “The Pasta Queen” Nadia Caterina Munno. There, he will make a dish from pillowy cavatelli, made with the locally sourced ricotta mixed into the dough.  

“We’ll serve it with a traditional Sicilian sauce of fresh tomato, local basil, and fried Italian eggplant, served with a ricotta salata,” he says. “It’s an amazing representation of something traditional, but offered in a new environment like the South Beach Food & Wine Festival.”

Chef Iannuario’s dedication to authentic Italian flavors comes alive at Donna Mare, but it’s just one part of the experience at the Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club. With its oceanfront setting, chic European Riviera–inspired design, and vibrant Miami Beach energy, every moment here blends effortless luxury with a relaxed, social atmosphere.