In case you haven’t heard, Miami is so hot right now. Not just the weather, of course, but as a destination for those looking to escape the dreary winter weather elsewhere in the U.S., as well as a landing spot for tech entrepreneurs and other jet setters getting in on the buzzing real estate market.
Among the new arrivals is a chef whose most recent address was Connecticut, though he hails from Piazzolla di Nola, just eight kilometers from Naples in Campania. Marco Giugliano is the new executive chef at dōma, a fine-dining Italian restaurant that opened in 2018 in Miami’s thriving Wynwood district.
Trained first as a pastry chef, Giugliano worked at restaurants in Italy, Greece, and London before coming to New York City and then settling at the upscale Italian restaurant Strega near the pizza hub of New Haven, Connecticut. Giugliano’s cuisine is “deeply rooted in the Italian traditions” with a very elegant and contemporary touch, he explains in this La Cucina Italiana interview, which is edited for clarity and brevity, about his new culinary playground in glamorous Miami.
The dining room at dōma
Chef Marco, you left Connecticut for Miami rather than returning to New York. Why is that?
When Luca Lo Monaco, dōma’s owner, told me about the idea to bring the restaurant to the next level, I fell in love with it. At the same time, I was aware of the complexity and difficulty of the project in a city like Miami, which is not really a food destination yet, unlike New York and Chicago. But Miami is evolving quickly and for the better. New Yorkers and people from San Francisco moved here recently and raised the expectations. They are looking for a more sophisticated Italian cuisine. Miami has a young and fresh vibe, and there are no Italian fine dining restaurants yet, so it’s good to be a pioneer. What I see in Miami, especially in Wynwood, is a great and modern cuisine from Peru as well as new openings like Osteria Morini, Carbone, a L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon. This means that the city is ready for a new level of cuisine.
Chef Marco Giugliano
What makes dōma an Italian fine dining restaurant?
My cuisine is deeply rooted in Italian traditions. I respect the quintessence of Italian cuisine without any compromise. My Italian “Manifesto,” when it comes to food, means fresh and high-quality ingredients, imported from Italy or locally sourced, and no garlic or onion unless they are from the farm and used in small amounts. It is a lighter cuisine to which I add some contemporary techniques like confit, vacuum-packed, foam, reduction, molecular cuisine, but without twisting the nature and the philosophy of the Italian cuisine. At dōma, we serve homemade fresh pasta and bread, and we use only olive oil, cheese, pasta, and tomatoes from Italy. I personally search for the best and premium brands. And finally, what makes an Italian restaurant a great restaurant, is the service and the details. We welcome our guests with an Italian appetizer like “pane cafone” or panini. We bring them straight into the Italian atmosphere.
Any American touches to please some Italian-American aficionados?
It is not about the dish itself but about the quality of the ingredients. Take my dish "meat ball dōma." It is a classic from Italian-American cuisine, deeply rooted in Campania food tradition. I cook it with tomato sauce from Sarno, a town in Campania renowned for its tomatoes, and a spicy provolone.
Soft egg at dōma
What kind of clientele comes to dōma and which are the most popular dishes?
Many VIPs, football players, models. Recently, many New Yorkers and Californians, mostly from San Francisco. They love pasta and fish and, in general, they love fine dining restaurants and high-quality dishes. Our "Soft egg" has become one of the most popular dishes, along with "Candele alla Genovese." The latter is a longer and smoother rigatoni pasta cooked with a parmesan mousse and a slow-cooked veal ragout. It took a while to explain “pasta al dente” but now people love it and ask for it.
Who influenced and inspired your style as a chef?
The roots are in my mom’s food tradition, a very genuine one. But my cuisine is based on my ideas, recipes, and my own experience. All the chefs I have worked with left an imprint on my style. Especially chef Francesco Esposito, who has two Michelin stars at Taverna Estia in Brusciano. He taught me and still teaches me to respect the ingredients, as well as the diligence of working in the kitchen and the importance and value of being humble.