Dubai

Luca Gagliardi

Luca’s varied F&B experience has built up over the last 16 years at prestigious restaurants across the world. In 1999 he worked as Restaurant Supervisor of the famous Tea Room in Dublin, owned by world famous pop star Bono of U2 fame. It was at this thriving establishment that dealing with countless high profile guests became second nature to Luca.

In November 2001 Luca joined the prestigious Marco Pierre White restaurant, Quo Vadis in London where he took complete charge of the highly acclaimed fine dining restaurant as Head Waiter and Chef Sommelier of the main restaurant.

A fulfilling year later, Luca was head-hunted by Gordon for the pre-opening of the luxury Connaught hotel in London. Luca first underwent a month’s training at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's before assuming the revered role as Head Waiter at the newly opened Angela Harnett at the Connaught. A few weeks into opening, Luca also became the restaurant’s Cheese Master and was exclusively responsible for the restaurant’s refined cheeseboard.

In March 2003 Luca transferred to Verre by Gordon Ramsay in Dubai. The move delighted him as he had once again been handpicked by Gordon, this time to revitalise the wine and beverage list in Gordon’s first restaurant venture outside the UK. A real testament to Luca’s abilities!

With his vast, worldly knowledge of wines, Luca expanded the Verre wine menu from a modest 115 wine references in 2003 to over 500 of the best wine references today.

Luca is also happy to share his immense knowledge of wines to satisfy diners’ palates by pairing the starters, main courses and desserts on the menu with the most complementary wine notes.

In May 2008, Luca made the much deserved transition from Verre’s Chief Sommelier to Restaurant Manager, channeling his prolific industry wisdom towards the day-to-day running of the multi-award winning restaurant including staff training, menus and championing the Gordon Ramsay food concept.

Could there be more to Luca’s impressive list of achievements? He has won the eponymous “Sommelier of the Year” award at the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2007 and proudly declares himself the first recognised Sommelier in the Middle East. He has also revitalised Verre’s tempting cheese board, previously written a monthly feature for Caterer Middle East and been the face of the “Ask the Sommelier” column in Time Out Dubai.