Inside the Kitchen: Six Questions with Lucia’s David Uygur

5 Minute read

06 Mar 2025

Diana Spechler

Journalist

Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Jared Rouben is a culinary-trained brewmaster redefining beer as both an ingredient and an accompaniment. His Chicago-based brewery, Moody Tongue, supplies signature and seasonal beers to three distinct dining concepts across the U.S.: a hyper-seasonal, Michelin-starred tasting menu in Chicago, omakase in New York City and West Palm Beach, and Tokyo-Neapolitan pizzas in NYC.

What Is Your Deserted Island Meal?

A properly roasted chicken. Good, crusty sourdough bread with butter. Époisses cheese. And a wad of watercress.

What Does Fine Dining Mean to You?

It’s everything from what goes on the plate to how the guest is taken care of to pairing the dishes with a wine list to ingredient sourcing. It even starts before the guest walks through the door—the information they find online, the pictures we post on Instagram, the events we participate in, and the charities we support.

What Are Your Restaurant Goals or Dreams?

My daily goals include providing good service and teaching the front-of-house staff ways to improve the guest experience—whether that’s recognizing potential allergens, adapting dishes, or helping customers discover new dishes.

What’s On Your Restaurant Bucket List to Visit?

I would love to go to Atomix in New York. And I want to go back to Atoboy and Blue Hill.

What Is Your Food/Cooking Philosophy?

I don’t care about trends. I try to be open. A few years ago, everyone was doing molecular gastronomy. Everyone was spherifying. Then it was the opposite: Everyone was just cooking over fire. Some things were interesting about molecular gastronomy. Some things were silly. The idea of taking a really nice cheese and making it melty and smooth? Cool. The idea of pureeing a green olive and spherifying it to make another green olive? I don’t know. Trends come and go, but I don’t let that bother me. I use sous vide. I use a smoker. I focus on what works—not what’s fashionable.

What's Your Comfort Food?

That roast chicken again—plus our pastry chef Maggie’s great bread.

The Chef

Growing up in East Texas, David Uygur accompanied his Turkish father to Dallas and Shreveport to grocery shop in Middle Eastern markets, and in turn, "ate food that wasn’t like the other kids’ food."

Uygur always felt drawn to food, whether he was learning about Turkish dishes from his father or watching his grandfather garden, but he didn’t imagine himself working in restaurants. He thought he’d more likely follow in his mother’s footsteps and become a teacher. In college, he majored in philosophy, but after two years, he decided there was nothing he could do with a philosophy degree that he couldn’t do without one. He ditched college and went to culinary school.

In the early 2000s, Uygur rose to prominence in Dallas as chef of the now-defunct Lola The Restaurant. There, his 10-course tasting menu showcased the meat-curing techniques that would later define Lucia.

A year after Lola’s closure in 2009, Uygur and his wife, Jennifer, opened the Italian restaurant Lucia, where Uygur dedicated himself to crafting every dish from scratch—kneading the dough for pasta, seasoning the olives, curing the meats, and baking the bread. The restaurant, which had only nine tables, was an instant success. In 2018, the Uygurs opened Macellaio, a Lucia spin-off that focused on charcuterie. When it didn’t survive the COVID-19 pandemic, the Uygurs relocated Lucia to Macellaio’s former space in the Bishop Arts District, where it remains today.

From 2013 to 2017, and again in 2019, Uygur was a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef: Southwest award. In 2024, he was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef award. Also in 2024, Lucia earned a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide, an honor recognizing restaurants that offer exceptional food at reasonable prices.

Even after 15 years, Lucia continues to book out months in advance. No matter how busy he is, Uygur, who frequently alters the menu depending on seasons and his own whims, carves out time to experiment in the kitchen. "As I got into managing, my job satisfaction went up, but my fun went down. I always want to make sure the fun sticks around. I always leave room to play with food."

06 Mar 2025