Passion8 Bistro and Catered Events is owned by Luca and Jessica Annunziata. Chef Luca is from Sorrento, Italy; the land of lemons and sunshine. He developed a penchant for lovingly prepared cuisine early on under his mother’s traditional tutelage.

At age 17, he left home to quench his thirst for the world stage and the flavors of distant locales. The first stop was London, where he worked at the Dorchester Hotel, then onto Germany. Austria then beckoned and eventually the snowy peaks of St. Moritz, Switzerland, where he was hired to take the role of Chef de Partie at, The Suvretta House a ‘Leading Hotel of the World’. Luca spent 3 years honing his skills under great chef’s of the world. The European back drop would eventually motivate him to seek out more distant destinations. This led to a position as an officer aboard; Cunard Cruise Line’s World Cruise. Another 3 years were then spent traversing the globe and touching down on each continent.

While his repertoire expanded he began to experiment with integrating new found flavors unobserved as a boy in Italy. Luca’s mastery of traditional European Cuisine led to a blending of cooking styles always with a high regard to quality and a true respect for the integrity of each culture and traditions of perspective countries. Upon disembarking from the ship, New York City followed.

Luca split his time between working for the Hearst Corporation’s Good Housekeeping Magazine; where he prepared private luncheons for celebrity guests and Fire Island on the Great South Bay. This is where he met the woman who would eventually be his wife, Jessica. The two chose the name Passion8 to describe both a life lived well as the 8 is the infinity symbol leading to joy and as well as the 8 being representative of food made with love and an ample dose of passion.

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