Meet Daniele Bucci | Chef

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniele Bucci and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniele, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I’m Italian born and raised, originally from south of Italy, cooking is our culture and I was always close to my parents when they were cooking, and from them, I learned lot of secrets in the kitchen. The best moments were during holidays with relatives and we all brought something homemade to eat, and the Sundays with mom,dad and brothers, where was a tradition to have “Pasta e Ragù della domenica ” (Sunday’s pasta tomato sauce). As I grew up I started having problems with cheese and dairy products, and, almost all Italian dishes has cheese/parmigiano inside, so with my mom I started cooking traditional italian dishes for me dairy free. I started cooking for myself and then I started cooking friends who had the same problem as me for letting them try if was good or not, and everyone told me: “you should get paid because your food is so good”.

I didn’t know where to start, so I started to open a social media’s page with the name “Cucina Italiana Miami” (means Italian kitchen in Miami, something easy to remember and find ) and doing free events in my building where people could try my dishes and see if they were interested in buying them one day, and, It was a success because many people with intolerances didn’t know where they could eat Italian food dairy or gluten free. So people started to ask me customized meal prep, food for events, to go to their houses for cooking ecc.

I started to do it, and I started recording cooking videos and uploading them to social media, once my following grew, people started asking me if i could post cooking videos and promote their cooking products.

So let’s say, “My problem and the other people problems has become my business”

What I offer in Miami is not common, is very hard to find dairy or gluten free Authentic Italian Food, that’s was the key of my success.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I started from zero and now a lot of people like my food. It wasn’t easy to get where I am now but with sacrifice and without ever giving up I got here. I worked in a different part of the world, with a lot of different chefs, I’ve always liked to observe and ask for information about dishes that I liked and then try to make it at my place.

Now I organize events, catering, personal chef service and I do advertising for Italian/healthy food in Miami.

Getting here was difficult, It’s never easy,

specially when you create or do something different from the traditional or when you try to change it. The people criticized me, they still doing and they gonna do it in the future, but what is important in the life is believe in yourself and never give up.

I have always believed in what I do without being influenced by people’s negativity, I worked hard to be here and I will never regret having done.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
South Beach, enjoying the beach, ocean drive, Lincoln road, española way, and south pointe, and if I wanna eat something Italian “Botta” or “Pummarola”, For Asian food i like “Sushi express”, If I wanna have fun “Hosteria romana”
Brickell, the city and Brickell city center, i like to have a breakfast at “Rosetta italian bakery” or If I wanna eat italian food “Bellillo” or “Mister01” and for a drink “Sugar”
Wynwood and Miami district to see the walls and shops
Key biscayne for stay a day at the beach and have a bbq
Key west for relaxing and see the magic sunset

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family. Most of the recipes are part of our culture and I learned them from my grandparents and mom and dad.

In Italy when you are young you spend a lot of time with your grandparents and most of the time you do it preparing food and cooking. The best memories are when you think about the past and spend time preparing food with your relatives, going to pick vegetables and fruit in the countryside, in the small local shops to buy fresh products and then prepare lunch or dinner for whole family and enjoy it.

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