Claudiu Lucaci

Claudiu is co-founder and Head of Kitchen at Big5 American Diner. He has close to two decades in kitchens across Italy, Greece, the United States and Romania. Then he came back home to Iași and built his own kitchen together with his sister, Monica.

Two decades, four countries

He started early. At 20 he was already on the line at a restaurant in Florence, learning Italian cooking directly at the source. From there he moved to Greece and spent almost four years at Kostis' taverna in Santorini. Simple pasta, fresh fish, good olive oil, and a season that ends as suddenly as it starts.

Then back to Italy, this time on the Adriatic coast. After that, the jump across the Atlantic to California. Every city meant a different kitchen and a different kind of guest. Every time he started almost from scratch, and every time he left with something he still uses.

The kitchen trail, year by year

• 2004–2005 · Florence, Italy: first steps on the line, classic Italian cooking.
• 2005–2009 · Santorini, Greece: almost four years at Kostis' taverna, seasonal Greek cooking.
• 2010–2012 · Bibione, Italy: cook at Ai Lecci, a family restaurant on the Adriatic coast.
• 2013–2014 · Pordenone, Italy: cook at Pn Box.
• 2015–2016 · Huntington Beach, California: cook at Baci Restaurant (in the same town where Monica was Catering Manager at Kiros).
• 2017–2018 · Iași: cook at Mignon Caffe, his first post back home after the years away.
• From 2022 · Iași: Head of Kitchen at Big5 American Diner.

Close to twenty years on the line, long shifts, and new menus learned in three languages. Every place left him with something: a technique, a mise en place method, a trick for busy summer service, someone who still answers his texts.

How Big5 became his kitchen

At Big5, Claudiu cooks his own menu, not someone else's. The ribeye burgers cut on site, the house-made sauces, the Tex-Mex line and the weekly specials all pass through his hands. What lands on the plate comes out of everything he has done before: Italian precision, Greek freshness, American generosity, and the basic technique you can't skip.

Ask him, after all those years, how he tells a good cook from a really good one, and he'll answer with what happens in the eighth hour of service, when the room is full, the tickets keep stacking, and the whole day is catching up with you. Whatever lands on the plate then is what you're actually worth.

What Claudiu actually brings into the Big5 kitchen

• Beef ribeye cut and prepped on site as the base for the burgers. Not pre-packaged ground meat.
• House-made sauces across every menu line, from burgers to Tex-Mex.
• A menu that quietly borrows from Italian, Greek and American cooking, without ever branding itself as "fusion."
• Line discipline: mise en place order, hygiene standards, a steady service rhythm.
• Training the kitchen team, including Monica, who stepped onto the line and learned directly from him.

At Big5 you'll find him in the kitchen, next to his sister and the rest of the crew. Days off are rare, and when they come, you wouldn't really notice — he's more likely to be at the market or opening a notebook with ideas for a new menu. The story of his kitchen journey, along with Monica's, has been covered in the local Iași press.