Chef and restaurateur, Luca Racis blends a past in hotel management with a present at the stove, where he highlights vegetables and fermentations. With the Woman & Hospitality project (2024), he turned his restaurant into a space for exchange with leading front-of-house professionals.
Born in 1986, Luca Racis grew up in Rimini, where he attended culinary school and earned both a diploma in cooking and his high school certificate. During his studies, he trained in the kitchens of hotels and restaurants along the Riviera Romagnola and gained international experience with an internship in Sweden for Scandic Hotels. He later completed a higher technical diploma in food & beverage management and assistance to hotel direction.
A sports injury forced him to change direction: for about ten years he pursued a career as a hotel manager, focusing on operational standards and team optimization. Alongside his partner and co-founder Simona, he traveled across South America, Asia, and Africa, cooking with locals to learn techniques and the essentials of everyday cuisine. These experiences enriched him both professionally and personally, complementing his family roots: his grandparents, shepherds first in Sardinia and later in the Romagna countryside, passed down their respect for the land, the hard work, and the scents of artisanal production.
The turning point came in 2021 after a trip to Bordeaux: inspired by a restaurant run by a husband-and-wife team, Racis and Simona decided to open their own. At first, he split his time between the kitchen and supporting service in the dining room, but soon reduced the number of tables and returned fully to the kitchen.
In 2024, he launched Woman & Hospitality, a format bringing leading front-of-house professionals into the restaurant – including Catia Uliassi, Davide Franco, Andrea Fiorini, Claudia Bucci, and Francesco Cioria – creating a constantly evolving culinary offering. Each collaboration pushes him into continuous study, testing, and experimentation.
June 2025 marked another milestone: Racis was invited to cook at the three-Michelin-starred Piazza Duomo in Alba, after hosting Davide Franco and Jacopo Campobasso in his Woman & Hospitality project. He describes this as the most stimulating and rewarding professional experience of his career to date.
Passionate about vegetables and fermentation, he develops dishes by layering textures and techniques around the same ingredient. Beyond cooking, he acknowledges the managerial and entrepreneurial responsibilities that come with running a restaurant. For him, cuisine is never a final destination, but a constant new beginning.
