by TM Petaccia

Luca Annunziata has left the kitchen of forchetta for the gallies of the high seas. TM Petaccia/UP

Luca Annunziata has left his position as executive chef at Uptown’s Forchetta to lead the kitchen on the American Glory, part of the fleet of American Cruise Lines.

“It’s a good way for me to see new opportunities, see something that is done in a different way,”  Annunziata says. “I wanted the experience of this very different perspective.”

Annunziata has played an integral part in Charlotte’s culinary renaissance for more than 18 years. Born in Naples, he learned the art of cooking from his first executive chef, his mom, who encouraged his training in the hospitality industry. He formally trained at the prestigious Suvretta House in Switzerland, before embarking on culinary posts in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom before landing in New York to work for Good Housekeeping.

With his then-wife Jessica, he landed in Fort Mill in 2006 and together launched Passion8, an intimate 46-seat restaurant which quickly earned accolades for Annunziata’s modern approach to traditional Italian cooking, sourcing from many area farms. They moved to a much larger restaurant space in Charlotte’s Elizabeth neighborhood in 2014, renaming it Luca: A Modern Italian Kitchen in 2017. In 2019, Annunziata decided to return to the corporate side of hospitality, selling his restaurant and accepting the post as executive chef at Caffe Siena inside Uptown’s Holiday Inn, later rebranded as Forchetta, where he remained until now.

Annunziata was a founding board member of Piedmont Culinary Guild in March 2015, where he led the efforts to provide meals for victims of the Columbia, S.C. flood later that same year. He has been a participating chef at the James Beard House and had a winning performance of Food Network’s Chopped.

Luca Annunziata in the testing kitchens of American Cruise Lines. Photo courtesy

On February 16, he leaves the port of St. Petersburg, Florida on the American Glory, the first of a series of cruises touring the Florida Gulf Coast and Keys. American Glory is a new ship, commissioned in 2023, with room for 100 passengers plus staff. Annunziata will lead a kitchen staff of five. While still calling Charlotte his home, he will be at sea eight weeks at a time with two weeks off in between.

“Many of the recipes I’ll be using are in their recipe books, but all the presentation is up to us,” he says. “They want to elevate presentation to the next level; traditional dishes, but with a new spin.”

However, Annunziata will be able to showcase the flavors close to his heart. “I will be trying out a few dishes that are more Mediterranean while still keeping a couple of dishes of the region that we are traveling,” he says.

“It’s going to be challenging, but the cool thing about this ship is that it often docks twice a day, so there will be a lot to experience.”