Luca Manfé is an Italian chef who left his hometown in Italy for America to follow the American Dream. He grew up in the restaurant business and decided to compete in a cooking show, MasterChef, in 2012. However, he was eliminated in the auditions, but he was offered another chance for next year. Luca auditioned again for MasterChef 2013 and made it past the auditions, and is now America’s new MasterChef.

Tell me about yourself.

My name is Luca. I’m 32 years old, I grew up in Italy and I moved to the States ten years ago. I always worked in the restaurant business most of my life and even if I worked in Italy for a few years, when I came into the States I had to work my way up again. I worked as a busboy, then I became a waiter and then when I moved to NY, I started working as a restaurant manager. After a couple of years I had the opportunity to work with very important chefs in very big and beautiful restaurants and I had the possibility to explore with different cuisines.

When did you first start cooking?

I first started cooking for real when I moved here in the States. I was leaving by myself, so I was trying to recreate all the things that my mother used to make for me. I remember at the beginning, I was having parties with my friends and it was a disaster. Some of my friends still talk about how the food was horrible, and then year after year I kept trying to improve myself. It took the internet and also thanks to all the great chefs that I worked with. They would give me advice and teach me how to do things so I improved, and then it became a real passion.

What made you aim for season 4 in MasterChef? Since you were eliminated in season 3.

When I was eliminated on season 3 I was really devastated, because I really thought that I had what it took to get further up in the competition. Then I was eliminated at the first step. I could not believe it, so when I found out there was the possibility for me to apply again, I just kept on cooking and kept practicing every single day until I went to the final audition again.

Besides becoming America’s new MasterChef, what has been your proudest cooking-related moment?

That’s a good question. I think the best is when I invite people over and during the years, my cooking was okay but it was never that awesome. In the last two three years I could really recreate fabulous dishes and put very delicious things on the plate and I would invite my friends over and they’ve been speechless when they were trying to eat. My friend says like, “I cannot believe you did this because it was so good.” Seeing all the hours that I spent in the kitchen trying to practice and trying to improve my skills, it really worked out.

One of the proudest moments is actually when I am in the kitchen eating with my mom when I go back to Italy, and she sees how I do things and she asks questions and in some way I’m teaching her my way to do things. That also makes me very, very proud, because my mom is the one who taught me and now she can see with her eyes how much I improved and how much I can do.

If you didn’t grow up in the restaurant business, where do you think you would be right now?

In jail. Just joking. My other career, I don’t know. I was always in a good relationship with customers since I was a kid. If I was not in the restaurant I would probably be a salesman for something; maybe cars, maybe houses, maybe selling my own products. I was lucky I was in the business that I really love since the beginning. As tough as it can be for other people that are not in it, I always loved the long hours, I always loved working at night, so most likely I was going to be a restaurateur anyway.

How do you come up with presenting food? All the food you make looks delicious – is there a specific way of how you arrange food to make it look the most appealing?

It all depends on the ingredients that you’re working with. While I’m cooking, there’s always this presentation thought that goes in my head. I try to create the plate visually in my head and then try to change things that I don’t like. If I’m making a puree of some vegetable and a protein, I’m going to think, “Should I cut this fish or should I leave it whole? Should I put the puree on top of the protein or just swipe it on the plate?” It’s just really like a thought process that goes on while you’re cooking. Sometimes I plated once and I didn’t like it, so I tried to do it again. It takes a lot of times and takes different steps to actually come up with the dish that you can say, “Okay, this can be my signature dish. This is something that I would present in the next event that I go to.”

When you gave garlic and butter to competitors during MasterChef, did you ever feel scared that the competitors would beat you because of those ingredients? Or were you confident enough in your dish that if didn’t matter to you?

First of all, I was confident in my dishes. Also, I didn’t believe a clove of garlic or a little bit of butter would change someone’s dish that much. If I have the chance to be nice to someone, I will be. I try to be friendly to everyone because one day I might need something and I would like to be treated that way.

What makes you so passionate about food?

I don’t know how to answer that question. Passion is all in the head. Someone can be excited by museums and go to MoMA and be extremely happy just looking at the art, but I’m not like that. I would be happiest in a restaurant with excellent service and eating delicious food. Food is just what I love, and I love to share it with others.

How do you define “art” and “creativity”?

Art and creativity, I would say both of them are “unique.” There are many forms of art, and not everyone likes the same kind of art. Someone might have a painting and someone will look at it and say it’s horrible, but then there are others who will look at it and love it. It just depends on everyone’s own opinion. For creativity, it is also in the head. It is something specific that only one person has in their mind, and only they can put their ideas onto paper or music or anything else.