At Pelagos, Luca Piscazzi Turns Italian Instinct Into Greek Discovery
Before moving to Greece to open Pelagos, a fine dining restaurant in the Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens, Luca Piscazzi had only been to the country on vacation. The Italian chef grew up in Rome and moved to London at 19, hoping to learn about global flavors and techniques. He spent over a decade between England, China, Spain and Hong Kong, never imagining that his culinary journey would one day bring him to the shores of the Athens Riviera. But in 2020, Piscazzi departed La Dame de Pic, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in London’s Four Seasons Ten Trinity Square, for the opportunity to launch something of his own in Greece.
“I never thought I’d end up here,” Piscazzi tells Observer, speaking from his office at Pelagos in June. “We started talking about this idea in November or December of 2019, and I came to visit. I signed my paperwork right before Covid hit, and I relocated the day before the U.K. closed its borders [in March 2020]. It was a leap.”
Pelagos tends to surprise diners. Piscazzi’s menus showcase years of discovery in Greece using techniques he’s developed around the world—a compelling way to dine while traveling. Piscazzi is attracted to unconventional pairings, like pan-fried sole served with raspberries and Champagne. He’s constantly coming up with new dishes.
“In the night, I’m up thinking about how things can work,” he says. “And the solution always comes to me just as I’m falling asleep. You can’t rush creativity, and it doesn’t work if you’re stressed out. I’m always playing around and looking for the next good idea.”
Surprisingly, the restaurant was initially inspired by Asian cuisine. But when Covid delayed its opening, the team had the chance to home in on the menu. It made more sense to focus on local Greek dishes, flavors and products, rather than look farther afield. Piscazzi began to investigate Greek ingredients; he already felt a kinship with the region, having grown up in a Mediterranean country.
“I found similarities,” he says. “Here you have ouzo, which is like pastis in France or sambuca in Italy. But I also found things that were unique, like mastic. They use it for making liqueur, but we could use it in different ways. We melt it like a caramel, or we dry age fish inside this crust of mastic resin.”
The chef likes to discover new ingredients and find new ways of working with them. “If you’re from somewhere, you might not think outside the box, but if you’re not, you try things that are unexpected,” he says. “After 20 years as a chef around the world, it’s difficult to get surprised. But mastic was something I’d never used before.”
Pelagos opened in May of 2021. Situated on an upper floor of one of the hotel’s mid-century buildings, it overlooks the blue waters of the Saronic Gulf, with the option for guests to dine on the expansive terrace. The interiors pay homage to Greece’s maritime traditions, though not ostentatiously; it’s the view that truly captivates diners. Piscazzi plays into the beauty of the location by offering dishes that are just as aesthetically pleasing. “In a location like this, people start the meal in a nice mood,” Piscazzi says. “It’s an added step in making the guest happy.”
Piscazzi changes the menu at Pelagos twice a year, updating the dishes with the seasons. Guests can opt for a tasting menu (€150 per person), but à la carte is more popular. Most of the dishes are based around ingredients from Greece and the Mediterranean, incorporating local products and storytelling, but Piscazzi also draws on his Italian roots. The caviar pasta, a deliciously chilled, umami dish, underscores the chef’s background. It was on Pelagos’ first menu, and hasn’t left since.
“I wanted to have a caviar dish,” Piscazzi says. “The idea was to have a lot of caviar and a little bit of pasta. I wrote down this combination of clams, almonds and caviar with cold pasta. I tried it, and the first time it was perfect. It’s 20 grams of pasta and 10 grams of caviar. Sometimes we change things over and over again, but some dishes I try one time, and they just work.”
The current menu, launched in May of 2026, is arranged by ingredients. It’s presented at the restaurant on beautifully crafted tarot cards, each showcasing a specific product, such as black angus beef from the island of Naxos or Koilada red prawns. The chosen ingredient is served as two different dishes, a starter and a main, which means a guest is locked into one product as the hero of their meal. Piscazzi isn’t personally into tarot, but felt like the cards would be a good way to celebrate ingredients.
“When you serve an à la carte menu, you lose a little bit of the storytelling and the voyage you want guests to have,” he says. “This is like a small, set menu based on an ingredient. We use different parts of the meat or fish, and we cook them in different ways. You won’t get bored if you select one ingredient.”
Piscazzi’s knowledge of Greek ingredients comes from extensive research and travel. In 2022, Piscazzi launched his first Pelagos on Tour menu, a tasting menu inspired by experiences on the Aegean islands of Tinos, Lesvos and Kalymnos. He spent a few days on each isle, meeting with artisan producers, fishermen and fellow chefs. “The Cyclades islands have mostly the same ingredients, so that’s why we picked other islands, too: one a bit north and one very south,” Piscazzi says.
The chef liked the idea of exploring his new home. “I came up with this idea for me to discover Greece and ingredients and travel for free to create a little bit of storytelling, because we were struggling with how to identify ourselves. Were we a Mediterranean restaurant? A seafood restaurant? So we decided to go and document everything to ensure the concept felt real.”
On Tinos, Piscazzi encountered kariki, a Greek cheese that is matured inside pumpkins. Lesvos and Kalymnos offered opportunities to try different types of seafood, including swordfish roe in Kalymnos. The following year, Piscazzi went to Crete and brought back escargots, graviera cheese and olive oil for the 2023 summer menu. For the third and final year of Pelagos on Tour for the summer menu concept, the chef incorporated ingredients from Sifnos, Santorini and Naxos, an island famous for its beef and potatoes.
In each place, he discovered a lot of ingredients specific to the islands. “The beef from Naxos is the only beef you have in Greece,” he says. “It’s all sheep and goats here. But having these kinds of restrictions can help you be more creative.”
Piscazzi began cooking in restaurants at 15 as a summer job. He studied the culinary arts during high school in Rome, but says “it wasn’t the best school in Italy.” He picked up a lot of his culinary knowledge from his grandmother, who was always cooking. “I woke up early on Sundays to help her to make lasagna and ravioli,” he remembers.
After completing his culinary studies, Piscazzi moved to London and began working at the now-closed Apsley’s by Heinz Beck at The Lanesborough in 2009. He went on to work at La Pergola by Heinz Beck in Rome, The Ledbury in London, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona and Amber by Richard Ekkebus in Hong Kong. In 2016, Piscazzi became head chef at La Dame de Pic, helmed by acclaimed chef Anne-Sophie Pic. There, it was possible to source almost anything, from Ethiopian coffee to kumquats. Being in Athens means far less access.
“We are a little bit restricted, especially with vegetables and fruit,” he says. “We work with what we have. Compared to Hong Kong or London, where you can get a Japanese ingredient or citrus from Italy and a selection of unique ingredients, it’s harder. But here, maybe you go to an island, and you find an amazing guy who grows vegetables.”
At La Dame de Pic, the namesake chef only came in once or twice a year. That meant that Piscazzi was able to execute Pic’s vision in his own way, which helped to refine his style.
“I embraced her style of cooking, but I was cooking something that I also liked,” he says. “Dishes that people would think were Anne-Sophie Pic dishes. But it was my version of that. After four years, I wanted to move on because I wanted to cook for myself entirely. I wanted to see if that could work or not.”
Consistency and quantity can be issues. “When I did the Crete menu, I found two guys who sell fruit and vegetables in Athens, and they bring all of the vegetables from Crete,” Piscazzi says. This can create challenges as well, especially if an ingredient isn’t available. “That can be very unstable for a restaurant,” the chef notes. “You have to be able to be innovative.”
Piscazzi left La Dame de Pic shortly after helping the restaurant earn its second Michelin star. He didn’t feel any pressure when it came to moving on. “I’m not a person who overthinks a lot,” he says. “I just jump. And I like to change things often. I’ve always liked to change countries and find new challenges and work with new people.” He adds, “Except for my wife. My wife stays with me.”
Once he made his way to Greece, however, there was some pressure on Piscazzi to elevate Pelagos to Michelin-star standards. He was successful in the end; in November 2021, mere months after opening, Pelagos earned its first star. It was a slightly lackluster moment for Piscazzi, who learned about the accolade on Twitter. At the time, Athens was the only part of Greece featured in the Michelin Guide (it expanded to include Santorini and Thessaloniki in 2026), and there was no ceremony.
“We were the first Michelin star in the south of Athens,” Piscazzi says. “We had no event, no jackets. It was a bit different than what I expected.”
Piscazzi has hopes of a second star in the future. He has fully settled in Greece and even opened a second restaurant, Pino, with his wife, Charlotte Luykx, last year. The more casual spot, named for the chef’s childhood nickname, serves Piscazzi’s favorite Roman dishes, including pizza and pasta. Piscazzi says the food scene in Athens is expanding, although fine dining can feel like a stretch for locals.
“It’s still limited in terms of Michelin stars,” he says of the city’s dining landscape. “I don’t believe people in this country are ready for this type of [fine dining] food, but you have very nice concepts based on the Greek style of sharing and comfort. Good places where people are cooking traditional dishes. It’s not like in London, where you have lots of places in fancy hotels.”
That’s part of what makes Pelagos feel so unusual. Here, Piscazzi has elevated a hotel restaurant into something far more special, but something unique to the place. At Pelagos, guests can join the chef on his continuous journey of discovery.
