On an evening in Athens, chef John DeLucie sat at The Zillers Rooftop, a Michelin-starred restaurant with glowing views of the Acropolis. The New York chef, known for The Waverly Inn, The Lion, Empire Diner, Bedford & Co., and Ambra, had come to Athens as part of CookUnity’s Culinary Journey through Greece, a weeklong exploration of the country’s food and culture.
Speaking to ¡HOLA!, DeLucie appeared cool, calm, and approachable, his understated confidence reflecting the decades he has spent in New York’s demanding restaurant scene. The trip, led by world-renowned celebrity chef Cat Cora (the first female Iron Chef) along with a small group of CookUnity contest winners, was a chance to slow down and reconnect with the true essence of cooking.
The group visited fine-dining Michelin restaurants and local favorites, and even cooked alongside a Greek chef at The Artist Studio in Athens. Between plates of moussaka, horiatiki (traditional Greek salad), grilled octopus, and tzatziki, DeLucie spoke about craft, curiosity, and how his partnership with CookUnity has allowed him to reach more people than ever before.
For DeLucie, this moment represents both reflection and reinvention, bridging his decades-long restaurant career with a new way of sharing food on a national scale.
A wider reach as a chef
“Fifty thousand meals a week,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “That’s just me. In a restaurant, even in the busiest place, you might feed 200 people a night. So this is significant. It’s a vision I could never have achieved in a single dining room.”
DeLucie joined CookUnity in 2021, launching from the company’s New York kitchen before expanding to Chicago and Los Angeles. His introduction to the platform came through his business partner and friend, Scott Geoffrey Schroeder, who is also the co-founder of Teranga with Chef Pierre Thiam, a celebrated West African restaurant located in Midtown Manhattan’s The Hugh food hall.
Schroeder encouraged DeLucie to give CookUnity a chance at a time when restaurants were shuttered during the pandemic and chefs were searching for new ways to connect with diners.
“At first I didn’t get it,” DeLucie said. “I was a restaurant guy. Meals in a tray? I wasn’t sure. But Scott told me, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ And he was right.”
By 2024, DeLucie’s menu had reached Austin and 18 states nationwide, giving him an audience far beyond the walls of his New York restaurants. In 2025, he introduced DeLucie Provisions, a line of comforting Italian-inspired dishes that marked his largest reach yet. “People want real food, chef-made food, at home,” he said. “It’s a great value, and it’s personal. It’s urban families,” he added. “They’re so busy, but they want quality food for their kids.”
Among his best-selling dishes are Mom’s Sunday Sauce Rigatoni, a slow-simmered tomato sauce with meatballs and spicy Italian sausage; Shrimp Fra Diavolo, spaghetti in a chile-spiked seafood sauce; and White Truffle Mac & Cheese, a creamy cavatappi dish finished with a crisp panko topping.
“I’m getting messages from Chicago and Seattle,” he said, smiling. “People saying, ‘Oh my God, I love this food.’ It’s really cool.”
When asked what struck him most about cooking in Greece, DeLucie didn’t hesitate. “The passion for the culture, the pride,” he said. “Like our cooking class, that chef had so much love for his cheese and for the ingredients made locally. It’s very much like Italian culture, that pride in what you make, and in where it comes from.”
Chef DeLucie shared that, for him, the cooking class was the highlight of the trip. The young local chef from The Artist Studio impressed everyone with his passion and lively stories about local ingredients like cheese and olive oil. He also taught the group how to make a few traditional Greek dishes from scratch. “The yogurt and cheese here blew my mind,” he said. “At home, you get those things, but it’s not the same. Here, it’s alive. It’s made with care.”
He was equally fascinated by carob bread, made from ground carob pods, an ingredient that once served as the measure for gold. “I’d never seen it before,” he said. “It’s these kinds of discoveries that make food so exciting.”
Before becoming one of New York’s most recognizable chefs, DeLucie’s path looked very different. An NYU graduate, he left a traditional office job to pursue cooking, training in France and Italy before returning to New York, where he served as chef de cuisine at Oceana. His early experiences abroad shaped a cooking style defined by restraint and respect for ingredients, qualities that still define his food today.
His cuisine is known for elegant simplicity and ingredient-led flavors. He’s also the author of The Hunger, a memoir about his journey to becoming a chef and entrepreneur.
That respect for simplicity goes back to his childhood in Brooklyn, where his grandmother from Puglia inspired his first memories of food. “I was five years old,” he recalled. “She lived downstairs from us, and I’d tug at her apron while she cooked zucchini scrambled eggs in olive oil. I still remember the sound and the smell of it. That memory has never left me.”
DeLucie describes himself as “a kitchen junkie,” drawn to the rhythm and rush of service.
“I’m an adrenaline guy,” he said. “That’s why I’m opening another restaurant in 2026. It’s crazy, but it’s who I am.”
On CookUnity, he’s learned to channel that same focus in a new way. “You can see when the scores drop,” he laughed. “One time, it was my arugula. It wilted too fast, so I swapped it out for kale, and the scores went right back up.”
Cooking, he explained, reminds him of playing guitar. “You have to practice, mess up, and keep going,” he said. “Cooking’s the same. You burn things, you start over. You have to have persistence.”
When asked what advice he would give to young chefs starting out, DeLucie was direct. “Go work in the best restaurant you can find, in New York, Paris, Italy, or Spain,” he said. “Learn the traditions, the legacies, the ingredients. I didn’t do that early on. I did it later, but it’s so important.”
Beyond his own menu, DeLucie has become an active voice within CookUnity’s growing network of chefs. In 2025, he co-created the CookUnity Food Passport Program, a travel series connecting members to global culinary destinations alongside the same chefs who cook for them on the platform.
The inaugural trip took a group to Rome in May 2025 and was led by DeLucie himself. “Each trip celebrates the cultural traditions that inspire our menus while letting participants experience global cuisines through the chefs who bring them to life on CookUnity,” he said.
Looking Ahead
DeLucie reflected on what comes next. “There’s going to be a resurgence of handmade things,” he said. “Artisanal, human things. I think people are going to miss that.”It’s a fitting thought from a chef who has spent nearly two decades honoring craftsmanship, first in New York’s most iconic kitchens and now through a digital platform that brings his cooking to tens of thousands of homes each week.
For Chef John DeLucie, the setting may have changed, but the mission remains the same. Make honest, well-crafted food and share it with as many people as possible.