Luci Giangrandi is a Miami-raised kid whose star has risen. Specifically a Michelin star.

She co-owns Boia De, a restaurant she opened with her co-chef and partner Alex Meyer in a strip mall in Little Haiti three years ago. They were named co-nominees for the James Beard Award for best chef in the South. And now, their little spot has got a star from the Tire Man.

But she actually started out as an aspiring food writer before training in the Scarpetta kitchen of “Chopped!” judge Scott Conant.

Miami first found out about them when they moved to Miami together and opened a tiny taco trailer in the Design District, La Pollita, where they made a killer chicken sandwich.

She talks to us about eating Vicky's croquetas in Miami Lakes, sharing the helm of a heralded restaurant to her trips with family to Livorno, Italy that shaped her.

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