Luciana Giangrandi & Alex Meyer
Chef/Owners, Boia De | Miami
March 2021
Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer had to jump through a few hoops before they finally met. In 2008, Giangrandi completed a non-fiction writing degree at The New School while Meyer studied economics at Emory University. An aspiring food writer, she interned at Scarpetta and ended up staying for three years. Meanwhile, he worked under Rising Stars alumni Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo at Animal and helped them open Son of a Gun. With a move to New York, Meyer staged at Eleven Madison Park before being hired full-time.
The couple’s paths crossed as part of the opening team of Daniel Humm and Will Guidara’s The NoMad in 2012. Within a year, Meyer became sous chef, and Giangrandi moved on to Carbone. She visited Italy to spend a summer cooking in Tuscany, and Meyer quit his job and followed. The partners traveled to Mexico and Japan, consulted and catered in Meyer’s native Los Angeles, and settled in Giangrandi’s hometown of Miami.
By 2018, she and Meyer were drawing attention with the launch of their Design District taco cart, La Pollita. Despite a loyal following, they closed down in 2019 but opened Boia De (Italian for “Oh my!”) a month later. With their combined chops, the Italian restaurant was named Eater Miami’s Best Restaurant in 2019
