By Charlie Pogacar
When Luca Donofrio speaks, he sounds like an Italian-American character straight out of The Sopranos. So perhaps it was no surprise when he turned out to be a natural as a pasta maker—a skill he learned at age 22, when he took his first job in the workforce at Mario Batali’s Eataly.
The job began a run of over 15 years in the industry that culminated in Donofrio co-owning and operating Two Fat Tomatoes, a Roman-style pizza and pasta shop in New York City that closed in 2022 due to financial complications. By this point, Donofrio’s pasta and pizza-making chops were well known quantities in the industry, and he was offered an executive chef role by several different restaurants.
But Donofrio, who had two young children by this point, was burnt out. On the rare occasions he was home in time to put his kids to bed, he was so exhausted he’d fall asleep in the midst of reading books to them. His time in restaurants had not allowed him to be the family man he wanted to be.
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So, instead of taking a job with another restaurant, Donofrio began doing gig work for one of his former vendors, RCN Imports, the U.S. distributor of Molini Pasini flour. That eventually turned into a corporate executive chef role, a job he’s held for over two years now. It was a step he never would’ve considered when he was younger, but he craved work-life balance and a stable, dependable schedule. He figured he’d give it a shot, and the lifestyle change immediately paid off.
“I no longer have those sleepless nights wondering if we’ll have to close tomorrow,” Donfrio said. “My health is better. My stress level is way down.”
This wasn’t just Donofrio’s interpretation of how the move to the corporate world affected his mind and body—his observations were backed by science. During Donofrio’s first annual physical after making the change, his doctor noted his blood pressure had returned to normal levels.
That’s not to say it was a seamless transition. As much as Donofrio has grown to love the work he does with RCN, there are things he misses about the restaurant world. It’s best summed up, he said, by a quote attributed to Thomas Keller.
“You miss nourishing people day-to-day,” Donofrio said. “The joy of making food for people is a powerful drug. I still get a little bit of that at food shows, when people come back for thirds and say, ‘Man, this is incredible.’ Keller said it best—cooking in restaurants is about [nurturing] others. You lose a bit of that in the corporate world, but I think I’ve found other ways to get it back.”
Learning the Trade
Donofrio didn’t start with a grand culinary vision. As he tells it, he just needed a paycheck. When a Craigslist ad led him to Eataly, he stepped into a culinary world he knew little about—but soon he realized he’d found his calling. He was assigned to fresh pasta production, a craft that suited his hands and his instincts.
Within a few years, Donofrio had built a name for himself on the strength of his pasta-making. Back in the early days of Instagram, his photos of hand-rolled orecchiette and house-made tagliatelle caught the attention of the platform itself, earning him the coveted blue checkmark “back when you couldn’t buy it,” he said.
He rose through the ranks quickly, eventually overseeing pasta production at Eataly locations across North America—Chicago, Boston, Toronto—and consulting for major hospitality clients like Tao Group Hospitality and Yale University. Along the way, he dabbled in pizza, refining his dough skills and absorbing techniques from some of the best in the business.
His dream, however, was to strike out on his own. That dream materialized as Two Fat Tomatoes, a Roman-style pasta and pizza shop that allowed him full creative control for the first time in his career. But the venture was short-lived for reasons that Donofrio said weren’t worth getting into in a PMQ Pizza story. Suffice to say that he left with his reputation—and bank account—thankfully intact.
The Pivot to Corporate—and a New Identity
At RCN Imports, Donofrio wears many hats. He travels to trade shows across the country—Florida, Michigan, California—demonstrating the capabilities of Molino Pasini flour. He works with restaurant clients on product development, helping them troubleshoot recipes, test equipment and fine-tune cooking techniques. And he does it all with complete creative freedom.
“At food shows, they say, ‘Make whatever (the heck) you want with the flour,’” Donofrio said. “It’s the best of both worlds—I still get to cook, I still get to be creative, and I get to go home to my kids at night during the week.”
Donofrio wants to make one thing clear: He’s not working 40-hour weeks. Try 60. And there’s still a lot of travel and some weekend work. But, for the first time in his career, he can spend most weekends at home. If he does get a work call on the weekend, it’s almost always from a client, and those are calls he willingly picks up to help operators troubleshoot. As someone who has been there and done that, he wants to be as helpful as possible to the operators he’s formed relationships with in his new line of work.
On Pizza Trends—and the Future of His Craft
Even outside of the kitchen, Donofrio has remained a student of the craft, particularly when it comes to dough. He’s quick to point out two trends he believes will shape the future of pizza in America.
First, he sees a growing interest in lighter, more digestible pizza, often made with lower-protein flours and shorter fermentation times. He believes American pizza makers will soon realize that long fermentation processes aren’t inherently superior.
“In Italy, they’re doing incredible things with 12- to 24-hour doughs and flours that are easier on the stomach,” he said. “It’s all about how the flour handles hydration and fermentation.”
Second, Donofrio highlights the rise of higher-ash flours, which retain more of the wheat kernel’s natural components. These flours lend distinctive flavor, color and aroma to the crust, and Donofrio often experiments with blending flours to achieve specific textural results. “You’re seeing more chefs treat flour like a flavor ingredient, not just a base,” he said.
He’s also keeping an eye on Roman styles—pizza al taglio and pinsa in particular. “They’re still under the radar for a lot of U.S. consumers, but chefs are catching on,” Donofrio said. “The crispness, the crumb, the ability to add toppings post-bake—it opens up a lot of creative doors.”
While Donofrio has a strong belief in his skills as a pastaio, his pizza making chops are steadily catching up. What he’s noticed lately is that he’s able to help pizzaiolos through different problems they’re having in the kitchen—a testament to the pizza making skills he’s honed over the years.
“My pasta skills? Ninety-five out of a hundred,” he said. “Pizza? Seventy. I know a lot—I’ve got guys on the Top 50 list calling me for advice—but I’m not running a pizzeria every day.
No Regrets—And No Plans to Go Back
These days, Donofrio still consults, but only under the umbrella of his work with RCN. Though he admits he occasionally dreams of owning another shop—a small, passion-driven project, perhaps—he’s firm about not returning to the daily grind of restaurant ownership.
“I get offers all the time, and I turn them down,” he said. “I’ve seen what it takes. A real chef-owner spends more time doing payroll and invoices than making food. That’s not the life I want anymore.”
