Inside the Kitchen: Six Questions with Lucia’s David Uygur

A properly roasted chicken. Good, crusty sourdough bread with butter. Époisses cheese. And a wad of watercress.

It’s everything from what goes on the plate to how the guest is taken care of to pairing the dishes with a wine list to ingredient sourcing. It even starts before the guest walks through the door—the information they find online, the pictures we post on Instagram, the events we participate in, and the charities we support.

My daily goals include providing good service and teaching the front-of-house staff ways to improve the guest experience—whether that’s recognizing potential allergens, adapting dishes, or helping customers discover new dishes.

I would love to go to Atomix in New York. And I want to go back to Atoboy and Blue Hill.

I don’t care about trends. I try to be open. A few years ago, everyone was doing molecular gastronomy. Everyone was spherifying. Then it was the opposite: Everyone was just cooking over fire. Some things were interesting about molecular gastronomy. Some things were silly. The idea of taking a really nice cheese and making it melty and smooth? Cool. The idea of pureeing a green olive and spherifying it to make another green olive? I don’t know. Trends come and go, but I don’t let that bother me. I use sous vide. I use a smoker. I focus on what works—not what’s fashionable.

That roast chicken again—plus our pastry chef Maggie’s great bread.