Five minutes with O Beach Ibiza’s Head Chef
We’re a one-of-a-kind daytime venue at O Beach Ibiza, offering a range of experiences from daily parties talked about all over the world, to a tantalising culinary journey.
It’s Luciano Scardaccione, our Head Chef, who heads up the latter and he’s always looking for new ways to add flavour to our already extensive food menu. We serve dishes from all around the world, including fresh ceviche, a superfood salad, succulent Argentinian steak and more. Whether you want to enjoy that in our restaurant area or seated at one of our beds with your friends, our waiting staff and host team work closely with the kitchen to take you on an unparalleled tasting adventure.
Usually busy devising or preparing delicious platters, we asked Argentinian-born Lule for five minutes to talk about his key role in the kitchen.
What does the role of Head Chef at O Beach involve?
I’m always looking at ways to improve our menu and concepting new dishes but day-to-day my main priority is to coordinate the 42 members of the kitchen team. I manage the workload and efficiency of my team, and the continuous orders our guests place.
I oversee every single detail that a kitchen demands such as cross-checking deliveries from suppliers and keeping on top of ingredient quantities; just to give you an idea, we manage over 750 ingredients across all dishes.
I make sure every single dish looks perfect at the time it’s served – I would say I personally check 95% of our dishes before they leave the kitchen.
When and how did you decide to become a chef?
I belong to an Italian family who are all talented in the kitchen, particularly at making bread and pizzas. When I was a kid my la Nona Italiana (my Italian grandmother) taught me how to cook and I remember falling in love with the whole process.
It was when I was 18 years old that my lovely Auntie mentioned a new cooking class in Argentina. It was all in English and I wasn’t so fluent at the time, but I ended up with really good notes!
How do you come up with the menu for this Summer?
Every year we sit down with the owners to review the menu and make improvements for the next season based on staff and client feedback.
In winter I reside in Brazil and gather inspiration, look at upcoming food trends and combine them with comments from the summer to improve the menu.
Where do you take your culinary inspiration from?
It comes from my family heritage and my travel, as well as when I’m at home in Brazil – where it all started. I love to experiment with new dishes and flavours; Diego who’s my right hand man, has plenty of knowledge and helps me source new ideas also.
What is your favourite dish on the menu?
This year it’s the Lebanese platter as it comes with ingredients that are new to our kitchen. This makes me feel very proud of what we’ve achieved.
The original recipe comes from a traditional Moroccan dish that has been transformed by our kitchen team to have a fresh and contemporary feel and it has been very well received by our customers.
Who is the most interesting person you’ve ever cooked for?
I have to mention two big professional boxers, Anthony Joshua and Connor McGregor. Anthony was a very good client of ours – every time he visited us he’d order three of the amazing Argentinian steaks.
We always wondered who was placing this rare order until we realised we had a former unified world heavyweight champion in our restaurant.
What do you love most about your job?
I think there’s a point during summer when I feel so proud about my team and everything they’ve accomplished.
We work under a lot of pressure, in extreme heat conditions, but we’re all perfectionists and aren’t comfortable serving anything less than the best. I honestly love to see that all dishes are perfectly served. To have the perfect team means creating the perfect melody, so I feel so honored to be the director of this orchestra.
