Luca Marina

About

Marina Luca, a remarkable Moldovan pastry chef, was born in the Călărași district, in the village of Horodiște, and grew up in the countryside until the age of 14, later moving to Chișinău. A graduate of the prestigious École Ducasse in France, where she was the first woman and the first Moldovan to complete the culinary arts and pastry program, she has accumulated over a decade of experience in Michelin-starred restaurants, such as Plaza Athénée in Paris and The Dorchester in London. She also collaborated with masters like Dominique Ansel and Pascal Lotier, Cédric Grolet's mentor, perfecting her fine dining and Haute Couture Desserts techniques. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Marina launched her own brand, La Dame de Luca, an ambitious high-end dessert project that quickly went viral in the Moldovan and international community, leading her to markets such as Bucharest, Switzerland, and Zurich, where she currently resides as CEO and pastry chef. With a diverse background in journalism, marketing, and communication from the State University of Moldova, she has cooked for celebrities such as Natalie Portman, Lionel Messi, the Rockefeller family, and Chiara Ferragni, collaborating with brands like Manokhi and Vogue Italia. Recently, in 2026, she received the golden knife on the show "Chefi la cuțite" on Antena 1, in chef Alexandru Sautner's team, impressing with innovative dishes such as Choux Calamansi with sesame. Marina's personal life was marked by early challenges, with her parents divorcing when she was young, and her mother, a Romanian language and literature teacher, raised her alone alongside her older brother. From the age of 14, independent, she started cooking and selling apple pies to finance her dream, even launching her first online brand "Where is the food". After periods of burnout and depression caused by 18-20 hour shifts in elite kitchens, she prioritized her health, transforming obstacles into fuel for her ambition to expand La Dame de Luca internationally, dreaming of pastry shops in multiple countries.