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Luca Brunelle
• Part 1 of 2.
COLONIE, NY -- Luca Brunelle has made a lot of changes in his mere 35 years.
After graduating from Colonie High School, he enrolled in the accounting program at the University at Albany. Some serious partying and less serious classroom efforts ensued, and he wound up working as a dishwasher and prep cook in several kitchens, exposing him to a world he had long had an inclination to enter. So, it was on to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, "except I had to pay for school this time," he notes.
Along the way, Brunelle gained a wife, a fistful of culinary competition medals under Miller's tutelage -- and a lot of weight. In the ensuing years, he became the father of a daughter, Sage, now 5, a sought-after Certified Executive Chef -- and even heavier.
He has now, after a couple of brief missteps as head chef at two less-than-notable establishments, been firmly ensconced for four years as the executive chef of Legrande Serras's popular Reel Seafood Co. on the Wolf Road commercial corridor in Colonie. In addition to running the kitchen there, he's also been occupied in wrapping up the details on the dissolution of his marriage — and losing 60 pounds through a grueling, dedicated program of nutrition and exercise that got him down to 240, with more weight loss to come.
"Living the dream, a day at a time," as the chef puts it, with a mix of what seems like equal parts eagerness and resignation. "I work out at Gold's Gym maybe six times a week, and I'm on an eating plan that calls for six little meals a day to help control calories and work on my metabolism," Brunelle says. "My goal is probably another 50 pounds or so. I'm feeling really great, and it's helped my stamina for a 13-hour work day."
Brunelle had to make quite a leap of both faith and purpose when he accepted Serras's job offer. He'd done very little seafood cooking since culinary school, so moving to a seafood-centric establishment required a lot of study and hard practical work.
"It really forced me to reacquaint myself with a lot of foods and techniques," Brunelle says. "The first thing Legrande had me do was fly out to Ann Arbor (Michigan) for 10 days to work in a group of restaurants his brother owns. One of them was Real Seafood, and it really gave me an insight into what goes into that sort of kitchen."
(Note: Serras changed the spelling of his local restaurant last year from Real Seafood Co. to Reel Seafood Co. when his brother, who owns the name, decided to sell off his Michigan enterprises.)
NOTES ON NAPKINS: Part 2 of this profile will be posted on Wednesday of this week. ... Go here for a look at the Reel Seafood Company's 25th anniversary.
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