Jefe Lubiano
Executive Chef
“I’m really excited to introduce a beautiful Italian dining experience to Raleigh. I’ve been working on our dough, and evolving my craft, and we’re going to create something special – that is much more than a pizzeria,” said Lubiano.
Prior to serving on the opening team of GHG’s Osteria Georgi, Jefe Lubiano owned and operated his own pizzeria – Pop’s Back Door South, from 2013-2016. Other noteworthy roles include his three-year tenure at The Durham Hotel with James Beard award-winning Chef Andrea Reusing, where he served as Chef de Cuisine in 2021. “I learned so much from her; She’s a tour de force in the kitchen,” exclaimed Lubiano. Earlier notable stints in his culinary career were alongside Chef Garrett Fleming at Motto, at Pop’s Trattoria as Sous Chef, as well as with celebrated Chef Shane Ingram at Four Square, G2B and One. Lubiano has an Associate of Culinary Arts Degree from L’Academie de Cuisine in Maryland (earned after serving the US Air Force in 2022), and after culinary school, worked with Chef Jeffrey Buben at Bistro Bis & Vidalia in Washington, DC, and Chef Cindy Wolf at Cinghiale in Baltimore.
“Jefe has been instrumental in the kitchen at our newest Italian restaurant in Chapel Hill, and has a strong track record in Durham’s food scene over the past two decades,” said Bakatsias about Lubiano, who currently works alongside Chef Dan Jackson as Osteria Georgi’s Chef de Cuisine. “As former chef/owner of Pop’s Back Door South, he is bringing very valuable hands-on pizza experience and evolving that into something that will be much more artisanal and seasonal at Giorgio Pizza Bar.”