I'm Neapolitan and the founder of PUOK.
It all began the day...
"The Cooking Adventures of Puok e Med". I was a young man with a different vision of food. Sharing the stories of the characters from my food adventures made me happy, and I could see that spark in the eyes of my listeners.
in Medical Biotechnology with top marks and started working in a lab the very next day. Although I still love science, every time I wrote on my blog I felt reborn.
It nearly ended my life and completely transformed my perspective, everything shifted. I walked away from my planned research career to follow happiness, feeling destined to create something truly meaningful for myself.
A few months later, a video challenge against a global fast-food chain, followed by a YouTube pizza video, made international waves. Soon after, I began planning the first PUOK location with friends and future partners. No customizable menus, just a small selection of extraordinary, spirit-filled burgers inspired by pop culture and my grandmother's recipes. Burgers designed to tell my story, and to bring that same spark to others’ eyes.
On June 6, 2016, the first PUOK opened, and the orange face flag was raised for the first time. A small take-away shop with only six fixed burgers, cooked from scratch until sold out. Despite our inexperience, we had boundless courage and enthusiasm, sharing a philosophy that was quickly embraced by our team and early fans. The slogan "Not 'cuozzo', not gourmet, it's Puok" was more than words, it was a mindset.
Within months we opened our first culinary laboratory and launched a monthly special burger. Each release became a media event, like the drop of your favorite band's new track.
In November 2018, the second store opened in Spaccanapoli, the historic heart of Naples. Our "church" in the center of the city, with all of us as devoted followers of the creed.
Then came 2020, the year of the pandemic. Thanks to our ability to adapt and our tireless enthusiasm, we overcame those dark months brilliantly through delivery, a service that, in the years to follow, would become increasingly central to PUOK's growth.
In 2022, we decided to refresh our image, reclaim the color orange, and celebrate the feeling that unites all our customers with a new payoff: "The Orange Happiness". From then on, we began creating unforgettable offline campaigns.
We joined our first Comicon, an event that felt like a perfect match for us. We showed up in style with our iconic orange food truck, which from that moment on has accompanied us on the road, bringing our energy and our burgers to countless new places.
In 2024, after a long design process, our first centralized lab came to life. At last, we could bring to reality sandwiches we had only imagined until then, starting with the pioneer of this new era: the "Genovese Astrospaziale".
to taste our sandwiches that tell stories of courage, of warmth, of who we are.
