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OAK ISSUE - n° 16 - 2018 - € 10 www.theoney d.com
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[ GOURMAND ]
MASSIMO BOTTURA
Hard work and passion: the magic recipe for becoming the best His restaurant has topped The World’s 50 Best Restaurants rankings for the second time. But who is this Michelin-starred chef with a social conscience?
CALLO ALBANESE & SUEO
by Marta Bernasconi
W
ith its unassuming name, the Osteria Francescana in Modena might be a simple local trattoria serving
up traditional fare. But it isn’t. Or rather it is more than just that. Simplicity in haute cuisine is achieved only after a long and complex journey. Massimo Bottura began that journey in 1986 when he took over a trattoria in the Modena area and devoted himself to strengthening the very roots of his cuisine - traditional and regional Italian cuisine - by exploring combinations with a French influence. But then the time came to leave Italy to gain some international experience. This he did with style, working with Alain Ducasse at the Louis XV in Monte Carlo, an experience that inspired him to open the Osteria Francescana in 1995, and then later the now legendary El Bulli in Spain with Ferran Adrià. Both proved fundamental to bringing even greater depth to the Italian chef’s culinary development. His particular style springs from a multitude of influences: the roots of Italian cuisine itself, his own innate and very powerful curiosity, and a constant striving for innovation, a passion for art and music. That is how taste, how flavour, is created. It is about the references and sensations the chef wants to evoke as much as the dish itself. Lunch at one of the 12 tables in the restaurant is a multi-sensory experience: sensual, aesthetic, conceptual. Voted the World’s Best Restaurant in both 2016 and 2018, the Osteria Francescana is a clear-eyed manifesto for the Modenese chef’s idea of what cuisine is all about.
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Massimo Bottura’s offers his guests a multisensory experience that embraces not just tastes and flavours but also culture and art. Clockwise from top: “Oops! I dropped the lemon tart”, “Mediterranean Sole”,
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“Burnt”
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[ GOURMAND ]
“My mother used different ingredients from the ones I use. These are raw materials she didn’t even know existed. You have to take the best of the past and bring it into the
CALLO ALBANESE & SUEO
future. You need to keep a critical element alive”
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His second restaurant, Franceschetta58, however, is more of a
naming. He does have one other quality that sets him apart,
contemporary osteria. Also in Modena, its ambition is to create
however: his insistence on raising awareness in haute cuisine
a convivial atmosphere in which diners can relish the very finest
of food waste and the duty to help feed the more vulnerable
quality products.
members of society. This took practical form at the Expo2015 in
To Bottura every dish tells a story and often the name alone can
Milan: the Refettorio Ambrosiano project saw 60 international
conjure up a whole world even before a morsel has passed the
chefs prepare quality, nutritious meals for those in need.
diner’s lips: “The potato that wants to be a truffle”, “Memory
This was followed up by the founding of the Food for Soul
of a mortadella sandwich” and “An eel swimming up the Po
organisation and other Refettorio-inspired projects around the
river”. The dishes featured on these pages ably demonstrate
world.
the importance of the words chosen to describe them. Bottura
From haute cuisine to feeding the dispossessed: Massimo
does his research and how, from the genesis of each dish to its
Bottura’s drive and talent know no bounds.