Self-confessed dreamer makes sky the limit
Massimo Bottura put the Italian town of Modena on the culinary map with Osteria Francescana, his three-Michelin-starred restaurant. But he reveals that the acclaimed eatery once sat empty night after night — until a phenomenal stroke of luck.
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“A chef has to be much more than the sum of his recipes.”
These are the words that drive Massimo Bottura — philanthropist, international speaker and culinary force behind his three-Michelin-starred restaurant Osteria Francescana in Italy, which was also twice crowned No.1 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Not content with claiming the highest possible accolades in his chosen profession, Bottura wants more.
He wants to become an “inspiration” for all generations.
It’s a grandiose aspiration, but Bottura is a self-confessed dreamer, and once he sets his sights on a goal, nothing will stand in his way.
“I think if you can dream it, you can make it,” he says.
Bottura is widely revered for not just breaking the mould of Italian cuisine but detonating it into thousands of pieces, only to innovatively and artfully put it back together in the most controversial of ways at Osteria Francescana.
The restaurant in his hometown of Modena opened in 1995, looking to do away with tradition and instead “take an icon of our national cuisine and treat it with a totally different spirit”.
For Italians who see tradition as everything — especially in the kitchen — it was an abhorrent idea.
So much so that on many a night his eatery would sit empty, with not a single diner to serve.
He was forced to sell everything he owned to keep it afloat and was ready to call it quits in 2000 when his wife, American-born Lara Gilmore, and her parents convinced him to continue for one more year.
Not long after, Italy’s most influential food critic visited the 12-table restaurant, writing a glowing review that would change the fate of the restaurant and Bottura forever.
Francescana won its first Michelin star in 2002, its second in 2006 and its third in 2011.
In 2006 Bottura also claimed the Best Young Italian Chef and Dinner of the Year awards in Italian magazine Espresso, before going on to win the World’s Best Restaurant in 2016 and again in 2018.
It’s this fight against adversity, hardship and impending failure only to come out the other side a winner — literally and figuratively — that Bottura believes makes his story inspirational.
So much so that the 56-year-old has agreed to take to the stage this August for a national Australian tour sharing his life with audiences.
“If I can inspire people in general from a younger teen to an older (retiree) to follow their passion, I think I can be very helpful,” Bottura says.
PASSION PROJECT
But it’s not just his success with his restaurant that makes Bottura an inspiration, it’s also his passion to help others and the planet.
In 2012, the chef turned to social media to famously help save the parmesan industry in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna after two devastating earthquakes damaged 360,000 wheels of the hard cheese with an estimated value of more than $200 million.
Thinking outside the box, he created his interpretation of the classic Italian pasta dish cacio e pepe, which combines pasta with pecorino cheese and pepper.
He replaced the pecorino with parmesan and the pasta with rice, another ingredient affected by the earthquakes.
He shared his recipe across social media and created Parmigiano-Reggiano Night — or parmesan night — a fundraiser where people would cook the dish and gather online to eat it together.
As a result, all 360,000 wheels were sold, no one lost a job and all cheese makers were able to stay in business.
SOCIAL CURRENCY
It’s a story he recounts in the now-famous debut episode of Netflix series Chef’s Table in 2015, a documentary which would throw the chef into the public eye.
“That was a recipe as a social gesture,” he says.
He continued the gesture in 2016, launching non-profit association Food for Soul — a charity empowering communities to fight food waste and social isolation through soup kitchens known as refettorios in Milan, Rio de Janeiro, London and Paris.
More than just providing a hot meal for those who can’t afford their own, the refettorios — from the Latin reficere, meaning “to remake” and “to restore” — are hubs for socialising, where the whole community can gather as one and be inspired.
He has now committed to bringing the refettorios to Australia, teaming up with local food charity Oz Harvest to launch the first venture in Sydney where renowned chefs will use rescued food to create meals for the vulnerable.
BEHIND EVERY GREAT CHEF
Instrumental in the success of the charity — and that of Bottura himself — is wife, Gilmore.
The pair met while working at the same cafe in New York in the 1990s and she has become a driving force in his career and whom he credits for much of his achievements.
“She was always supporting me. She was always on my side because she believed in my ideas and she was correcting me, she was pushing me to go harder,”
Bottura says.
“She was always saying, ‘You don’t have to go there, but if you don’t go there, someone else is going to go there, so it’s up to you’.”
Also crucial to his success, he says, is his remarkable team.
At Osteria Francescana there are a whopping 73 staff for just 28 diners.
Then he has teams to run his other restaurants in Florence and Dubai, plus the Food for Soul employees spread across the world.
“We have so many talented people that are the secret to our success,” he says, stating that giving them the freedom to express themselves is what keeps them strong.
“In the restaurant I have this kind of exercise, which is called ‘Who are you?’ in which I let everyone express themselves through food, through an idea. It’s a way to create a team, to keep the team together.”
It sees a different staff member every day create a staff meal for lunch and dinner of their choosing, allowing them to put their ideas and inspiration on a plate.
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The concept is not only great for his employees to feel like they’re contributing and being heard, but is a way for him to tap into the younger generation, which he says give him “energy and new perspective”.
So what’s next for the superstar of the kitchen?
Between running his restaurant empire, charity organisation and new 12-suite accommodation villa in Modena he renovated with Gilmore, his plate is pretty full, but “I always have a door open for the unexpected”.
“The door open for the unexpected is very important. If you keep the door closed you don’t evolve.”
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