Massimo Bottura opened Osteria Francescana in Modena in 1995. An innovator and restaurateur for over twenty years, Bottura has consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s most creative culinary figures. His internationally renowned three Michelin star restaurant, Osteria Francescana, was named number 1 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2016 and for the second time in 2018.

In 1986 Massimo Bottura departed on his life’s journey when he bought Trattoria del Campazzo on the outskirts of Modena. Working alongside the rezdora Lidia Cristoni and an apprenticeship with French chef Georges Coigny, he built his culinary foundation on a combination of regional Italian cooking and classical French training. In 1994 Bottura sold Campazzo and departed for Montecarlo to work with Alain Ducasse at Louis XV. This experience proved in valuable for the chef and lead to opening Osteria Francescana a year later in his hometown of Modena. Several years later, Bottura had another life changing experience with Ferran Adria at El Bulli during the summer of 2000.

Bottura’s kitchen walks a thin line between tradition and innovation. His dishes explore the deep roots of the Italian kitchen while making references to history, art and philosophy. In 2002 Bottura received his first Michelin star followed by the second in 2006. Among numerous awards, he received the prestigious “Grand Prix de l’Art” from the International Culinary Academy in Paris in 2011 and a confirmation of a life long ambition with the third Michelin star. Osteria Francescana has been ranked at the top of the Italian food guides for the past five years.

Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef is the title of Massimo Bottura’s first English language book published by Phaidon Press in 2014. It documents the past twenty years of cooking as well as the evolution of Osteria Francecana through images, storytelling and the iconic recipes.

Massimo Bottura has been also recognized for his commitment against food waste and social isolation, calling for social responsibility among the culinary community. During Expo 2015, the chef created an off-site Expo project called the Refettorio Ambrosiano, a community kitchen in which chefs from around the world joined him to transform food surplus from the exhibition into healthy meals for those in need. As a consequence of the success of the project, Massimo founded the non-profit organization Food for Soul together with his wife Lara Gilmore. Since then, Food for Soul has established other projects: Refettorio Gastromotiva in Rio de Janeiro, Refettorio Felix in London, Refettorio Paris and Social Tables in Modena, Bologna and Naples.

In order engage the wider audience in the fight against food waste, Massimo Bottura collected recipes and experiences of the chefs who cooked at Refettorio Ambrosiano in a book called Bread is Gold, published by Phaidon Press in 2017. Proceeds will help Food for Soul opening and sustaining new community kitchens around the world.

On February 6th, 2017 Massimo Bottura received a prestigious honorary degree in Business from the University of Bologna. Dean Francesco Ubertini stated, “Massimo Bottura’s work spreads across the fields of entrepreneurship, education and technique and represents a virtuous example of the promotion of Italian Culture and Made in Italy.” This was the first Laurea honoris causa awarded to a chef in the history of the University. On April 23rd, 2018, the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara also awarded Bottura with a diploma honoris causa in Arts.

While Osteria Francescana invites diners on an iconoclastic re-imagining of the Italian kitchen, Bottura’s second restaurant, Franceschetta58, is a contemporary osteria that features exceptional ingredients served in a convivial atmosphere.

In addition to his restaurants, Massimo created the Villa Manodori product line of award winning balsamic vinegars and olive oils twenty years ago. Villa Manodori condiments are product of lifetime obsession with quality ingredients. Today the line products can be purchased at the finest gourmet markets around the world.

In 2019 Massimo Bottura and his wife Lara Gilmore opened Casa Maria Luigia, a 18th-century property surrounded by the agricultural landscape of the Emilian countryside, turned into guest house with the intention of extending the art of hospitality beyond the doors of Osteria Francescana.

The energetic and ever curious chef resides in his beloved hometown of Modena located in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy with Lara and their two children, Alexa and Charlie.

Kwame Onwuachi is the James Beard Award-winning executive chef at Kith/Kin, Esquire Magazine’s Chef of the Year, and author of Notes from a Young Black Chef, published by Alfred A. Knopf. He was born on Long Island and raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana. Onwuachi was first exposed to cooking by his mother, in the family’s modest Bronx apartment, and he took that spark of passion and turned it into a career. From toiling in the bowels of oil cleanup ships to working at some of the best restaurants in the world, he has seen and lived his fair share of diversity. Onwuachi trained at the Culinary Institute of America and has opened five restaurants before turning thirty. A former Top Chef contestant, he has been named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs, Esquire Magazine’s Chef of the Year, and a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes.

Jeff Gordinier is the food & drinks editor of Esquire and the author of Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World, a chronicle of four years traveling the world with René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen. Gordinier has also written for The New York Times, Real Simple, Entertainment Weekly, Travel + Leisure, Outside, Elle, and the website of the Poetry Foundation. He lives close to the Hudson River with his wife and his four children.