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Massimo Bottura opened Osteria Francescana in Modena in 1995 and took it to three Michelin stars and, twice, first place on the list of the world's best restaurants.
How he did it is best seen in the dishes. Parmigiano Reggiano at five different ages, served in five textures and temperatures. Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart, which came about when a pastry chef dropped a tart on the floor and they decided to serve it broken anyway. And The Crunchy Part of the Lasagne, meaning just the crisp edge, the bit everyone fights over.
It sounds like mischief and is the opposite. When the 2012 earthquake in Emilia-Romagna damaged stores of Parmesan wheels, Bottura devised a risotto using the threatened cheese and led a campaign that saved producers from bankruptcy.
The book documents the dishes, the thinking behind them and the references to art that he constantly returns to. Bottura appeared in the very first episode of Chef's Table.
Don't let the almost biblical cover put you off. This is a creative madman who happens to be right, documented while it was all happening.
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 296
Language: English
First published: 2014
The Kitchen Lab Selection
Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef documents the moment Italy stopped being a museum. The country has, as some of you will know, a culture of rather firmly rooted culinary traditions (that is an ironic understatement, ed.) where it can sometimes feel as though everything you do is wrong. Bottura broke with the unwritten rules from the inside and succeeded so thoroughly that he counts among Italy's and the world's leading chefs.
