Massimo Bottura and Osteria Francescana in Modena By Bruce Palling

Massimo's spin-painting veal dish - or is it a Damien Hirst?

Massimo Bottura, Italy’s most famous chef, is accustomed to controversy. His reinterpretation of Italian classics has won his worldwide fame but it is not to everybody’s taste, especially that of Jay Rayner, the man o’ the people offalophile food writer for The Observer. He recently described Massimo as a “swivel-eyed Italian chef who had apparently read too many self-help books with the word “creativity” in the title” and enthusiastically endorsed the blurting of an unknown provincial British chef that Massimo’s cuisine was “cobblers”.

What makes this judgement even more impressive is that the no nonsense Mr Rayner has never even bothered to eat at Osteria Francescana, but he did manage to see it on a television show. Such is the acuity and telepathic quality of his taste buds, why would he need to make the journey to Modena before attacking Massimo for making rubbish food? 

 All the more puzzling then, that his colleague Allan Jenkins, the editor of the Observer Food Monthly, paid a visit last year and in a lengthy feature, pronounced it to be “one of the great meals of my life” (www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/14/massimo-bottura-mercurial-chef-reinvented-italian-food). Mr Jenkins points out that everybody loves Massimo, from Ferran Adria, Alain Ducasse to René Redzepi – everyone it seems, except Mr Rayner. Well, at least writers of the same publication in London can have such diametrically opposed views without machine-gunning each other to death. Enough unpleasant thoughts – they all pale compared with Massimo and his inspired cuisine.

 Until recently, the main reasons for going to Modena were to visit the Ferrari Museum

or to drop in on one of the numerous manufacturers of Balsamic vinegar and Parmigiana Reggiano, which both hail from this region.

This all changed nearly a decade ago, with the emergence on a medieval back lane of a small corner restaurant called Osteria Francescana. Since appearing in the top five of the Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant awards for the past five years and gaining a third Michelin star in 2012, Modena has become renowned for more than creating cars and cheeses and has become a place of pilgrimage for dedicated foodies throughout the world. Massimo Bottura, the chef proprietor, is renowned for his desire to thrill and entertain by turning classic dishes on their head or creating what is termed “Story Food” to represent some historical or artistic landmark in his personal or Italian history.

 The danger of this approach is that it can prompt sneers not just from the Rayners of this world, but from some traditional lovers of Italian cuisine, who object, rather in the way that Indian food lovers do, when confronted with anything that is not a well loved simply prepared classic. Well, Massimo is up to speed with those too, only he also possesses a sense of fun and a desire to move the debate along. However he is not in the mad scientist tradition of a Heston Blumenthal – Bottura can also produce sublime renditions of tortellini or a classical ragu.

 Who else would begin his recent cookbook (Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef [Phaidon])with a photograph of a turntable followed by a story about the trials of an art dealer having his portrait painted?

Massimo and his wife Lara trying out a home made tomato sauce in their kitchen

The explanation is simple – music and art are integral parts of Bottura’s inspiration along with the history of his region – Modena in Emilio Romagna. (Spoiler alert - my views on Massimo and his family are completely biased – apart from being friends, in 2013 he gave our son a three months stage in his kitchen, the first Briton to have such an experience.)

 When you enter through the sliding doors of Osteria Francescana, you will certainly be confused –are those pigeons perched on the railing near the ceiling and what are those bags of garbage doing in the corner? Well, both are contemporary artworks, along with a garish map of volcanoes around the globe and some walls plastered with photographs of classic film stars.

There are two separate dining rooms each with only half a dozen tables in them, plus the private dining room, so it feels like being in the confines of an eclectic modern art gallery rather than a restaurant.

There is a considerable array of options – the a la carte section has 40 dishes in categories divided into regional specialities and courses from the land and the sea. On top of that there are three tasting menus categorised as traditions, classics and sensations. Having already indulged myself in the past with some of the traditional and the classics, I chose Sensations, which essentially means constantly changing seasonal plates from the experimental kitchen.

However, this must be one of the most flexible and user-friendly kitchens on the planet – you have the feeling that whatever the new customer or the returning veteran wanted, they would do their utmost to deliver it.

What makes a meal here so special is the constant sense of surprise before each plate appears. The plates themselves deliver an extraordinary number of flavours and concepts, which certainly work without any explanation. But when the background of the dish is explained, preferably by Massimo himself, then it takes on a complete life of its own.

Take his “Hare in the Woods”, which was inspired by an event exactly a century ago in Paris. Picasso and Gertrude Stein saw a camouflaged truck pass by on the Boulevard Raspail, prompting Pablo to shout: “Yes, we were the ones who invented that. That is Cubism!”  Bottura’s interpretation is a beautiful plate of hare’s blood mixed with foie gras and vegetable powders; hence the hare is camouflaged in the dish.

Bottura’s version of bollito misto is a combination of boiled meats cooked together, is to cook the meats separately and place them on their ends to look like the Manhattan skyline.  This is because the traditional bollito invariably ends up destroying the unique flavour of the ingredients without adding anything more to the overall taste, rather in the way that classical bouillabaisse does too.

The first course I was served on my most recent visit was three dome-shaped dumplings with a cotechino gelatine on side and lentils on the other. It is entitled Ravioli east and west: Shrimp, lentils, cotechino gelatin, and ginger. The ravioli has been “asianised” and while the cochetino flavor is intense, the Asian influence is there with the ginger and the shrimp. Another artful touch – there is a stickiness to the texture of the ravioli which is reminiscent of the absent cochetino. This is not modernist trickery as the flavours of all the ingredients are completely of themselves – the pleasure is in the playfulness of the juxtaposition.

This was followed by a Livornese Red Mullet perfectly baked with a crispy skin but the simple salad (Caesar Salad in Emilia) that followed showed Bottura’s quirky genius.

On the plate, all that you see is a glistening unadorned green salad on a white plate. Once you have bitten into it, this becomes a rather inadequate description of the experience. What Bottura has done is dress it from the inside out, so that every bite reveals a different sensory experience – the crunch of Parmigiano, then next an egg yolk with non-acidic vinegar and following that, mustard seeds and water infused with anchovy.

This constant re-thinking is shown perfectly in the next dish – the top of a lasagne. The reasoning is that the actual crust of the lasagne is the most interesting part of the dish so why not just serve that with little else save a hint of the sauce but without layers of pasta?

The ideas keep leaping off the plate – the next is called “Oh Deer!” and arose because a Roe Deer carcase became available when it was making havoc in a vineyard. Two small fillets are served with Ottoman patterns of roses around them in homage to the animal. As a further association, the jus is partially composed of cherries, the fruit that the Roe Deer is especially keen on eating.

 The next dish manages to use the cochetino from the ravioli dish, only this time it was encased by zabaglione.

There are several more surprises, from a near perfect simple tagliatelli with a Bolognese ragu to

 a risotto “north and south”, which refers to its Sicilian extra virgin olive oil mingling with the flavour of coppa di testa or slow cooked suckling pigs head.

The puddings were almost an anti-climax - a small dessert composed of a trio of compressed chocolate cherries 

and then a plate of six different miniature cakes.

The experience of eating a meal here is unlike any other. This is not just because of the innovative way many questions and concepts are thrown up to be considered. No, the real secret is the sensory thrill imparted by each and every dish – never has learning been conveyed with such lightness of touch – and pleasure.

Tasting menus from €110 to €180 per person

A shorter version of this story appeared in FOUR magazine