Last week I mentioned that something big was happening in the world of food, and that I wasn’t able to ignore it because I live in Modena.
Five minutes from my house there is the Osteria Francescana, ranked third in the World by San Pellegrino, run by Massimo Bottura who has been hailed the World’s Best Chef. Incidentally he just received White Guide Global Gastronomy Award, which is considered the Nobel Prize of Gastronomy.
Image of Massimo Bottura from the 2014 Lavazza Calendar “Inspiring Chefs”
He is January, and is photographed in Milan’s Ambrosiana Library.
http://calendar2014.lavazza.com/
I have saved 5 euro every week for two years in order to be able to surprise my husband this Valentine’s Day and bring him to eat at Massimo Bottura’s Osteria (our reservation in for Wednesday night and it is ALL we have been talking about).
I’m almost embarrassed to say what happened to me last week. I’m still going through a bit (a lot) of shock. Actually, that is an understatement….I can’t seem to think about anything else.
Basically this happened:
I tweeted about saving for two years to go to the Osteria Francescana, and Mr. Bottura himself replied.
I called the restaurant after I read the tweet, I was sweating and shaking from nervousness and I thought it was someone’s idea of a cruel joke. The man who answered the phone, was the same man who had also helped me with my reservation. He is very, VERY nice, and polite and soft spoken and pleasurable to speak with.
One of the informal Italian expressions to say someone is full of themselves is to say “se la tira”, meaning “she’s a snob”. Well, interestingly enough Chef Massimo Bottura and ALL of his staff were incredibly nice and no one was full of themselves! I have never encoutered such genuine courtesy, politeness and hospitality.
The man who takes reservations told me that that Massimo Bottura personally manages the twitter account and that he’d call me back.
Ummmm. Ok….. Don’t panic. I was convinced that this was just one of those things that people say, you know…to be funny. So I started to prepare lunch for me and Zeno, my son.
Later, I got a call from the restaurant saying they’d expect me for lunch. And I said “I don’t expect to eat anything so please don’t feel obliged, maybe I could come for a coffee and meet Mr. Bottura, I watch my toddler during the day so he’ll be with me. If you prefer I not come there’s really no problem”.
And again the nice man answered “There’s no problem at all, come, say hello to Mr. Bottura, we’ll make you some tagliatelle”.
Ummm. Ok (stay calm….Oh My God)
I got off the phone, prepared myself and Zeno, got his bag ready, filled my iphone with new cartoons he’d never seen, and started to RUN into the city centre.
At that point Zeno was STARVING so I stopped in for a tigella. A tigella is a type of flatbread from the mountain area around Modena that is cooked on a grill and eaten with deli meats, lard and cheese. I will be posting all about this in the future because it is one of my favourite Italian fast foods and deserves its own post!
As I was saying, the tigella place was PACKED and we waited forever for a tigella for Zeno, each minute felt like a lifetime, and in the meantime the Osteria Francescana called to make sure I was still coming “Yes, I’m on my way” I said as I ran through the small side streets of Modena.
If you want to read what happened during my first encounter with the Osteria Francescana I’m doing a small series about it in three parts.
The First Part is found here, it’s about my “First impressions” and what I know about the Osteria and Chef Massimo Bottura.
The Second Part is my review “A Normal Person’s Review of the Osteria Francescana” and I describe in detail what I ate with photographs.
The Third Part will be published next week, after I return with my husband. I will taste his “Sensations” menu, which is the epitome of the Chef’s culinary research and passion.
I hope you’ll enjoy this series, I am really happy that I have this blog to be able to share this once in a lifetime opportunity. I don’t really feel deserving of this, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. So this series is a homage to the greatest Chef on the planet, who has decided to stay in our medium sized town of Modena, instead of abandoning us for New York or Paris!