A gallery of variations

If Massimo Bottura – “Ikarus” guest chef in April – hadn’t ended up a chef, he would most likely have opened a gallery. Both professions have a strong artistic component. When Bottura’s guests are served their food, it is indeed reminiscent of an exhibition of works of art. Although the beauty of the exhibits is transient, their moment of glory is all the more delicious. However, the diners usually don’t spend too much time admiring the artwork – easy on the eye it may be, but it is even easier on the stomach.

Italian cuisine is well known not only for its delicious flavours, but also for its colourful presentation, and the city of Modena, where Bottura’s restaurant “La Francescana” is based, has added some important nuances to its colour spectrum: the elegant black of aceto balsamico, the ruby-red of Lambrusco di Sorbara, or the vigorous red of the cherries from the region around Modena. Bottura’s own colour is a uniform yellow, the basis of light and maybe also a reminder of the amber colour of the local Parmigiano Reggiano that he likes to serve in four different levels of maturity and consistency.

Massimo Bottura is a master at combining tradition with avant-garde and particularly adept at bringing out the best of exotic delicacies by combining them with local specialties: oriental-style marinated suckling pig, with aceto balsamico as the perfect finishing touch, or a foie gras terrine combined with smoked sausage cooked over Lambrusco steam. However, the dish dearest to his heart is Cappuccino di Patate e Cipolle, which he served to Alain Ducasse, his old teacher, in the Trattoria del Campazzo in 1992. It is a pleasure to watch Massimo Bottura handling traditional recipes, making them even more tempting by adding some new, modern twist. The fact that he has his feet firmly on the ground becomes obvious when asked what recipe he would like to have invented – his answer: Pizza Margherita. In terms of his career as a chef, Bottura is something of a late developer. Only recently has he found the self-confidence and the sangfroid necessary to transform the formative influences of his many great teachers, such as Cristoni Lidia, George Cogny, Lara Gilmore, Alain Ducasse or Ferran Adrià into his own, personal style. Today, he radiates the energy that comes from having enough confidence to follow his own ambitions. His efforts to find his own style have recently been rewarded with a second Michelin star.

Bottura’s approach of skilfully deconstructing a dish into its individual components and then adroitly reassembling it into something new is truly unique and allows him to present – on the same table – a perfectly prepared dish “à la tradition” together with several innovative new versions, clearly Bottura’s own take on the teachings of his master tutors.