Experience the Culinary Art of Masterchef Massimo Bottura

Massimo Bottura is hailed as a storyteller and artist as much as a cook. Bottura’s freedom weaves narratives through his dishes, breaking traditions and innovating with ingredients. Enjoy Bottura’s warm hospitality on a 4-day travel experience designed entirely around Massimo’s culinary art and creations and the regional culture of Emilia-Romagna. The experience is hosted in the Modenese countryside at Casa Maria Luigia, Massimo’s guest house where he opened his new dining experience “Francescana at Maria Luigia”, featuring a tasting menu with Osteria Francescana most iconic dishes.

As one of the world’s leading influencers on the gastronomy scene, Chef Massimo will share through a masterclass his passion and journey of creativity to feed people with emotion in an intimate setting with a small number of guests. You are also guaranteed a dining experience at both Osteria Francescana, voted best restaurant in the world, and Bottura’s new dining experience “Francescana at Maria Luigia” with open kitchen and communal tables in the countryside, located at Casa Maria Luigia.

Welcome to the Land of Slow-Food & Fast-Cars

Your stay will be at Casa Maria Luigia, an intimate 18th-Century Country House nestled in the hills of Emilia-Romagna and surrounded by agricultural landscape of the countryside of Modena. Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore, partners in life and business, acquired the property with the intention of extending the art of hospitality beyond the doors of Osteria Francescana, and where they share their passion for art, music and food in a new form, from the heart of Emilia-Romagna!

The Emilia-Romagna region is known as the land of slow-food and fast-cars. This lush and fertile region is considered the epicentre of Italian cuisine and has created the Parmigiano Reggiano, balsamic vinegar, sparkling red Lambrusco wine, prosciutto and well-known pasta like lasagne, tagliatelle and tortellini.

A culinary centre with gastronomic traditions that is home of course to Massimo Bottura, who catapulted Italy’s Modena to worldwide gastronomic glory when he opened his Osteria Francescana in 1995, showcasing his avant-garde take on traditional Italian cuisine.

Meet Your Host Chef Massimo Bottura

CELEBRITY CHEF, AUTHOR & RESTAURATEUR

Chef Massimo Bottura is without a doubt one of the foremost ambassadors of modern Italian cuisine. From his first trattoria — Trattoria del Campazzo — on the outskirts of Modena in 1986, where he worked with Rezdora Lidia Cristoni, to an apprenticeship under Chef Georges Coigny. Bottura formed a culinary foundation that combined regional Italian cooking and classical French training. He further refined his style under legendary Alain Ducasse at Louis XV in Monte Carlo.

In 1995, Bottura opened his Osteria Francescana in historic central Modena, where he was able to freely blend his creative take on Italian cuisine with cutting edge contemporary art and design, bringing a modern aesthetic to the junction of tradition and innovation. Another formative experience—this time under Ferran Adrià—encouraged Bottura to continue pushing the envelope in his cuisine. Over the last 10 years, Bottura has worked to do just that, creating dishes such as “Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in different textures and temperatures” that showcase his maturity as an innovator, as well as his respect for his ingredients.

Three Michelin stars and a first place ranking in San Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants list prove that Bottura’s explorations are more than successful; they’re inspiring. Like so many cutting-edge chefs, Bottura cooks to invite and evoke a contemplation of history, territory, and flavour. And on the stage of gastronomic conferences around the world, Bottura freely shares his creative process in demonstrations, lectures and film, such as his latest “Chef’s Table” on Netflix and the conceptual “We Are the Revolution,” a narrative exploration of “original sound” through art, music.