Saving Massimo Bottura, the most famous Italian chef in the world thanks to his "Osteria Francescana”Of Modena, one wonders what could be more rewarding than seeing one's dreams come true. The master of the kitchen followed his motto to the letter "Cooking is a call to action"Giving life first to the Refettorio Ambrosiano project and then to Food for Soul, the ONLUS born in 2016 that fights against food waste by opening its doors to everyone.
A program against food waste
The project had an international echo starting with Greco, Milan, where world-renowned chefs including Bottura have opened the doors to 90 people. An art available to everyone not only for the taste buds but also for the eyes: the room once used for the scene hosts a fresco by Alessandro Cucchi and a work inspired by the theme of bread by Carlo Benvenuto, all enclosed in a frame with a sober design.
A fight against food waste that counts many zeros in the 1.3 billion tons of food thrown away every year. And to think that it would be enough to reuse a third to feed those who have nothing to live on. A social inclusion program that aims at sharing and revaluing raw materials which come from waste from the Expo exhibition site as well as from kitchens from all over the world.
Bottura between letters, art and excellence
"Come in Italy with me" is the Italian version of his writing which, as the chef himself explains, is "an invitation first of all to Italians to rediscover the greatness of your country”Through all those salient features that paint its physiognomy and thus remain etched in the minds of those who have the privilege of discovering it. His text takes the form of a push to fall in love with one's own Italianness, which we too often denigrate.
And if we asked him what art means, he would amaze us with a shotgun triptych: “everything starts from culture, which leads to knowledge and knowledge awakens conscience”. Simple, isn't it?
Furthermore, to all those who perceive cooking and art almost as a hendiadys, Bottura he responds with an unusual differentiation. According to him, art, as an emblem of expressiveness and freedom, is dissimilar from craftsmanship and cooking which, on the other hand, must respond to very specific standards such as good taste, mise en place.
A love for art understood in the round logically, because nothing else could be expected from such a broad-minded chef. This is why since 1993, when he met his wife, he has been collecting modern art with her.
Traditional but innovative cuisine
A kitchen, that of Bottura, which has been able to combine at best tradition and innovation precisely because, in order for our past to survive, it must be interpreted in a "critical and not nostalgic" key. Otherwise, the past, whether gastronomic or otherwise, will always be seen as unsurpassed a priori.
Bottura It is an immense satisfaction to receive messages overseas such as from Brazil, New York, his project has flown high and has been touched by the hands of 65 chefs who have developed synergies to reinvent new recipes every day. Among the kitchen professionals stand out Virgil Martinez , Gaston Acurio, Ferran and Albert Adrià. David Hertz also contributed to the success of the project by working in the most disadvantaged areas of Brazil with “Gastromotiva” as in Mexican soil.
The starry table
His starry table responds to a 'primary need for nutrition, taking the form of a meeting point and ideas for rethinking a more homologated redistribution of food.
"This isn't just a charity, it's not just about feeding those in need“, Bottura told the New York Times on the occasion of the Brazilian refectory.
"It is a question of social inclusion, of making the issue of food waste known and giving hope back to those who have now lost all of them.".
Because, as our Bottura says, "We need more canteens to restore the soul".
