Osteria Francescana placed
3rd
position at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking 2014.
Italy’s highest ranked restaurant for 6
th
consecutive year
“We have grown slowly and put down d
eep roots. I share this acclaim with
the people and producers of Modena, Emilia
Romagna and Italy without whom none of this would have been possible.â€
Massimo Bottura

At
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards
ceremony held at London’s Guildhall last night, Chef Massimo Bottura’s
intimate and innovative Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy
secured a spot in the top 5
for the 4th year running.
Chef Bottura and his team were delighted with this year’s
placing which recognises both the level of dedication, passion
and creativity at Osteria Francescana and the appreciation
of their cuisine from chef
s and critics across the globe.
Osteria Francescana has now been the highest ranked Itali
an restaurant for the past 6 years, cementing Massimo
Bottura’s position as the leading figure of a new generation of Italian chefs.
Since opening in 1995, Osteria Francescana has been no strang
er to awards and critical acclaim. It gained its first
Michelin star in 2002, a second four years later and a th
ird in 2011. The restaurant entered The World’s 50 Best
Restaurants as the ‘highest climber’ in 2009, going straight
in at #13. 2010 saw it leap 7 places to a position inside the
top 10 and 2011 saw it climb further into the top 5, where it
has remained since, with Bottura also taking home the
prestigious Chef’s Choice award for Osteria Francescana that
year. Massimo Bottura was crowned ‘International Chef of
the Year’ by US food bible The Daily Meal in 2012 and in Ma
rch of this year was presented with the White Guide Global
Gastronomy Award
2014.
2014 promises to be just as significant a year with the openi
ng of Chef Bottura’s first restaurant outside of Italy-
Ristorante Italia di Massimo Bottura
– in Istanbul’s new Eataly store in the spring and a book-
Never Trust A Skinny Italian
Chef-
to be published by Phaidon in the autumn.
ABOUT OSTERIA FRANCESCANA
Osteria Francescana
and Bottura’s other restaurant offshoot brasserie
Franceschetta58,
are both situated in his
hometown of Modena, in the
culinary-rich region of Emilia
–
Romagna
.
In a former osteria, transformed into a Mecca of
contemporary culture, Chef Bottura’s plates are adorned wi
th references to experimental art, peppered with social,
political and historical implications and laced with a healthy sense of humour.
At Osteria Francescana, tradition is seen
from ten kilometres away. Italy’s except
ional ingredients and classic dishes are
re-evaluated with the benefit of critical distance, ensuring t
hat the Italian Kitchen is free to
evolve. Bottura is dedicated t
o
reconstructing Italy’s cultural heritage- not deconstructing i
t. This intelligent evolution of Italian traditions can be seen i
n
plates such as “Come to Italy with Me†and “Compressi
on of Pasta and Beans†where the rules have been bent and
come full circle, constantly reminding diners of Italy’s rich
gastronomic heritage. “Risotto Cacio e Pepeâ€, for example, is a
meditation on tradition created as a direct response to the May 2012 earthquakes in Emilia which damaged nearly
400,000 forms of Parmigiano Reggiano.
Diners are able to choose from the A La Carte menu or fr
om the restaurant’s three Tasting menus: the Traditions menu
pays tribute to Emilia Romagna in ingredients, traditions a
nd terroir whilst the Classics menu is a ‘best of Osteria
Francescana’ which is updated and revised based on the best
plates from that year. The Sensations menu includes
seasonal expressions from the experimental kitchen and is constantly evolving.
