“Memory of a mortadella sandwich”

[Gob]

Massimo Bottura once believed he had reached the peak of his culinary success in 1980 when, at the age of 18, he would use a megaphone to call out to his friends on the beach near Salerno from the camp where they were staying and ask what they wanted for dinner: carbonara or amatriciana?



Among friends, he was always the cook, but he never thought he would be a chef.



The 53-year-old, whose restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena was this week named the best in the world, has said his passion for the kitchen began with his love for pasta; the way his grandmother rolled out translucent yellow sheets of dough for her tortellini twice a day, and how she told him the kneading, rolling, and folding would strengthen his character. He was attracted to how “humble” and “generous” the dish could be.

“Pasta is flexible. It bends, it transforms, and goes to all ends to keep us in its company,” he said last year.

It would be easy to say that Bottura became the first Italian to win the top spot of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants this week because he is a famous master chef of a cuisine that is adored, and that Italy deserved the honour. But that would be too simple.

When friends and colleagues describe Bottura and what makes him special, they rarely talk just about the food.



Yes, he deconstructed a mortadella panino – the beloved staple his mother used to put in his school bag every day whose taste he said is “fixed in my soul” – using foam, pistachio, and a gnoccho on the side.

The dish – named “Memory of a mortadella sandwich” – is a feature of his €180 tasting menu, which whisks the adventurous diner from a “Croccantino of foie gras” to a pudding entitled “Oops! I dropped the lemon tart” via “Five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in different textures and temperatures” and “Beautiful, psychedelic spin-painted veal, not flame grilled”.

For the deconstructed panino, Bottura made a simmering mortadella water that he created through a distillation process, which he used to make a “creamy” version of the Italian sausage that, with just the right amount of fat, could be put through a siphon. With some charges of gas, he created the foam. The result, he claims, is a taste that disappears on the palate immediately, but has a “long and persistent” flavour. It took him four years to get the dish right.

But, despite their intricacy, his techniques seem secondary to his motivation.

“He is a poet of the land in which he lives and he takes the history of the country and the region and the ingredients and turns that into something that is a dish,” says Dana Cowin, the former longtime editor of Food & Wine magazine and Chefs Club International creative director. “Each dish tells a very complete story. Everyone today wants to be a storyteller – it is sort of a thing – but Massimo has been telling stories with his food since as long as he has been a chef.”

She adds: “His food and thinking are lyrical. It is like the Odyssey.”

Osteria Francescana’s tasting menu (€180 / $203.00 US / £141.88 a head)


Memory of a mortadella sandwich

Croccantino of foie gras

An eel swimming up the Po river

Pasta and beans

Five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in different textures and temperatures

The crunchy part of the lasagna

Beautiful, psychedelic spin-painted veal, not flame grilled

Caesar salad in Emilia

Sweet potato ravioli from Parma to Mantova

Oops! I dropped the lemon tart

Continues here...

ETA Christ, his prices are reasonable.

[Gob]

Restaurant website.

[dales]

Restaurant website.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Gob, I am so going to pilfer that!

[Bicycle Bill]

Osteria Francescana’s tasting menu (€180 / $203.00 US / £141.88 a head)

ETA Christ, his prices are reasonable.

For me, $203.00 (US) is approximately one-half week's salary after deductions.  You have a strange idea of "reasonable".

-"BB"-

[Gob]

Osteria Francescana’s tasting menu (€180 / $203.00 US / £141.88 a head)

ETA Christ, his prices are reasonable.

For me, $203.00 (US) is approximately one-half week's salary after deductions.  You have a strange idea of "reasonable".

Well, we have paid a fair bit more than that for a meal. As it's now rated the best restaurant in the world, (de gustibus,) I'd have thought it would have been twice that.

As a hobby, or interest, fine dining is not cheap, so we try to keep it to one blow out a year.

We'd try it out if we were visiting Italy, and in fact intend to do some continental fine dining when we retire back to the UK.

[rubato]

At its upper levels fine dining is an ephemeral high art like dance or live music. It engages sight, smell, taste and time. By coincidence my wife and her sister are at the Sierra Mar restaurant as I type. By my own instigation. My SIL has had a painful year and deserved a little more outré outing so I made reservations at Ventana inn for the two of them and encouraged the idea of Sierra Mar.

With the wine pairings and tip it will come out at $700.00 and seem reasonable. Not something we can do often but worth it for the experience. And by staying home and allowing them the time together I am making the supreme sacrifice, truly I am an extraordinary spouse.

Yrs,
Rubato

[Burning Petard]

Seems like a reasonable price for an evening meal. That is if you can afford to attend a Broadway performance of say 'Book of Mormon' or 'Hamilton' without a bump in your budget.

On the other hand, if this is to be a special event marking a great moment in your life, it is also a reasonable price.

Me, I have never eaten lobster. I think eating out at Denny's (except for their 2-4-6-8 specials combined with 15% AARP discount) is too costly. Yes, I am cheap.

(((((snailgate)))))

[Guinevere]

Lobster isn't expensive compared to many other high quality proteins. It isn't meant to be eaten in fancy restaurants or covered in sauces anyway. Get a steamed pound and a half lobster, melt a little butter, cut up a lemon, sit at a picnic table outside (even better with a view but that's not required), and eat first class peasant food (for that's what it really is). Nothing like it.

You can get lobster for about $7/pound in season, maybe $8 or $9 for the larger ones - but never go over 2 pounds - the meat just isn't as sweet. And if there is no decent fish market around, the grocery stores often have them a d will steam them for you.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Pretentious twatism (o p)

[oldr_n_wsr]

You can get lobster for about $7/pound in season, maybe $8 or $9 for the larger ones - but never go over 2 pounds - the meat just isn't as sweet. And if there is no decent fish market around, the grocery stores often have them a d will steam them for you.

Uncle Guisseppes in Port Jeff runs sales in season for $5/lb. $6 for steamed.
I like to grill them myself.
1-1/2lb is a great size.
Personally I like crab legs better, but a good lobster-feast is a great day too.

[rubato]

Lobster isn't expensive compared to many other high quality proteins. It isn't meant to be eaten in fancy restaurants or covered in sauces anyway. Get a steamed pound and a half lobster, melt a little butter, cut up a lemon, sit at a picnic table outside (even better with a view but that's not required), and eat first class peasant food (for that's what it really is). Nothing like it.

You can get lobster for about $7/pound in season, maybe $8 or $9 for the larger ones - but never go over 2 pounds - the meat just isn't as sweet. And if there is no decent fish market around, the grocery stores often have them a d will steam them for you.

I recall the sad story about the poor Rockport fishermen who could only afford lobster sandwiches for their children's school lunches.




yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Pretentious twatism (o p)

Tightarsed gitism.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well, no offense. I meant the quoted element. Twee rubbish to impress the twaterati.

[rubato]

Money has a utility, not a value.




yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

He is a poet of the land in which he lives and he takes the history of the country and the region and the ingredients and turns that into something that is a dish,” says Dana Cowin, the former longtime editor of Food & Wine magazine and Chefs Club International creative director. “Each dish tells a very complete story. Everyone today wants to be a storyteller – it is sort of a thing – but Massimo has been telling stories with his food since as long as he has been a chef.”

She adds: “His food and thinking are lyrical. It is like the Odyssey.”

[rubato]

He is a poet of the land in which he lives and he takes the history of the country and the region and the ingredients and turns that into something that is a dish,” says Dana Cowin, the former longtime editor of Food & Wine magazine and Chefs Club International creative director. “Each dish tells a very complete story. Everyone today wants to be a storyteller – it is sort of a thing – but Massimo has been telling stories with his food since as long as he has been a chef.”

She adds: “His food and thinking are lyrical. It is like the Odyssey.”

It is an ephemeral art form. It exists in the moment and then ... it is gone. It is an inspiration to all of us to provide a world in which everyone can appreciate this art like we think they should be able to see JMW Turner paintings.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

It is an ephemeral art form. It exists in the moment and then ... it is gone. It is an inspiration to all of us to provide a world in which everyone can appreciate this art like we think they should be able to see JMW Turner paintings.

[rubato]

It is an ephemeral art form. It exists in the moment and then ... it is gone. It is an inspiration to all of us to provide a world in which everyone can appreciate this art like we think they should be able to see JMW Turner paintings.

Is something achieved by mocking an art form you cannot appreciate? Does it diminish the art form, or you?


yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

I know I am one who does not "get it".

[MajGenl.Meade]

Is something achieved by mocking an art form you cannot appreciate? Does it diminish the art form, or you?

For the deconstructed panino, Bottura made a simmering mortadella water that he created through a distillation process, which he used to make a “creamy” version of the Italian sausage that, with just the right amount of fat, could be put through a siphon. With some charges of gas, he created the foam. The result, he claims, is a taste that disappears on the palate immediately, but has a “long and persistent” flavour. It took him four years to get the dish right.