At The Chef's Table:Massimo Bottura Part 1

In our series "At the Chef's Table," we take a look at the careers of some of the greatest chefs in the business. In this month's installment we are profiling Massimo Bottura, the Modena, Italy-based chef whose restaurant Osteria Francescana has gained international acclaim — including the title of fifth best restaurant in the world on San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants list. On top of that, The Daily Meal named Bottura its International Chef of the Year for 2012. We sat down with the chef in New York at Eataly's Birreria.

In part one of our series we discuss his childhood years watching his mother and grandmother, who were avid cooks. He remembered hiding under the table while his grandmother made pasta and his mother's constant meals. "I grew up in a really big family, a very large family, and my mom was a great cook," he said. "She was cooking all day for like 15, 20 people and she was changing all the time — I remember Wednesday and Friday when she was cooking fish and the big lunch on Sunday. That's Italy, you know?"

For more from Bottura, including how his family's cooking influences his restaurant today, watch the video above! And look out for part two coming next Monday!