At The Chef's Table: Massimo Bottura Part 4

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 four of our series we discuss Osteria Francescana as well as an influential stage at elBulli. He says that while he already had his restaurant open, "I went there to understand, you know? To see something that I was just reading [about]. Just to free the mind of people to express themselves. Because a blue lobster or a caviar has the same value as a Parmigiano-Reggiano crust or a potato. So this is such an important thing. Then I came back and I started conceptualizing all the teaching... And I start creating all these dishes like a compression of pasta and beans where I compress my gastronomic life." 

For more from Bottura, including how he reacts to all of Osteria Francescana's acclaim, watch part four above! You can also catch parts one,  two, and three if you missed them. Look out for our final part of the series next Monday!