Osteria Francescana Review

 Today’s restaurant is the legendary Osteria Francescana. It’s the only Italian restaurant named number one by the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants. not once but twice! That puts it on the bucket list of foodies all over the world. In this blog, I take you to some of the world’smost exclusive 3Michelin-star restaurants. My name is Alexander, I’m the co-owner of a ONE Michelin star restaurant, and I’m on a mission - to find inspiration in gastronomy. Welcome to Alexander the Guest. And it’s lights out and away we Massimo Bottura go - to Modena! The center of Italian motorsports. Home to Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari. They say a car is only as good as its driver - and the same is true in gastronomy. And at Osteria Francescana, the man behind the wheel is none other than Massimo Bottura. Born here in Modena in 1966. Massimo’s love for cooking started in his grandmother’s kitchen and grew into a burning passion. But this wasn’t always met with open arms. His father didn’t speak to him for 2 years after he dropped out of law school to follow his dream of opening a restaurant.

In the rearview mirror, we can see it was the right move. Massimo is truly an icon. In 2019, he was named one of the one hundred most influential people in the world, but still, he is best-known as the man who turned traditional Italian cuisine upside down. Massimo helped save the Italian cheese industry. In 2012, a major earthquake shook northern Italy. Three-hundred and sixty thousand wheels of parmigiano reggiano were badly damaged. To sell this cheese, Massimo created a new dish and shared the recipe. He asked everyone to buy the damaged cheese and make the dish in their kitchens. It was a huge hit and all of the parmigiano reggiano was sold. This move saved the industry and created a new national dish at the same time. Massimo opened Osteria Francescana in 1995. In 2002, he gets his first Michelin star, in 06 he gets the second, and in It was a real challenge to make a booking here. Reservations are made every quarter and they sell out in a day, so you can guess how excited I was to get the call that two places had opened up. Osteria Francescana We arrive to Modena’s old town. We find Osteria Francescana. Stepping inside, we can see that Massimo has another passion besides food. Modern art. We are shown to our table. It’s slightly cramped, in a windowless room. I’m not happy about this, but I try to put it behind me.

There are only 12 tables here and I’m glad to be at one of them. We order the 12-course tasting menu, which cost €320 without drinks. We start with the amuse bouche. A large number of homemade Italian breadsticks comes with it. They are called grissini and they were so good I could barely stop eating them. I had to ask the waiter to take them away! The first course was an oyster mousse presented in the shell, with crunchy vegetables and tender green peas. It was one of the top 3 dishes of the evening. Another memorable course came out of nowhere. It was made with anchovies. This anchovy dish was so fresh with a nice flavor balance. Super acidity. Not only did I like it, it really stood out from the pack. The next course wasn't for me. It was vegetables made to look and taste like a steak. Although it definitely reminded me of a steak, a steak it was not. This course just didn’t cut it for me and was a bit of a yellow flag. They recovered nicely with an amazing dish called Think Green. It was an ecosystem on a plate showing us an animal and its environment. White representing the cows and green representing the grass they eat. The whole thing was gorgeous. It was like a painting with yogurt, asparagus and herbs. Another clever dish was the spaghetti pomodoro which had cherry and almond flavors. It was a fun twist on a classic Italian dish.

Another cheeky course was called “Oops. ” According to the story, Massimo once tripped with a lemon tart and a new dessert was born! Ours was a redesign with tomato and white chocolate, which rarely meet on the same plate. At Osteria Francescana, we are coming into the home stretch. It’s the classic petit fours. These are delicate little cakes. Every restaurant has it’s own style in making them. Here, they had an amazing truffle macaron, which made the ending of our meal here really memorable. Of course, everything was served on handcrafted Gironi porcelain, specially made for Massimo. Tasting Menu The glasses were also decorated with the iconic chef's signature. As for the drinks, the tasting menu had a surprisingly good wine pairing for €210. It was full of young and fresh but really balanced wines and put the skills of the sommelier to the test. Before the meal we ordered glasses of champagne and Franciacorta to compare them. Franciacorta is a sparkling wine from the Lombardy region. made with strict guidelines. Although nothing beats champagne, the Franciacorta was a strong challenger. and gave it a good run for its money. Let me tell you about the service. After seated, we had a delay of 5-minutes, which is a lot in the 3-michelin star world. Luckily, after that, the service ran nicely.

What I love about service in general is the human side. Where you feel connected to the people. The service here was great, like an engine, but it was mechanical and missing some of that personal touch. And now my final thoughts on Osteria Francescana. The design is traditional, which I always like, but our table in the corner had an impact on the overall experience. The staff. They were on top of things at every turn, but could use a bit more personal touch. The food. Let me break it into thirds. One-third was amazing. One-third was progressive One-third was good, but not for me. Not every 3-Michelin star restaurant will blow you away. For me, Osteria Francescana had a really good race, but didn’t take the checkered flag.

 After thirty years in this business, Massimo Bottura continues to run on passion and emotion. I hope this fuel keeps him going for years to come. You can really feel Massimo’s presence here in Modena. As I was sipping my last negroni at a local bar, I was looking at the menu card from Osteria Francescana. When the waiter saw it, he pointed and said: Massimo, the master! Here in Modeno, he certainly holds that title. And that does it for this episode.